[Show Ying Xin] Exploring the Contemporaneity of Taman Siswa, Rethinking Alternative Education in Indonesia

(Author: SHOW Ying Xin/ original link) 

Note: From Jan to Feb 2018, the author worked as a researcher-in-residence at Kunci Cultural Studies Center, Yogyakarta, supported by NML Residency & Nusantara Archive Project. Yogyakarta has been the center of Indonesian arts and culture, with many independent cultural and art spaces established after 1998, providing alternative knowledge outside the academia. During the residency, the author investigated Kunci’s new “school” which is said to be inspired by Taman Siswa, an education movement and school founded in 1922 in Yogyakarta. 

Founded in 1922 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Taman Siswa was an alternative school to the Dutch colonial education system. Its teaching method is called “Among” (means ‘education’ in Javanese), which aims at cultivating students to move according to their natural character, to maintain freedom, peace and order of their body and soul. As such, the school not only taught general subjects such as language, science and economics but also traditional Javanese music and art. Taman Siswa did not set the pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment as its only and ultimate goal; rather, it simultaneously stressed the importance of feeling, thinking and experiencing in the process of developing nationalism, personality and culture. It is hard to imagine that, by 1930s and 1940s, Taman Siswa became home for many anti-colonial and nationalist activists and artists.

[Syafitudina] Something About Nusantara, the Listening, and the Project of Decolonization

(Author: Syafiatudina; translated by Rikey Tenn [CH] / original link)

Note:  This article is written by Syafiatudina, a member of KUNCI Cultural Studies Center in Yogyakarta, for “NML Residency & Nusantara Archive” as the presentation of her residency in Taipei as well as the feedback for “Nusantara Archive.” In the writing, she refers to the reason for selecting the 228 Memorial Park (or New Park from Japanese colonial times to the KMT’s party-state rule) as the creative background and spatial coordinates of the final proposal of her audio-guide project - because of the park’s history that connects the life experiences of marginal/fugitive people under different regimes. In addition, her writing as a reminder sheds light on the competence of the “Nusantara Archive” as a decolonization project to showcase the alternative worldview manifested by the Malay Archipelago to stand firm against the desire of imperialist expansion

During my residency in Taipei, I have been looking for archives and references on the connection of Indonesia and Taiwan, both historically and contemporary. This search had brought me to museums and libraries. I’ve been flipping through books about the Dutch and Japan colonial regime in Taiwan while tried to compare it with the colonial time of Indonesia. Though the archives and references on Taiwan-Indonesia connection are not only stored in library and museum. The narrations of the two regions’ relation are embedded, yet also fragmented, in the city landscape and its inhabitants. In this regard, I have developed interest on the Taipei’s New Park (or what’s known now as 228 Memorial Park) because of its historical and political significance which spans through different regimes in Taiwan up until now."

[KUNCI] The Wild School: KUNCI School of Improper Education

(Author: CHEN Hsiang Wen; translated by Zoey Wu; proofread by Rikey Tenn / original link)

Note: KUNCI Cultural Studies Center’s long-term program of SoIE (KUNCI School of Improper Education) has its roots in “people’s school” (Taman Siswa) which has a deep influence on Indonesia. The collective learning SoIE in which the members experiment on an array of models for learning, and the matter of “How we learn?” The author Chen's research visit at KUNCI happened to coincide with the second learning model “devolution” (turun ke bawah) practiced in the second topic of the later half year. The questions here are: How has "devolution (turun ke bawah),” a philosophy stemming from Institute for the People's Culture (Lekra), an Indonesian left-wing organization, become learning model practiced by the young generation? And how do these informal learning methods become a self-organizing solution for the art group KUNCI?

As an important cultural research institution in Yogyakarta, KUNCI Cultural Studies Center is located in a crowded southern district of Yogyakarta like any other art organizations. It is hidden in an alleyway with a large yard full of ripe mangos and rambutans. During my first visit, they had just finished renovating a room for residency, and it might serve as a small space for future exhibitions. Along with the progress of each project, the space has maintained in a very organic and flexible state. Someday after, I had a chance to visit KUNCI again. While everyone was bustling around, Syafiatudina (also known as Dina) and I found a rather quiet space to sit down and she began to talk about the project of "KUNCI School of Improper Education" (SoIE) that started off from the end of year 2016.

