FESTIVAL SENI SEBUAH RITUAL BARU

In many places around the globe, cultural festival has been part of the old traditions conducted in conjunction with religious ceremony and other celebrations. The secular art festival, however, is relatively new ritual to many places. Aiming to investigate what makes an art festival a new ritual, this paper examines three important aspects of the festivals by looking at Indonesia, especially Bali, as a focus of discussion. This includes: the existence of festivals and art festivals in the community; the different types of the festivals, and the multi dimensions of festivals. A short discussion of a village festival is also included in this paper. The conclusion of this paper suggests that while festival has been an old tradition in many cultures, secular art festivals, are a cultural product of the modern time. Due to their importance, many cultures in many countries have conducted elaborate art festival annually make the festival a new ritual to the local people

SEARCHING IDENTITY IN WAYANG KULIT PERFORMANCE

In this modern era general audiences tend to look at performing arts as entertainment. Nowadays, in many parts of the world, performing art forms have been produced primarily to please and ertertain the audience with artistic attraction instead of ti deliver socio-religious messages, ethnic and moral issues, to the onlookers. When it is conducted properly, however, performing arts could provide both the spectators and the doers some profound uplifting experiences essential to identity themselves in their own world. By using shadow puppet theatre, Wayang Kulit, as an example this paper explores the important contributions of this traditional performing art form in developing self identity. This is to show what performing arts could offer to us, to our society, and to our world

TARI TARIAN BALI KRAESI BARU : BENTUK, PERTUMBUHAN DAN PERKEMBANGANNYA

Sejak permulaan tahun 1980an di Bali terjadi ledakan tari kreasi baru.Ratusan tarian kreasi baru telah di ciptakan walaupun baru sebagian kecil yang mampu berkembang serta berhasil menjadi primadona pagelaran-pagelaran kesenian baik yang bertaraf lokal,nasional,maupun internasional.Kondisi seperti ini sudah jauh berbeda dengan yang terjadi di tahun 1970an yang oleh beberapa pemerhati dan pencinta seni di katakan sebagai masa kemacetan cipta dalam kesenian bali (Setia 1978). Kesenian Bali sesungguhnya tidak pernah mengalami kemandegan apalagi kemacetan kreativitas.Kesenian yang dikenal sangat dinamis,fleksibel,dan adaptif ini terus berubah dan berkembang mengikuti dinamika perubahan masyarakatnya.Yang terjadi adalah bahwa proses pembaharuan seni di lingkungan budaya ini berlangsung agak lamban yang di sebabkan oleh masih kuatnya pengaruh dan ikatan kesenian tradisi dengan kesenian kreasi baru. Tulisan ini di maksudkan sebagai suatu studi mengenai keberadaan tari-tarian kreasi baru yang muncul selama kurun waktu dua puluh lima tahun terakhir ini (sejak awal tahun 1970an sampai tahun 1994 ini). Tiga aspek penting yang akan di bahas adalah :bentuk,pertumbuhan,serta perkembangan dari pada tari-tarian tersebut.Hal ini menjadi penting karena akan dapat menjelas perkembangan kesenian bali khususnya seni tari di jaman modern ini

BODY TJAK KARYA KOLABORASI SENI BUDAYA GLOBAL

Body Tjak adalah karya seni pertunjukan multi-kultural hasil kerjasama atau kolaborasi internasional yang memadukan unsur-unsur seni dan budaya Barat (Amerika) dan Timur (Bali-Indonesia).Garapan bernuansa seni budaya global ini, dengan dua produksinya: Body Tjak 1990 (BT90) dan Body Tjak the Celebration 1999 (BTC99), adalah hasil komitmen dan kerja keras kami : I Wayan Dibia (Bali) dan Keith Terry (California) selaku pencipta dan direktur artistik (co-director). Kedua karya eksperimental ini , secara utuh atau bagian, telah di pentaskan di Amerika dan Indonesia, dan dengan segala kekurangannya, telah mendapat sambutan yang positif dari masyarakat di kedua negara. Body Tjak bahkan juga banyak memberikan inspirasi kepada para seniman setempat untuk menciptakan karya-karya seni pertunjukan baru

