Notes from the field: David Novak, “Digitizing Popular Music Archives in Contemporary Indonesia”

“My AIFIS project, Digitizing Popular Music Archives in Contemporary Indonesia, is part of my larger ethnographic research on informal sound archives and the influence of far-flung groups of “diggers” – record collectors, cassette dealers, unofficial scribes and protectors of popular culture - on global histories of popular music. The cassettes and vinyl records they hold on to are often considered lost and forgotten, and many remain undigitized and undocumented. They are considered obsolete, and may appear to be things of mere nostalgia, or of niche connoiseurship. Yet diggers keep the material presence of Indonesian sound media, and its historical narratives, in circulation. Collectors expand the conditions of possibility for a decolonial aurality, and offer a way of repairing global music history to address its “forgotten” edges. This project focuses particularly on the impact of the cassette, and its role in preserving and circulation Indonesian popular music history. In contemporary Northern societies, cassettes had a short life: but in Indonesia, the cassette was the first truly public medium of recorded music, and rested at the center of local media industries for decades.

In an ongoing collaboration with the staff of Irama Nusantara, an archival organization that has been digitizing Indonesian sound media and making it accessible online since 2013, I documented the process of archival transfer and preservation through an ethographic study of tape markets, collectors, and cassette dealers in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surakarta, and Surabaya. Cassettes are increasingly threatened objects, devalued for their poor quality, dated contents, and mass-produced ubiquity. Although they have recently developed some cultural capital among an elite core of young listeners, tapes have little status compared with vinyl, and are widely perceived as too common to be collectible. Yet the cassette holds the majority of Indonesian popular music history within its reels. In definitive ways, then, this humble object has shaped the public culture of recorded sound in Indonesia. Its continuing relevance into the musical worlds of the 2020s activates digital networks that open up historical sound media for new public listenerships. Online archives like Irama Nusantara reveal that living histories unspool from cassettes; and the digital cassette archive shows us that historical materials always need to be used to stay alive.”

Notes from the Field: Ratri Istania, “Ethnic Power Dynamics and Regional Proliferation - Unpacking Conflict Triggers in Indonesia's Decentralization”

Meet Ratri Istania, one of our AIFIS-Luce fellows currently on her research trip to the US. Her research on ethnicity, power-sharing dynamics, and democracy within the framework of Indonesia’s decentralization policy has led her to the Southeast Program (SEAP) at Cornell University. Ratri is currently in the midst of her research, exploring the collections, observing classes, and collaborating with other scholars at Cornell like Professor Thomas Pepinsky and Professor Peter Katzenstein.

Check out her latest publication "Authoritarian Nostalgia and Democratic Decline in Contemporary Indonesia,"  published online on July 23, 2024

Notes from the field: Eko Widianto, ”Strengthening the Existence of the Indonesian Language in The United States: An Ethnographic Study”

Meet Eko Widianto, an AIFIS-Luce Fellow Researcher at the Center of Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research delves into the history of teaching Indonesian in the United States from the 1940s to the present day. From June - July 2024 he was immersed in field research, primarily conducting oral history interviews at the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute, UW-Madison. Eko also explored numerous archives including the UW-Madison Memorial Library and the Olin Library at Cornell University. His work sheds new light on the educational and cultural intersections between Indonesia and the United States.

Check out this interview with Toenggoel P. Siagian, focusing on the history of teaching Indonesian in the United States! Conducted by Eko Widianto

Benny Bascara: “An Ecological View of Religion among the Bajo Community of Central Sulawesi” (Presented in Indonesian)

AIFIS bekerjasama dengan Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Yogyakarta (STAIYO) menyelenggarakan Kuliah Umum “Pandangan Ekologis Agama Masyarakat Bajo Di Sulawesi Tenggara, Indonesia,” dengan pembicara, Benny Baskara, Ph.D. (AIFIS Fellow, Dosen Universitas Halu Oleo, Sulawesi Tenggara).

Masyarakat Bajo adalah kelompok etnis yang unik, karena tidak seperti kebanyakan orang lain yang tinggal di darat, mereka hidup di laut. Oleh karena itu mereka lebih dikenal sebagai orang laut. Pandangan ekologis masyarakat Bajo sangat dipengaruhi oleh kepercayaan asli mereka. Sebagai orang laut yang hidup di laut, mereka memiliki kesadaran bahwa diri mereka, masyarakat mereka, dan kehidupan mereka secara umum adalah bagian dari kehidupan laut itu sendiri.

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