[Wu Chi Yu] Map Projection: Notes and Misreading of the Video Making in Kota Bharu

(Translated by Alex Ma; proofread by Hoo Fan Chon / original link)

Note: For the collaborative publication project by artist Wu Chi-Yu in tandem with “Nusantara Archive,” the artist interviewed two independent bookstore owners – Zaidi Musa and Ezzmer Daruh – in Kota Bharu. After the trip to Northern Malaysia, Wu gathered the traces of “map projection”, what he had seen at the weekend market, and conversation questions like “where are you from?” as well as “where are you going”, and then rewrote the collective misreading of images and interpretation of experience regarding the faraway land, the past as well as the past of the faraway land.

World Map

The world map captured through the lens seemed a bit deformed—Asia and Africa, especially the regions near the equator, were not as elongated as we would normally expect. There were many travel information and maps, including Redang Island, Perhentian Island, and this distorted world map, posted on the walls of the B&B we stayed at in Kota Bharu, the capital city of Kelantan. This B&B was recommended by Zaidi Musa, the owner of the bookstore Kedai Hitam Putih and the person we were going to interview. These maps had detailed information, but in contrast to our impression, the world map referred to as “Gall-Peters projection” corrected the issue of obvious enlargement of high-latitude countries in the more commonly seen Mercator projection maps, where European and American countries with higher latitudes were enlarged, which made other Asian and African countries located near the equator seem smaller than their actual sizes, further diminishing the importance of these countries that were already relatively weaker in terms of economic and political power.

[Hoo Fan Chon] A Tilapia’s Adventure: From Wishing Pond to Fish Farming

(Transcriber: Seah Yi Zai/ original link)

Note: This article is the transcript of the conversation between second invited visual artist Hoo Fan Chon for No Man’s Land residency and Nusantara Archive and the project observer and independent curator Ho Yu Kuan. During which they discussed Fan Chon’s interchangeable roles as the co-founder of an independent art space (Run Amok), curator, art collective member and visual artist, and his views on this project. This conversation took place on the 11th September 2017, 7pm. Seah Yi Zai was the transcriber for this audio recording.

HYK: Having to run an independent space, work as a curator and visual artist,[1] yet for this time you have been invited specifically as a visual artist, what’s your take on the multiple roles you have play?

An Interview with Rumah Attap Library: Archive of the Other Mapping Project

(Author: Alice KO; translator: Alex MA / Original link)

Note: Founded by Amateur, In Between Cultura and Au Sow Yee Studio in 2017, Rumah Attap Library & Collective is located in Kampung Attap, Kuala Lumpur. It is a physical library as well as an imagined space, a space for reading, discussion, publication, workshops, forums, and artists/researchers' residencies. Exchanges of books and thoughts related to cultural studies, arts, literature, philosophy and social sciences are welcomed here. It aimed at building an open and critical alternative knowledge system, creating a "living coordinate" generated by public participation. NML's researcher KO Nien Pu arrived Rumah Attap Library from August 7th to 28th. The article "An Interview with Rumah Attap Library: Archive of the Other Mapping Project" is the second part of her interview with the Au Sow Yee and Show Ying Xin, co-founders of Rumah Attap Library.

AU Sow Yee: Rumah Attap Library & Collective looks to vitalize local knowledge production or critical thinking, and has fine interaction with different organizations in the Zhongshan Building, as we support each other’s events. But I think we are all concentrated in the building, whereas Kuala Lumpur is a more spread-out city. This space provides certain conditions for you to learn and support each other. For example, we knew about “Malaysia Design Archive,” but did not know any of its actual members. Later we became neighbors, and have been interacting more closely.

An Interview with Rumah Attap Library: From Intellectuals to Practitioners

(Author: Alice KO; translator: Alex MA / Original link)

Note: Founded by Amateur, In Between Cultura and Au Sow Yee Studio in 2017, Rumah Attap Library & Collective is located in Kampung Attap, Kuala Lumpur. It is a physical library as well as an imagined space, a space for reading, discussion, publication, workshops, forums, and artists/researchers' residencies. Exchanges of books and thoughts related to cultural studies, arts, literature, philosophy and social sciences are welcomed here. It aimed at building an open and critical alternative knowledge system, creating a "living coordinate" generated by public participation. NML's researcher KO Nien Pu arrived Rumah Attap Library from August 7th to 28th. The article "An Interview with Rumah Attap Library: From Intellectuals to Practitioners" is the first part of her interview with the Au Sow Yee and Show Ying Xin, co-founders of Rumah Attap Library.

