How may designers create furniture that allows meaningful place-making in a modern office?: Case study in the Malaysian office environment

There have been many discussions on office environments, but there have been few studies on the designer relationship with the workplace that they are designing. Given the benefit of the findings of this research, designers might create opportunities for the user to express their emotions through their workplace personalization. In my early field work, I used a participatory design approach and used mock-ups to investigate the main problems and to explore design opportunities in developing new office environments. The findings revealed that meaningful workplaces can be achieved in different way and for different reason according to different needs

A Muslim Seletar family in Malaysia: Negotiating a liminal religious and ethnic identity

This article is drawn from ethnographic research undertaken in Johor state in Malaysia, referring also to related historical, theoretical and anthropological literature. I make some key observations about the modern practices and identity of a group of Muslims in Malaysia who can be seen to form a particular subset of their Seletar ethnic group. This is discussed in the context of the ongoing debate and contestation of Muslim / Malay and bumiputera identity and status. The article examines how these Muslim Orang Asli appear to negotiate their Muslim identity in relation to their Seletar identity and how they still subscribe to being Seletar in terms of language and specific aspects of culture which remain important to them. The research draws conclusions about how their agency in their chosen hybridity of cultural practice and religion provides a kind of emblematic model highlighting the potential multiplicity in Malaysian bumiputera indigineity (or Malayness)

Dreams, legends, spirituality and miracles: understanding tattoo narratives among contemporary urban men in Java Island, Indonesia

This article examines the relationship between dreams and tattooing in the context of the spiritual beliefs in Indonesia. Based on interviews and ethnographic study in the Island of Java, we highlight the importance of dreams, their perceived meanings and significance for male individuals, who have tattooed their bodies with dreamed imagery. Interviews revealed narratives which arise from the tattoos themselves and we relate them to myth, belief and legends familiar to the Javanese; these draw upon religious faith and also more atavistic mystical beliefs. An important source is the Javanese legend of Nyai Roro Kidul, a narrative often seen to legitimise political, royal and magical power. Dream expressions also draw upon popular visual culture as part of a dynamic and ongoing evolution of an embodied discourse of belief. Our case studies reveal that tattooing can be part of the broader mediation of belief in the supernatural where older beliefs can intervene in new domains and contexts for expression

Communication practices of the Karen in Sheffield: Seeking to navigate their three zones of displacement

This study investigates communication practices of a newly arrived Karen refugee community in the UK who, as well as establishing themselves in a strange country, seek to keep in touch, campaign politically and maintain identity collectively through communication and contact with their global diaspora. We look at the technologies, motivations and inhibiting factors applying to the communication by adult members of this community and construct the idea of three zones of displacement which help to model the particular contexts, challenges and methods of their communication. We find that overall, they are using a wide range of internet-based technologies, with the aim to 'keep-in-touch' (personal contacts) and to 'spread the word' (political communication). This also includes archaic, traditional and hybrid methods to achieve extended communication with contacts in other 'zones'. We also identify the importance of the notion of ‘village’ as metaphor and entity in their conceptualisation of diasporic and local community cohesion. We identify the key inhibitors to their communication as cost, education, literacy and age. Finally, we speculate on the uncertain outcomes of their approach to digital media in achieving their political aims

The significance of Island of Demons and Kriss: The Bali sub-genre of the South-Seas Films, their primitivist discourse and tropicalist fantasy

