time for an update. proof that I'm still pitter-pattering around Yogya. I've reached an apex of local responsibilities, and haven't seemed to manage the writing and energy required for these projects in balance with the writing and energy to narrate my experiences to friends and family. I've greatly appreciated the time people have shared in reading my blog, and doubly appreciate any responses. Selfishly, I'm trying to maintain this as my most substantial mode of contact with the people I care about in America, so as to minimize time spent re-writing update email, or mass emails which gather odd response branches in my gmail inbox.
Wah. okay, so in this brief excuse-post, I'm already accumulating some stream-of-consciousness gravity.
final note (before I return later to compose something more thoughtful):
I've been missing:
friends and family!
good beer!
crispy french fries!
falafel
all-you-can-eat vegan dimsum
Philadelphia!
bicycling
farmers markets
costume parties
fromageries (philly cheese heavens!)
spring-summer-fall in the city
transbridge buses from frenchtown to Oli
the Lovin' Oven
local yogurt
philly art
But I still love here:
$1.50 current movies at the super-nice, fancy theater
TEMPE
my motorbike
extensively-intellectual city (academics and students over-run this place)
$1.50 haircuts, including pre- AND post- washes and scalp massages
new friends
workouts with Lolly at the Yogya Plaza gym (including swimming and laying by the pool)
rolling my R's
the Arrrrt Arrrrrchives!
getting paid to do rrrrrresearch!
endless summer and a smoking volcano on the horizon
Milas and everything on their menu!
Conferences and trying to compose abstracts
marrrrtabak telurrrr
yogya art
wow. feeling slightly split-personality right now.
29 January 2010
19 January 2010
Separation, Re-connection
It's the last day of an 8 day visit, and we are relaxing in Ubud before my parents fly to Melbourne. We visited a Hindu temple surrounded by monkeys, clutching the cliffs at the Southern tip of the island, and we had drinks surrounded by people in bikinis and speedos at Tommy Suharto's (the son of Indonesia's former military dictator) new development project carved out of those same cliffs. We were harassed by con-men in a dismal Lombok port, and had a run-in with a sea snake. We visited a town flooded with egrets who are considered to be the reincarnation of victims of the mass killings that took place in 1965, and then we had a family spa day. Everything seemed to work out, and we had some great meals and plenty of rest in some snazzy hotels.
It is a privilege to receive the funding and support to live abroad, and it is always interesting to share this experience with my family. I'm sad to see them leave, since there is always more that I want them to see, but it is also time for me to focus on my research.
It is a privilege to receive the funding and support to live abroad, and it is always interesting to share this experience with my family. I'm sad to see them leave, since there is always more that I want them to see, but it is also time for me to focus on my research.
07 January 2010
Resolutions
No more:
-visiting schools here. I'm done with performing in front of classes and being begged to "be our native [-english speaker]".
-eating an entire, deep-fried martabak telur by myself. eek.
-impulse-buying clothes! ahhhh.
-eating an entire roll of oreos. eek.
-being afraid to put myself first.
-feeling sad when I see curious people staring at me with angry faces.
-speaking English
More:
-photography
-talking to strangers
-speaking Bahasa Indonesia
-Going out when I feel tired and just want to lay in bed.
-eating fruit -- especially jackfruit!!
-visiting schools here. I'm done with performing in front of classes and being begged to "be our native [-english speaker]".
-eating an entire, deep-fried martabak telur by myself. eek.
-impulse-buying clothes! ahhhh.
-eating an entire roll of oreos. eek.
-being afraid to put myself first.
-feeling sad when I see curious people staring at me with angry faces.
-speaking English
More:
-photography
-talking to strangers
-speaking Bahasa Indonesia
-Going out when I feel tired and just want to lay in bed.
-eating fruit -- especially jackfruit!!
04 January 2010
Jalan Jalan
In a community where it is polite to ask everyone you meet, even if just passing by, "Where are you going?" or "From where are you coming?", it isn't expected that one actually delineate all of their daily activities. And as a Bule (literally "albino", but in common use it refers to foreigners -- Caucasian foreigners or Japanese in particular) with skin that stands in contrast to the masses, I receive an excessive amount of attention. With this attention comes what feels like an oppressive number of inquisitions about my comings and goings. This polite expression of curiosity and concern begins to feel like surveillance -- especially if one still feels as if he must respond comprehensively to each. One of the earliest and most-practical phrases a person can learn in Bahasa Indonesia is the generic jalan-jalan, which literally translates to "pathway-pathway" and carries the same meaning as "hanging out" with a touch of "wandering". And it is a perfectly acceptable answer with minimal demand for further information. When I first arrived in Indonesia in 2004, I was overwhelmed by the questions, but the words "jalan jalan" seem to escape my mouth before the inquisitor even finishes his "Mau ke mana?" (Where do you want to go?) or "Dari mana?" (From where are you coming?).
