Power Plays

Power Plays
Author: Andrew Noah Weintraub
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2004
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 089680240X

Based on ethnographic fieldwork spanning twenty years, Power Plays is the first scholarly book in English on wayang golek, the Sundanese rod-puppet theater of West Java. It is a detailed and lively account of the ways in which performers of this major Asian theatrical form have engaged with political discourses in Indonesia. Wayang golek has shaped, as well, the technological and commercial conditions of art and performance in a modernizing society. Using interviews with performers, musical transcriptions, translations of narrative and song texts, and archival materials, author Andrew N. Weintraub analyzes the shifting and flexible nature of a set of performance practices called Padalangan, the art of the puppeteer. He focuses on "superstar" performers and the musical troupes that dominated wayang golek during the New Order political regime of former president Suharto (1966-98) and the ensuing three years of the post-Suharto period. Studies of actual performances illuminate stylistic and formal elements and situate wayang golek as a social process in Sundanese culture and society. Power Plays includes an interactive multimedia CD-ROM of wayang golek. Power Plays shows how meanings about identity, citizenship, and community are produced through theater, music, language, and discourse. While based in ethnographic theory and methods, this book is at the center of a new synthesis emerging among ethnomusicology, anthropology, and cultural studies. Its cross-disciplinary approach will inspire researchers studying similar struggles over cultural authority and popular representation in culture and the performing arts.

The Book of Cabolèk

The Book of Cabolèk
Author: I. Yasadipura
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2013-11-11
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9401747725

The Scope of the Work The main purpose of this work is to give a critical edition of a Javanese text - the Serat Cabolek - together with an Introduction, an English trans lation of the text, and Notes. The present publication is a slighdy revised version of a doctoral dissertation submitted to the Australian National Univer sity in 1967. The Introduction to the text begins with a brief description of each of the extant MSS of the Serat Cabolek to be found in the Manuscript Sections of the Jakarta Museum Library and the Lembaga Kebudayaan Indonesia and in the Griental Manuscripts Section of the Leiden University Library. In addition, a description is given of a printed version of the Serat Cabolek. The eleven MSS and the printed text are compared with one another on the points of form, structure and content, in order to discover their mutual relationship. From this comparison it becomes clear that no matter how much these eleven MSS and the printed text of theSerat Cabolek may differ the one from the other, they all share a common core and all ultimately derive from a single source. The kernel of the Serat Cabolek in all probability comprised only the following sections: (1) the story dealing with the trial of Haji Mutamakin by the Kartasura tribunal; (2) the teaching of Dewa Ruci to Bhima; and (3) a commentary on Dewa Ruds counsel to Bhima.

Excellences & Perfections

Excellences & Perfections
Author: Amalia Ulman
Publisher: Prestel Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Performance art
ISBN: 9783791384184

This book presents the fiercely intelligent internet-based performance of artist Amalia Ulman, which she eventually revealed to be a critical artwork about issues of online identity. Amalia Ulman's performance "Excellences & Perfections", which unfolded on Instagram in 2014, follows an aspiring it-girl who undergoes a series of cosmetic surgeries and lifestyle changes to help jumpstart her career. For six months Ulman mesmerized her followers with nearly daily posts that documented a young woman trying on different personas in order to make her way in the world. Finally, the real Amalia Ulman revealed the fiction that she had created--a performance piece about identity, gender, class, sexuality, and lifestyle porn. The illustrations are presented in chronological order to give readers the experience of viewing the work as an uninterrupted stream, in the way her followers first saw them on social media. A forerunner of a new brand of performance art, Ulman has made a significant statement about the intersection of life and art--one that couldn't be more timely or compelling.

The Second Brain

The Second Brain
Author: Michael D. Gershon
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 533
Release: 2019-05-21
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0062933175

“Persuasive, impassioned. . . hopeful news [for those] suffering from functional bowel disease.” — New York Times Book Review Dr. Michael Gershon’s groundbreaking book fills the gap between what you need to know—and what your doctor has time to tell you. Dr. Michael Gershon has devoted his career to understanding the human bowel (the stomach, esophagus, small intestine, and colon). His thirty years of research have led to an extraordinary rediscovery: nerve cells in the gut that act as a brain. This "second brain" can control our gut all by itself. Our two brains—the one in our head and the one in our bowel—must cooperate. If they do not, then there is chaos in the gut and misery in the head—everything from "butterflies" to cramps, from diarrhea to constipation. Dr. Gershon's work has led to radical new understandings about a wide range of gastrointestinal problems including gastroenteritis, nervous stomach, and irritable bowel syndrome. The Second Brain represents a quantum leap in medical knowledge and is already benefiting patients whose symptoms were previously dismissed as neurotic or "it's all in your head."