PRAGINA DI DALAM SENI PERTUNJUKAN BALI

Seni pertunjukan (teater) lahir dari kerja sama beberapa kelompok seniman. Salah satu kelompok yang memegang peranan terpenting adalah penari dan aktor yang di Bali secara kolektif disebut pragina. Bagi penggemar seni pertunjukan tradisional di daerah ini sebutan pragina tentunya sudah tidak asing lagi. Yang masih belum jelas adalah apakah masyarakat telah sepenuhnya memahami bahwa pragina bukanlah sekedar sebutan professional kesenimanan melainkan satu komponen terpenting yang ikut menentukan perkembangan hidup mati suatu bentuk seni pertunjukan

Implementation and application of solar energy in Nigeria

Nigeria is an exporting country and the electricity sector depends on gas, diesel and hydropower sources. Currently, the hydropower has replaced gas as the main source of energy due to climate change. Presently, the fossil fuels are expensive and limited due to scarce generation. This resulted into a power supply shortage that created a huge gap between the energy supply and demand. However, a new alternative energy source is required to complement the existing shortfall in supply of electricity in the country. Solar energy is a potential resource with huge availability for small and large-scale off-grid and grid-connected systems to be utilized in Nigeria. However, the high cost of Photovoltaic (PV) systems is one of the major problems identified and the current energy uses have limitations due to climate change. It affects conventional energy, hydropower and biomass which result to deforestation, desertification and water shortage/drought. This study focusing on economic, policy and technical perspectives investigated the possibility of using solar PV system to address challenges of electricity shortage and the affordability in order to meet electricity consumption with over 180 million populations and reduce the tendency of depending on diesel-fuel generators in the future in Nigeria. However, this study involved use of questionnaire method for data collection to understand the population perception about solar energy use with PV systems. The off-grid case studies were selected to determine the electricity generation, consumption and the payback period with mono and polycrystalline silicon PV types for the electricity generation. The RET Screen simulation software was adopted to analyse the amount of electricity output generated and the amount of emission reductions due to PV efficiency and accuracy. The innovative financing (PAYG) model was used to assess energy budget to ascertain energy consumption per user against blind decision due to cost based on the financial resource availability. The simulation results reveal more of electricity generation with the installed PV system at angle 150 degree. The monthly bills due to increased energy supply from the installed off-grid PV systems reduced from the utility grid electricity. The payback time for installed PV systems based on financial viability analysis shows reasonable, affordable, profitable and rewarding. In addition, the electricity cost from installed PV system generation and presently without subsidy is lower than the grid electricity based on cost of outages. Finally, the results based on proposed grid-connected PV power system, putting economic factor into consideration can be more feasible

Oral tradition and historical reconstruction in Igbo land, South east Nigeria

History is a body of knowledge derived from the past lives of a society. The reconstruction of these past lives relied on the objective use of various  sources which include among others, oral or verbal evidence, written  evidence and material remains. Unfortunately, most scholars of  euro-centric culture as they are often referred to, are propagating a  mistaken belief that objective historical reconstruction is only possible  through the use of written documents, thereby relegating the use of other sources of historical information such as oral traditions to the background. This misconception about the sources of historical information is certainly proving dysfunctional in the reconstruction of history particularly in areas  like Igbo land that suffered from lack of conventional or written records.  This paper sees oral tradition as a veritable tool which must be harnessed and objectively used for a sustained historical reconstruction, both in  literate and non-literate societies of the world. It therefore showed that oral traditions like other sources of History are invaluable in historical  reconstructions especially in the reconstruction of the History of non-literate societies.Key Words: History, Historical reconstruction, Oral tradition, Objectivity and Material remains