While I welcome the phrase as a brisk response, in a city full of students, it takes on the character of a casual, aimless lifestyle. As I meet more contacts for my research, and people ask me what I am doing -- and this time they are really asking -- I want more and more to say something that expresses the opposite of jalan-jalan. I want to say, "I'm being productive", but that isn't really something one can say without explaining how one is productive. And rather than experience the mangling of a foreign language as I attempt to explain that I've been, haha, studying the language, reading important texts that aren't available in the part of the world from which I came, and gathering contacts, I feel the shy, insecure urge to mutter, "oh, jalan-jalan aja" ("oh, just hanging out, here and there").
Tonight, at a book launch for an Australian academic who translated and edited her BA thesis on a "radical", local art collective into an Indonesian text, I bumped into a researcher from PUSdEP, my sponsor institution. He had been a member of the collective, and as someone familiar with the artists, curators, critics and academics present, he was happy to walk around introducing me to everyone. While it was inspiring to meet such interesting, intelligent individuals, I felt a pressure to reciprocate those qualities of character and to exude them while explaining my presence. Yet, as both a critical thinker and a prisoner of humility, my initial desire is to say, "I'm just a kid trying to catch up and figure things out here". Gradually, I'm getting better at quelling my desire to belittle my research and reduce it to an extended jalan-jalan, and I can explain that I'm carrying out extensive literary and ethnographic research on the topic of public art as an attempt to understand how "public space" is created and understood in Yogyakarta, and how it reflects local, complicated, multiple "publics". Even when explaining it in English, it can sound confusing or useless. While people from academic backgrounds in the humanities and social sciences tend to grasp the importance of understanding how a "public" is created in the image of a universalistic ideal, which often overshadows a reality plagued with exploitation and marginalization, I've drawn quite a few blank stares, asking "what is the point?".
At this moment, I cannot adequately delineate the point. My hypothesis is that a number of inequalities exist, latent in the various productions of a "public" in Yogyakarta, and I hope that my analysis will lead to a critical awareness with the use of the term "public" and the potential for greater equality in the creation of public spaces. We will see if my jalan-jalan-ing leads to any of this...
While I welcome the phrase as a brisk response, in a city full of students, it takes on the character of a casual, aimless lifestyle. As I meet more contacts for my research, and people ask me what I am doing -- and this time they are really asking -- I want more and more to say something that expresses the opposite of jalan-jalan. I want to say, "I'm being productive", but that isn't really something one can say without explaining how one is productive. And rather than experience the mangling of a foreign language as I attempt to explain that I've been, haha, studying the language, reading important texts that aren't available in the part of the world from which I came, and gathering contacts, I feel the shy, insecure urge to mutter, "oh, jalan-jalan aja" ("oh, just hanging out, here and there").
Tonight, at a book launch for an Australian academic who translated and edited her BA thesis on a "radical", local art collective into an Indonesian text, I bumped into a researcher from PUSdEP, my sponsor institution. He had been a member of the collective, and as someone familiar with the artists, curators, critics and academics present, he was happy to walk around introducing me to everyone. While it was inspiring to meet such interesting, intelligent individuals, I felt a pressure to reciprocate those qualities of character and to exude them while explaining my presence. Yet, as both a critical thinker and a prisoner of humility, my initial desire is to say, "I'm just a kid trying to catch up and figure things out here". Gradually, I'm getting better at quelling my desire to belittle my research and reduce it to an extended jalan-jalan, and I can explain that I'm carrying out extensive literary and ethnographic research on the topic of public art as an attempt to understand how "public space" is created and understood in Yogyakarta, and how it reflects local, complicated, multiple "publics". Even when explaining it in English, it can sound confusing or useless. While people from academic backgrounds in the humanities and social sciences tend to grasp the importance of understanding how a "public" is created in the image of a universalistic ideal, which often overshadows a reality plagued with exploitation and marginalization, I've drawn quite a few blank stares, asking "what is the point?".
At this moment, I cannot adequately delineate the point. My hypothesis is that a number of inequalities exist, latent in the various productions of a "public" in Yogyakarta, and I hope that my analysis will lead to a critical awareness with the use of the term "public" and the potential for greater equality in the creation of public spaces. We will see if my jalan-jalan-ing leads to any of this...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
