The Language of Cambodian Dance

The presentation by Cambodian Living Arts showcases Cambodia’s most quintessential classical dance that defines her identity – the Apsara dance tells of the ancient tradition and sacred symbolisms of celestial dancers introduced to the Angkor civilisation through influence of Hinduism. The gestures and movements of the dancers knit together as a bridge between the spiritual realm and the mortal world. Believed to be brought to the mortal world as celestial maidens, they charm threats to Kings with their beauty and enchanting dance movements. Today, Classical dancers continue to display intricate hand and finger gestures that portray an array of meanings from the life stages of a flower, to depicting emotions like shyness, love and sadness. On the other hand, folk dance is mostly performed with the intention of being part of celebrations and festivities, portraying urban interpretations of countryside activities like farming, sacrificial ceremonies, daily lifestyles as well as interpretations of tribe rituals and ethnic dances.

"The School of Art"

Art is hope. Hope is light. Light is beauty. Beauty is aesthetic. It makes you want to wake up the next day.

Art is a science to see the relation between things. We can train to see and to make those relations visible in an art school. The wish to do so is based on intense curiosity and one's personal motive. Art school is a forum which functions as a facilitator of developing analytical and critical view. In the art school, we learn to start any action with the word "Why" instead of "How". The question "Why" leads us to the creation of reason and value rather than the creation of products and needs. It brings life to the next level.

In the art school, individual development is central. Art cannot be fabricated. It is the expression of an individual view. In this expression, aesthetic is the melting of many elements in the right balance. It is a tool to the artist in order to manifest the artist's individual view of life.

Challenges of Indonesian Art Academies in the Post-Reformation Era: On Communities and the Coagulation of Identity

The post-reformation era policy of decentralisation (from 1998), parallel with the establishment of direct elections of the governor to the regents, led to the socio-economic growth of urban and rural areas in various parts of Indonesia – now consisting of up to 17,000 islands, 415 districts, and 35 provinces. This resulted in a nation-wide artistic development, marked by the growth of artistic communities and the condensing of local identity – both of which fostered various creative initiatives in rural areas alongside the political growth of developing creative industries in urban areas.

With these considerations in mind, art academies across Indonesia must be able to adapt to these post-reformation era changes. Art schools must implement a cultural strategy to highlight the role of artistic communities in rural and urban areas as a prominent library of life and disseminate these valuable resources. These will therefore bridge the dialogue and become meeting points between the global artistic trends and the developments of local artistic communities.

Irama Belia: Rekindling Traditional Musical Rudiments through Choral Singing

The lecture is based on the SG50 celebration (2015) commissioned piece, Irama Belia, an unaccompanied work for mixed choir. This work was commissioned by Nelson Kwei and premiered by the Vocal Consort, SYC Ensemble Singers and The One Chamber Choir at Victoria Concert Hall, Singapore.

Irama Belia showcases traditional Chinese, Malay and Indian musical elements. The Chinese musical elements include Luo Gu Jing 锣鼓经 (vocal recitation of the onomatopoeic sounds of Chinese percussion ensemble） and Gong Chi Pu 工尺谱 (cipher notation attribute to Chinese Opera sung in Kun Ju 昆剧 and Yue Ju 粤剧). The traditional Malay influences are the use of Pantun and interlocking rhythmic devices commonly found in Rebana, and Kompang performances. The song also explores the Carnatic or Southern Indian music scale Raga, and its rhythmic counterpart, Tala.

The speaker will analyse and highlight the underlying pedagogical concepts and values of the traditional rudiments of music. Through demonstrations and hands-on participation from the audience, the speaker aims at creating awareness of the confluence and influence of musical experience unique to Singapore, and Southeast Asia.

Title: Building Intrinsic Motivation through Compassion, Collaboration and Contribution: The Role of Interdisciplinary Project (Puppetry) in the Arts Education

The influx of information has impacted humanity in a way that I can only capture in a metaphor of surfing in the sea. People are constantly tossed by the waves, either you rise above the waves by mastering a surfing technique or be drowned by it. People become much volatile as the waves constantly push and pull them to destinations, where the state of transiting seems perpetual. There is no anchoring point where you could come back to. In the sea of information, people are floating and not knowing where the next wave would bring forth. The surfing board is like a high-tech system and knowledge where there is uneven gap in the development of this system in different parts of the world. The sense of belonging may be affected due to the loss of ‘rootedness’ in heritage, and identity may become blurred.