Performing for the Camera

Performing for the Camera
Author: Simon Baker
Publisher: Tate
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-09-20
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 9781849764001

'Performing for the camera' examines how the photograph has both documented and developed our understanding of performance since the invention of the photographic medium. It engages with both the serious business of art and performance and the humour and improvisation of posing for the camera. Featuring many of the most compelling and experimental photographers in history, it explores the works by artists such as Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Nadar, Merce Cunningham, Charles Ray, Boris Mikhailov, Samuel Fosso, Cindy Sherman, Keith Arnatt and Masahisa Fukase. Edited by curator Simon Baker, this book provides fresh insight into the inter-relationship between performance and photography. With over 300 illustrations, this is the definitive publication on two of the most popular and intriguing art forms of our time. Exhibition: Tate Modern, London, UK (18.02-12.06.2016).

Puppet Theater in Contemporary Indonesia

Puppet Theater in Contemporary Indonesia
Author: Jan Mrázek
Publisher: U of M Center for South East Asian Studi
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2002
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN:

Solid and accessible scholarship about a multifaceted form of art.

Zouk

Zouk
Author: Jocelyne Guilbault
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 1993-11-24
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780226310428

With its irresistible dance beat, strong bass line, and straightforward harmonies and lyrics, zouk has become wildly popular in the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. This book—complete with a compact disc and numerous illustrations and musical examples—provides a thorough introduction to the sound, lyrics, choreography, and social milieu of this vibrant and infectious new music. "This invigorating reference work and companion CD of the Antilles' sexy zouk dance sound will lift readers out of their easy chairs and their complacency about the nonreggae aspects of Caribbean pop. . . . [Zouk] is a landmark achievement."—Timothy White, Billboard

Voices of the Puppet Masters

Voices of the Puppet Masters
Author: Mimi Herbert
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2002
Genre: Drama
ISBN:

"Indonesia's wayang golek puppet theater is among the world's oldest and richest puppetry traditions, contemporary with Japanese Noh drama and the mystery plays of Europe. The puppet masters, many of whom trace their skills back through seven or eight generations, are extraordinary artists. Some are shamans, and many are charismatic performers. The master carvers who create these three-dimensional wooden puppets boast similarly impressive genealogies, and their work draws equally on ancient mystical practices. As the puppet master Tizar Purbaya once explained, "The wayang puppet is not a doll. It follows the dalang [puppet master], but the dalang must also follow it. He gives it soul and it, in return, gives life to him."" "Voices of the Puppet Masters is based on five years of intensive research in Indonesia, including hundreds of hours of discussions and interviews with puppet masters and craftsmen. The author and her Indonesian collaborator visited the artists in their homes, in villages scattered across the length and breadth of Java, attending performances, and even participating in an exorcism ceremony. These performances typically last for many hours, sometimes through the night - theatrical extravaganzas blending religious mysticism with all of the frailties and strengths of the human condition, accompanied by song and a gamelan orchestra"--Publisher's description.

Engineering Design and Analysis in the Art of Wayang Kulit

Engineering Design and Analysis in the Art of Wayang Kulit
Author: Gea O.F Parikesit
Publisher: UGM PRESS
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2018-05-29
Genre: Art
ISBN: 6023862675

This book is divided into three main parts and an epilogue. The first part of the book provides a context for the readers to understand the underlying background of our work. Chapter 1 gives a brief overview about wayang kulit, whereas second chapter introduces the field of digital humanities that has particularly touched the art of wayang kulit. The second part of the book is focused on the engineering design in wayang kulit, particularly related to the methods we developed to display 3D shadow images. The third chapter qualitatively explains the phenomenon of colour-based stereoscopic shadows, which form the basis of 3D shadow images. In the fourth chapter we start to describe quantitatively the optical methods to synthesize the 3D shadow images. In the fifth chapter, we share our experiences from two art exhibitions, i.e. the Jogja ArtWeeks in 2015 and the 'Wayang and New Technology' in Tembi Rumah Budaya in 2016. The sixth chapter explores the quantitative methods to digitally synthesize the 3D shadow images, which opens up new possibilities in art performances, where dhalangs can combine real and virtual 3D shadow images. The third part of the book is focused on the engineering analysis in wayang kulit. In the seventh chapter, we start with the analysis of the puppet shapes. Afterwards, in the eighth chapter we use the 3D shadow images described in Chapters 3–6 to quantitatively measure the pose of the puppets. The same method can also be extended to analyse the puppet movements, which is explained in the ninth chapter. This quantitative analysis of the puppet movements is a continuation of the research pioneered by Prof. Roger A. Long in 1979, on the puppet movements in the Ngayogyakarta wayang kulit. Meanwhile, in the tenth chapter, we analyse the audiovisual patterns in wayang kulit performances. These patterns may become relevant, not only for engineers who are interested in developing interactive artworks, but also for scholars in the field of digital humanities who are interested to investigate the change of wayang kulit performances over space and time. [UGM Press, UGM, Gadjah Mada University Press]