3rd Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Performing Arts of Southeast Asia (PASEA)

14-20 JUNE 2014

Indonesian Institute of  the Arts (ISI) Denpasar

Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

The 3rd Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Performing Arts of Southeast Asia (PASEA) will be hosted by the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. This Symposium will officially open on 14 June 2014 in conjunction with the opening of the Bali Arts Festival, which features a full month of daily performances, handicraft exhibitions and other culture-related activities from throughout Indonesia, and which will take place at the Taman Werdhi Budaya Art Centre just adjacent to the ISI campus.

The PASEA Symposium will feature several paper presentations, panels and a film showing. A cultural excursion day for PASEA attendees will include the hands-on experience of a kecakworkshop led by the GEOKS performance group/studio and visits to nearby workshops of mask (topeng) makers, wayang puppet craftsmen and other artists, a visit to a gamelan factory and to the Setia Darma House of Masks and Puppets, culminating with a stop at a well-known outdoor market featuring paintings and crafts of Bali as well as commercial goods.

The Tentative Schedule is: June 13 (Friday)–Registration; June 14 (Saturday)–Opening of Symposium, and Sessions;  June 15-16 (Sunday-Monday) Sessions; June 17 (Tuesday) Excursion; June 18-19-20 (Wednesday-Friday) Sessions and Closing on Friday afternoon. All paper/panel/film sessions in this Symposium will take place in the newly completed seminar facilities of the Gedung Serba Guna multipurpose building on the ISI campus located along Jalan Nusa Indah in  Denpasar (www.isi-dps.ac.id).

A tentative Post-Symposium cultural tour is being planned to Lombok to visit sites and performances by the Sasak community and will take place immediately after the Symposium in Denpasar.  The tentative date for the Post-Symposium tour is from Saturday June 21 to Monday June 25. This tour will be organized through a travel agent in Lombok with the assistance of David Harnish, Mohd Anis Md Nor and Made Mantle Hood.  More information on this Post-Symposium tour will be provided in the next announcement on local arrangements forthcoming in late December.  

In 2014 this Symposium will focus on two major themes that will form the basis of the presentations and discussions, and will also include papers on new research.  The major themes for 2014 are:

I. Interculturalism and the Mobility of Performing Arts in Southeast Asia

Throughout the history of Southeast Asia, people have moved across the region, bringing with them their music, dance and theater. Trade, colonialism, religious evangelization, and transnationalism have promoted the diverse flow of the arts, for example, the circulation of Muslims and associated music/dance genres in Southeast Asia, early exchanges between the courts of Yogyakarta and Siam, the presence of gong chime ensembles throughout insular Southeast Asia, the current pop music scene, and so on.  Southeast Asian music and dance have also been displayed in world's fairs in Europe, North America, and other countries. What happens when the performing arts move across the regions or continents? What are the reception and the impact of the performing arts in question in their new cultural space?  How do people, musicians, dancers and other artists represent cultural difference and appropriation? These are some of the pertinent questions that would challenge us to explore the kind of transformations that take place when the performing arts travel outside their home country, in the past and the present.

II. Sound, Movement, Place: Choreomusicology of Humanly Organized Expression in Southeast Asia

This theme opens a platform for a rich description of the various aural and visual elements involved in Southeast Asian performing arts. Cross-modal relationships between sound and movement have deep implications for the way we perceive objects, moving bodies, color and sonic events among others. The interactions between sound and movement are not always congruent even though the two mediums may cohabit the same space.  Analyzing the convergence and divergence of sound, movement, and place is crucial to an understanding of the emotional, perceptual, and affective features of humanly organized expression.  In music, dance, puppetry, and other movement arts, the variable relationships between sound and movement reveal characteristics of performance traditions housed in culturally organized social contexts.  This theme brings attention to multisensory experience, the interactions between sound and movement, the field of metonymic relationships between music, dance, and space in Southeast Asian societies.

III. New Research (all topics).

While English is the official language of this symposium, the official language of the host country is Indonesian and papers may be presented in Indonesian with English language Powerpoint and Abstract, and a detailed Outline of the presentation in English to be handed out at the time of the session.

For PASEA members who are interested in starting a sub-study group focusing on a specific theme or topic, please select a chair or spokesperson and write up a brief description of your proposed sub-study group, noting the rationale and any projects that can be earmarked by the group at the time of your proposal. Submit your proposal for the particular sub-study group to the Chair of this Study Group at email: pmatusky@gmail.com Your proposal will be included at the Study Group Meeting for discussion and consideration for approval. If you are interested in joining one of the existing sub-study groups, please contact the following sub-study group Chairs: Mohd. Anis Md. Nor (anisnor55@gmail.com) for ‘Performing Arts of the Muslim Communities in Southeast Asia’, and Lawrence Ross (Lawrence@um.edu.my) for ‘Studies of Performance in Royal Contexts in Southeast Asia’.

All registration fees and other information on hotels and so on will be announced by the Local Arrangements Committee, Mohd. Anis Md Nor and Made Hood, Co-Chairs. Those visitors who wish to attend this Symposium will be able to do so according to instructions forthcoming in December by the Local Arrangements team.

The Program Committee for this Symposium is Tan Sooi Beng, Chair (Malaysia), Lilymae Montano (Philippines), Ako Mashino (Japan), Sumarsam (USA), R. Anderson Sutton (USA), Bussakorn Binson (Thailand), Tan Shzr Ee (UK), Paul Mason (Australia).

If you are interested in joining the ICTM Study Group on Performing Arts of Southeast Asia, please inform the Chair (pmatusky@gmail.com) and see the main ICTM website for membership information at www.ictmusic.org

See you in Bali!