How do I build an anchoring point for my students in Singapore where Western influence is highly impacted and proliferated in the society? We are globalised and advanced in economy and technology fields, will this lead to the loss of identity or localness? What does being in Singapore mean? This Interdisciplinary Project (IDP) sprung from the desire to understand who we are and why are we practising arts in this part of the world. How do we partner with the arts to build a learning ecosystem that would build intrinsic motivation to the millennial generation in Singapore.

Collaboration as Means to Discover the "Language" of Interdisciplinary Arts

The dissemination of cultural discourse along with creative developments that comes with it are no longer delineated by the barrier between academic and non-academic backgrounds. In the realm of artistic creation, both lanes feed off and grow with each other through an endless stream of dialogue. This dialogue is what makes collaborations possible.

I've grown as an artist through the spirit of collaboration. Ever since the late 1990s, I've been unable to distance myself from collaborative work, from one with the prominent Toronto-based collective "A Cross Ocean" in 1999 up until my recent collaboration with renowned Indonesian literary figure Goenawan Mohamad (GM) in 2018.

A myriad of collaborative experiences with choreographers, architects, dancers, writers, graphic designers, etc convinces me that the future of productivity in arts lies in interdisciplinary collaborations. At the moment, artistic ideas are growing exponentially and unpredictably. The practice of collaboration materialises the "language" that ties it all together.

Stuck in the Past Thinking it is the Present and Not Seeing the Future

This presentation discusses how Malaysian tertiary art education came to be and where it is heading towards in the future. It details the point at which Malaysian tertiary art education can be found; why it does not bridge the contemporary art industry; what can be done to salvage this and where this is all heading. It also introduces how primary and secondary art education was formulated in accordance with the policies of the Malaysian education ministry. There is discord among all levels of primary, secondary and tertiary art education – the selective usage of techniques versus critical thinking being taught at school and the vacuum that has been created as a result of these choices has impacted contemporary art practices in Malaysia. Ultimately, the future of Malaysian tertiary art education depends very much on what we can do about it now. The question of what can be done to move this forward so that it will not be stuck in the past thinking it is in the present and forsake the future will be the main theme of the presentation.

The Current Trends of Traditional Wind Music in Southeast Asia: 3 Case Studies

The wind ensemble music in Southeast Asia often features music elements from regional traditional folksongs and dance forms. This lecture recital aims to highlight pedagogical values of the Southeast Asian wind music. The discussion will focus on teaching and learning experience of the Southeast Asian wind ensemble works with local music students in the tertiary level. In addition, the speaker will provide an overview of the recent development in the genre, particularly, the influence from the western composition techniques in areas such as harmonic language, motivic fragmentation and interpolation applied within the form and structure, as well as implication of the instrumentation used in the ensemble. The lecture will be supported by live demonstration of musical examples by a wind ensemble. The speaker will cite musical examples from three local works for wind ensemble – Joget Pahang by Isaac Chia T. H. (Malaysian composer), Alusia by Singgih Sanjaya (Indonesian composer) and Bua Khaw by Bernard Sunmer (British composer based in Thailand).

New Creation or Contemporary: Dance Creation Approaches Based on Traditional Malay Dance

This performance lecture considers different approaches to dance creation based on traditional Malay dance. One approach, referred to as 'new creation', seeks to contemporise Malay dance while adhering to Malay dance conventions. Another approach, referred to as 'contemporary', incorporates contemporary movement vocabulary/language as well as contemporary choreographic structures and devices, often producing abstract or ambiguous dance compositions. Both approaches promote dance creation through the understanding of and sensitivity to Malay cultural values and practices.

The Arts of Body Adornment of Pga K'nyau Ethnic Group in Rachburi, Thailand

Several ethnic groups from Myanmar migrate to Thailand due to causes such as political hardship and domestic battles since 1925. One of them is Pga K'nyau, or 'Karen' who settled in several areas along the western border line of Thailand from north to south. Nowadays, Pga K'nyau people still travel back and forth illegally between Thailand and Myanmar mainly to sustain their jobs and to have a better quality of life in Thailand, while keeping the connection with their families in Myanmar. These cross-borderers appear to preserve, apply and transform their art and cultural heritages in the pursuit of the own existence. While their traditional body adornment, the garments which are made from woven textiles with embroidery and the silver jewellery are the artistic proofs of rich narratives about their culture and personal worldview, the modernised version of these items reflect how they struggle and strive to cope with the current living context.

Today, with less popularity among the young Pga K'nyau members, the traditional costumes need to find the ways to survive by blending into the wearers' contemporary lifestyles. The artistic identity of traditional costumes and its crafted fabrication are hence studied in relation to transitional living context in order for us to create the design intervention that aims to encourage locals to think about their own cultural presence. This project intends to express their ideas on how this traditional wearable arts can withstand their cultural identity loss.

Rubber – Band

Synonymous in Asian context, a rubber band (also known as an elastic band) often evoke forms of nostalgia surrounding childhood games, aside from its utilitarian function to tie objects together. These memories inevitably form contextual frameworks within the continuous search of personal identification in life.

Allegorising a rubber band in conjunction with the novelty of reviving craft in modernity, how do we as design practitioners and educators identify the tipping point before it snaps into lost traditions as progress stretches gradually? How can we utilize traditions to correlate within pedagogy in creating a holistic outcome towards a contemporary identification of oneself?

Paralleling with academia, our thinking about life and culture will inevitably flow in a way which draws upon and is shaped and determined by people through teaching and traditions experienced at school. The discourse seeks to explore new typologies in educating both art and design programmes by redefining, re-evaluating and repositioning possibilities between the new and the old.

Alongside this presentation is the exhibition Rubber – Band: NAFA X KMUTT - Bangkok 2018.

Juggling Jogja: A Modern Educator's Exploits in Nurturing Awe and Wonder

In June 2019, a group of 29 Theatre students from NAFA, led by Senior Lecturer Oniatta Effendi, will be headed to Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta for 3 weeks as part of the department's inaugural Overseas Immersion Programme. The immersive experience hopes to instil a sense of awe, wonder and appreciation for the different aspects of traditional performing arts in Indonesia. Juggling Jogja investigates the position of awe in arts education. It challenges the way we integrate awe and wonder in the arts classroom. This presentation will capture snippets of the work done by the students during the immersion, with students themselves sharing a learner's perspective of what awe and wonder does to and for them during the immersion. Following this, a discussion entails with the aim of encouraging participants to reflect on their own roles as modern educators, and how we can continue to instill curiosity and implement awe through cognitive reframing, alongside question the importance of awe and wonderment.

Emptiness as a Universal Object in Contemporary Works of Art

This presentation is titled 'Into Deep Silence'; it responds to the sub-theme of 'Art as Universal Currency or Cross-Cultural Language', diving into the theoretical and practical components of contemporary art practices through the specific framework of 'emptiness' as universal sensibility. The presentation will, thence, consist two parts: a verbal presentation and a practical presentation of an installation. The former serves as an introduction into the theoretical premises of the latter, inquiring the conceptuality of 'emptiness' in a highly globalised, late capital, postmodern world, emphasising the universality of existential nothingness as a critical catalyst in thinking and making. Drawing inspiration from writers and literature from various cultural background of different eras, the presentation strives for an intercultural significance through a comparative framework, highlighting the relevancy of said topic within Southeast Asia and beyond, thus accentuating a similar focus upon the global of our contemporary age. The practical component of this presentation includes an installation of a landscape structure made from sawdust and flour. This time-based installation sees the viewers within the enclosed room and commences with fog projected to fill up the space. The conceptual grounding of this work appropriately extends the topic of 'emptiness' as read theoretically, into the practical, experiential significance of art making.

The Migrant Experience Into the Nusantara as a Source for Art Making.

Through an examination of my current artistic practice, the presentation will explore a creative process that is fueled by the migratory and pluralistic nature of societies in Singapore and Malaysia.

As a child, I grew up frequently listening to stories from my elders – the drama, the gossips, the grouses and discrimination, the rituals and superstitions, the familial infidelities and sacrifices, the animistic and the shamanistic beliefs, as well as the daily epics – all of which are deeply rooted in the Peranakan culture. Hybrid and diverse in nature, these micro-narratives are strongly entwined with the main values that are essential to my upbringing.

With my body of work as a point of departure, I hope to uncover the formation of hybrid identities within a larger network of cross-cultural experiences, as well examine how their collective existence and histories become an insightful stimulus for creative production.

As an artist, these personal narratives are like blueprints materialising in my head, eventually guiding each scene which are crucial to my portrayal of the Nusantara region; through the medium of film. The resulting artwork weaves the notions of origin, diaspora and migration with personal and intimate accounts from descendants of migrants from varying time period in history and localities.

The main presentation will be verbal in nature, accompanied by slide presentations of images and video clips from my personal family's archive.

Changes and Developments in Acehnese Sitting Dance Forms

Acehnese sitting dances, encompassing synchronised movement, melodic songs and body percussion, have been transmitted into the cities through Indonesia’s recent history. This has resulted in their widespread usage and popularity, centred in the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta. As they have moved from the countryside to the urban environment, and from the periphery to the centre, they have demonstrated both continuity and change. Issues surrounding the practice and performance of Acehnese sitting dances include how a traditional art form has responded to Aceh’s 30-year conflict and tsunami disaster, and how it has reacted to the pressures of globalisation and the market economy. Two forms of women’s sitting dances will be discussed and demonstrated by Sanggar BUANA, Banda Aceh. They will perform in a traditional style, Rateb Meuseukat, and a new choreography style that has emerged from Acehnese artists residing in Jakarta, given the name Ratoh Jaroe.

Suenne Megan Tan is Director of Audience Development and Engagement at National Gallery Singapore where she works across the Gallery to ensure that the Gallery’s programming is relevant, accessible, and meaningful to different audiences, supporting the Gallery’s vision of fostering and inspiring a thoughtful, creative and inclusive society.

Suenne leads a cross-disciplinary team collaborating with artists and other creative professionals to develop and pilot new exhibition-making formats with site specific exhibits and programmes, aimed at enhancing the connection to art for different audiences with different learning preferences, based on the belief, as a museum, in the power of art to open minds to envision new possibilities.

One of her key areas of focus is to ensure that the Gallery continues to provide a stimulating public space in which people can come together and be inspired through art.

Suenne conceptualised and launched National Gallery Singapore’s Keppel Centre for Art Education (KCAE), which provides a creative environment that introduces children to art at an early age while acknowledging the importance of lifelong learning. KCAE was given the 2018 Children in Museums Award organised by the European Museum Academy and Hands On! International Association of Children in Museums, and acknowledged as an excellent example of a dynamic 21st century education centre within an art gallery.

She is also Festival Director to three of the Gallery’s signature programmes: Children’s Festival: Small Big Dreamers, Children’s Biennale and the Light to Night Festival, one of the marquee events of Singapore Art Week and a highlight in the Singapore cultural calendar.

The Practice of the "Extra-daily"¹ "Presence"² of the Unified Vocal and Physical Expression of Singapore's Chinese-language Spoken-drama as Part of the Artistic Gesture of Southeast Asia: Performance on Stage and Training in Studio

As a part of the modern Southeast Asian performing arts gesture, Singapore's Chinese-language spoken-drama, though with only a short span of the limited development out of its own soil since after the beginning of the last century, is now a deeply-rooted and far-reaching dramatic form increasingly accessed by the contemporary audience and popularly practiced by and among the educated youth in Singapore. The unique stage gesture in terms of the organic unified vocal and physical "extra-daily behaviour" and "presence" of this distinctive stage product has not only become itself an indispensable component of the Singapore theatre landscape, but also, compared to the recent emergence of this young theatrical form in the other SEA countries, has been developed into a benchmarked practice of its own ever enriching the growth of the contemporary theatrical arts of the region considerably.

However, what is the artistic feature and aesthetic significance of the organic unified vocal and physical "extra-daily techniques" and "presence" of the Singapore's Chinese-language spoken-drama? How and in which way has it appeared distinctively other than the stage presentational style of the English-language drama, both locally and globally? What and to which extend has it inherited from the rich linguistic, vocal, physical and movement techniques and expressiveness of its source theatrical form of the Chinese opera varieties practiced in the Malay Peninsula and the other parts of the Southeast Asian region since after the 1830s? How and to which extend has it been influenced while at the same time also been differed from the practice of the modern spoken-drama populated in the mainland China? And more significantly, how and to which extend will it further impact on the continual growth of this artistic form with the fruition from the practice of its stage performance and studio training in Singapore and beyond, contributing to the richness and liveliness of the contemporary performing arts scene of the region?

The proposed demonstration and discussion will address the above-mentioned issues. It involves one student, who will be giving a short demonstration (in any kind of given lecture-room or studio) of 5 different monologues selected from a range of various theatrical texts of the world theatre repertoire, displaying the desired qualities of the organic unified vocal and physical "extra-daily techniques" and "presence" of the performance style of the Chinese-language spoken drama practiced and taught in Singapore. This will be followed by an intensified discussion led by the lecturers.