This paper explores the articulation of Dutch East Indies Colonial ideology through the two ‘Bali Films’ strongly influenced by Walter Spies and wider colonial and primitivist discourses provided by contemporary reviews of the films. I discuss the reception of the films in the arena of visual-linguistic exchange, interpretation and contestation in the ‘contact zone’. In doing so, I examine the relationship between documentary, ethnography and fictional narrative and analyse examples of ethnocentricity in terms of reference when viewing and evaluating visual material. This is done through an analysis of the discourse in reviews of the films and includes the subjects of landscape as an arena of visual linguistic contestation, the spurious interpretation of Otherness as ‘authenticity’ and the discourse of colonial possession and desire, which in turn, I equate with the development of sexual tourism in Bali. In analysing the films themselves, I examine some early characteristics of the film documentary genre, relationships between colonial novels, tourist paintings and ‘ethnographic’ narrative film in the colonial context of the Dutch East Indies. This includes discussion of displacement of native exploitation onto the ethnic Chinese. More specifically, I scrutinise audience, identification and interrelationships between colonial narrative forms. From my exploration of the film texts in relation to their reception in the form of the reviews, I highlight the concrete manifestation of primitivist views allowing the construction of Orientalist fantasy by filmmakers and viewers. This is based on misapprehended notions of authenticity amounting to the creation and perpetuation of a varied range of views about the films, all of which coalesce around a condescending apology of colonialism and over-simplified misunderstanding of Other cultures.</p

Walter Spies, tourist art and Balinese art in inter-war colonial Bali

This is an art historical study informed by post-colonial perspectives which critically examines the discourse concerning the role and the work of the artist Walter Spies in relation to Bali, Balinese art and the Balinese in the inter-war Dutch Colonial period. Drawing from a wide variety of sources, the thesis examines the development and characteristics of a new artistic form in the area of painting, variously described as 'Balinese Modernism', 'New Balinese painting' or 'Tourist art'. I also investigate the origins and the perpetuation of the popular myth regarding the perceived role of Walter Spies as the instigator of this art. Through examining his cultural position in relation to the Balinese, I examine Spies' role as a colonial figure and as a 'servant' of colonial cultural policy. This post-colonial examination takes into account the broader historical, political, cultural and economic realities of colonial Bali at that time. I deal with theoretical and methodological issues some of which make such a study problematic. In particular, how to deal with the 'subaltern' in historical discourse and the dangers of either essentialising the 'Other' or diminishing hegemonic imperial processes through a cultural relativism which seeks to value the importance of the 'subaltern' voice. In addition to this, the problematic and sometimes misleading use of biography is also investigated. I have synthesised a number of concepts to develop my post-colonial approach, based around the ideas of contact, contact languages and influence. These are used to explain the development of new artistic forms, as well as the discourse and processes which both moulded and reflected them. The study contributes to knowledge through the fresh analysis of the discourse of 'texts' and parts of 'texts' not previously used or explored in a postcolonial theoretical framework. Interviews with Balinese artists and the correspondence of Spies are deconstructed, as well as the films and paintings of Spies which are analysed as colonial discourse rather than as isolated aesthetic products. This project provides a new critique of the creation and perpetuation of colonial discourse through biography and imagery which I propose has much broader implications in the 'post-colonial' world</p

Surveillance without borders : the case of Karen refugees in Sheffield.

This chapter presents a recent case study of the Sheffield Karen community’s experience of surveillance and cyber conflict. It outlines and discusses how ‘local’ conflicts can be manifested at great distance, aided by ‘guerrilla’ surveillance, targeting social media and ‘phone hacking’. In this case we encountered a local conflict which occurred in a completely different locality from the place of origin. It also moved into a virtual world, one which was characterised by an ‘inverse reach’ allowing the 'oppressors' to reach out and touch the 'oppressed' through appropriating their channels of communication and using information gained though surveillance to attack them in specific ways which referenced aspects of the real conflict. Not only did this provide insight into how new media is being used in cyber warfare, but it also highlighted existing dynamics and divisions which are part of the real conflict of which this has now become a part. This account also recognises how trauma and fear can be reignited far from its place of origin and the powerful emotional impact which is gained through exploiting people's fears and paranoia in this way. This is done through attacking their sense of identity and status and referencing their direct experience of conflict with a regime more powerful than themselves. A key background activity to this work is understanding the pre-existing ethnic sensitivities and constructions of identity, but also those which are articulated through online media by both sides in the conflict. An account is provided from a participant observer's view point of view which explores the background and the anatomy of one particular cyber-attack. The nature of the attack and its responses will be discussed, including exploring, not only the online dimension to the attack, but also the more reified aspects of the way in which the community responde