Alice KO Nien Po: Please share a bit on the motive and background of your founding of Rumah Attap Library & Collective?

An Audio Guide for the Netherlands East Indies exhibition at the Tropenmuseum by KUNCI Cultural Studies Center (Excerpt)

Note: The article is an excerpt of the audio guide which is a site-specific project realized by KUNCI Cultural Studies Center (Yogyakarta) in the Netherlands East exhibition at Tropenmuseum. It was produced in KUNCI’s 6-week research residency at the museum; a project facilitated by the independent platform Heterotropics and the Research Center for Material Culture. The audio guide can be listened online or in the museum. The storyline serves as an alternative reading of the objects displayed in the permanent exhibition since 2003. The exhibition is fashioned as a colonial theater through life-size mannequins and artifacts, which aims to provide the audience with narrative sceneries of the daily life in "East Indies", exploring realms such as ‘Education’, ‘Art’, ‘At Home’, ‘Commerce’, ‘Discovery’, and ‘Presentation’. With the voice of "Sulastri", the main character of Suwarsih Djojopuspito's Buiten het Gareel, the listener find in it the representation of the museum’s gaze as well as a medium for reclaiming colonial history, both are the very elements of this figure of the East Indies woman.

POINT ONE

STAND IN FRONT OF SULASTRI'S MANNEQUIN (EDICATION IN EAST INDIES). YOU CAN CHOOSE TO STAND IN THE POSITION WHERE YOU CAN SEE ALL THE BOOKS AND OTHER TEACHING MATERIALS IN NETHERLAND EAST INDIES THAT KEPT ON THE VIRTRINES. OR YOU CAN ALSO STAND IN FRONT OF THE SCREEN THAT PLAYS THE FOOTAGE OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SCHOOL DURING THE PERIOD.

[Hoo Fan Chon] How to cook Asam Laksa with Tilapia

(Author: Hoo Fan Chon / Original link)

Note: The Tilapia fish, or more commonly known as the Wu Guo Yu in Taiwan has a humble origin. However, it has a captivating story to tell as in how it was introduced to Taiwan by two Taiwanese soldiers from Singapore in 1946. The advancement in fish farming technology and the unintended yet colourful branding exercise have gradually promoted this fish as the national sea bream of Taiwan. This sharing session is based on the study of Wu Guo Yu, to look at the form of migratory movement through livestock, the process of domesticating a foreign species and its cultural significance in constructing a national narrative. A Wu Guo Yu sample dish will be served during MNML #19. The artist will like to thank Digital Art Foundation, Taipei for the invitation, OCAC for hosting the residency, and friends from the local art community for their advice and support during his one month stay in Taipei. To revisit the place where Wu Guo Yu was initially brought in from, the artist chose to cook Asam Laksa with it by adding a Nanyang flavour to the supposedly naturalised foreign species, as a gesture of homecoming.

[Okui Lala] A Proposal for Our Future Mother Tongue

(Author: Okui Lala/ Original link)

Note: The article is rewritten from the transcription of the NML Residency & Nusantara Archive Project, Meeting NML #18 on 5th, Aug, 2017. The artist imagines our collective identities through language connections and disconnections. In this artistic research, her language proficiency became her tool and boundary: Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, English, Hokkien; and within them, the language politics, the accents, the unwritten. Interpretations were based on introduction through language teachers as well as conversations with Malaysian artists, who are and were based in Taiwan. Moving back and forth between the bridges and gaps of the past and contemporary signifier/signified, what will then be the possibilities of our mother tongue and lingua franca in the future along with the development, re- or non-development of the current ones?

Before I begin my presentation, I would like to play two short videos for the audience. The first video is 'How do we meet? How can we meet?' (2016), a video I made during my residency in Thailand. In the video, the old lady and I repetitively read a chant in some languages, during which we spoke in Teo Chew, besides Thai. The second video that I'm going to share is the beginning from ‘My Language Proficiency’ (2017). Here is the excerpt from the video: