Wayang Kontemporer: Innovations in Javanese Wayang Miguel Escobar Varela Supervisor: Dr. Yong Li Lan THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2014 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is my original work and it has been written by me in its entirety.I have duly acknowledged all the sources of information which have been used in the thesis.This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university previously. ___________________ Miguel Escobar Varela 2 This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of Ki Slamet Gundono (1966-2014). 3 Acknowledgments This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of the artists whose work is analyzed here. I wish to thank Catur 'Benyek' Kuncoro, Enthus Susmono, Jlitheng Suparman, Andri Topo, Nanang Hape, Sujiwo Tejo, Ledjar Subroto, Eko Nugroho, Nano Riantiarno, Tavip, Tyno TNT, Inung Arhaen and Tiara Santika for sharing their work and experiences with me. I am also especially thankful to the late Slamet Gundono, to whose memory this dissertation is dedicated. Many other people also provided support, answering questions and providing me advice on which performances to watch. I am especially indebted to Honggo Utomo, Ardian Kresna, Elizabeth Inandiak, Rahadian Harie, Madek Monsterkata as well as the staff of the Indonesian Contemporary Art Network (ICAN) and the Indonesian Visual Arts Archive (IVAA). I am also grateful for the advice and friendship of the pedalangan students at ISI, and my teachers: Ki Parjaya, Ki Sri Mulyono and Novi Marganingrum. My great housemates in Yogyakarta - Andi, Fivi and Lili - made my prolonged stays in Indonesia always easy and fun. Dave Hodgkin was always an inspiration with his expert knowledge of Indonesia. Some parts of this dissertation appeared elsewhere in print and I wish to thank Matthew Isaac Cohen, Maaike Bleeker and Chiel Kattenbelt as well as the 4 anonymous reviewers of Literary and Linguistic Computing for helping me refine some of the ideas which eventually made it to the dissertation. I also wish to thank the communities of StalkOverflow.com and GitHub.org for helping me become a better programmer and answering questions and helping me solve the programming challenges required by this dissertation's website. In Singapore I wish to thank my fellow PhD students for their support, especially Shreyosi, Felipe, Matt, Shantini and Alvin. I also wish to thank Jan Mrázek, Paul Rae, Hwang Ha Young, as well as my supervisor Yong Li Lan. Thanks to my students from UAR2207 and TS4217, with whom I discussed many of the performances. I also wish to thank my wife Yinting for all her support during the finals stages of the writing of this dissertation. 5 A NOTE ON THE FORMAT This dissertation was originally conceived and submitted as an online portal with embedded video and interactive diagrams. The online version can be accessed at http://cwa-web/org/wayang-dis/dissertation. In this written version, video excerpts are indicated with the icon . 6 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION: Floods, Biscuits and Banana Leaves ................................................ 11 Important questions about life and art .................................................................. 25 Why the biscuit is not the banana leaf ................................................................... 27 How not to be a character from Borges ................................................................. 32 Chapter 1: Methods and Contexts .............................................................................. 41 1.1 Literature Review: What Other People Have Said About Wayang Kontemporer ........................................................................................................... 41 1.2 Positionality: Researching Wayang as a Digital Archivist.................................. 54 The Impossibility of Archiving Performance ....................................................... 57 1.3 Approach: An Essayistic Ontology..................................................................... 75 Classification and its Discontents ........................................................................ 80 The essay as an approach ................................................................................... 95 Chapter 2 Aesthetics: Variables of Adaptation ......................................................... 101 2.1 Aesthetics: Variables of Adaptation ................................................................ 101 Performance frameworks ................................................................................. 106 Variables of Adaptation .................................................................................... 108 Intermedial Journeys ........................................................................................ 109 2.2 Language: The Question of Belonging ............................................................ 118 Conventional Language Use .............................................................................. 122 Intermedial Language Use ................................................................................ 126 Non-conventional Language Use ...................................................................... 131 7 2.3 Music: The Dramaturgy of Emotions .............................................................. 137 Conventional music ........................................................................................... 141 Intermedial Music ............................................................................................. 145 Non-conventional music ................................................................................... 158 2.4 Puppets: The Etiquette of Material Interactions ............................................ 163 Conventional Puppets ....................................................................................... 167 Intermedial Puppets.......................................................................................... 172 Non-conventional Puppets ............................................................................... 185 2.5 Stories: Vessels of a Memory Theatre ............................................................ 193 Conventional Stories ......................................................................................... 195 Intermedial Stories ............................................................................................ 199 Non-conventional stories .................................................................................. 202 2.6 Space: Configurations of Experience .............................................................. 205 Conventional Space Usage ................................................................................ 208 Intermedial Space Usage .................................................................................. 217 Non-conventional Space Usage ........................................................................ 239 Chapter 3 Themes: Inventories of Ethical Positions ................................................. 247 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 247 3.2 ART: Spiritual Missions, Institutional Parodies ............................................... 251 3.3 ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS: The Urgency of Didacticism........................... 274 3.4 FAMILIAL TIES: Destiny or Strategy? ............................................................... 288 3.5 POLITICS: Parables, Mockery and Activism ..................................................... 306 8 3.6 SPIRITUALITY: Controversies of Belief ............................................................ 328 3.7 WOMEN: Between Misogyny and Empowerment ......................................... 352 3.8 YOUTH: The Obedient Rebels ......................................................................... 367 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 376 APPENDIX 1 Foreign Terms Used in The Dissertation ............................................... 382 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 389 9 SUMMARY This dissertation analyzes new developments in Javanese wayang kontemporer – contemporary wayang kulit. This dissertation has three objectives: to analyze new formal and thematic developments in wayang, to interpret what these developments say about sociocultural life in Java and to reflexively develop a digital interface to communicate the outputs of the research process. This interface is a combination of interactive diagrams, texts and audiovisual materials. The method used is described as an essayistic ontology, a combination of formal and interpretive methods. As such, this dissertation aims to combine theatre studies and digital humanities methodologies. The dissertation concentrates on 24 performances and argues that their most distinctive feature is their variety: the performances represent a compendium of creative possibilities and of positions towards sociocultural change in Java. 10 INTRODUCTION: Floods, Biscuits and Banana Leaves The late Slamet Gundono was the most famous and the fattest dalang in Java. Both superlatives are empirically verifiable. If you ask around, both among foreign researchers and local wayang kontemporer aficionados, they