The Death of Semar

Melalui artikel ini penulis menelaah peran memori kultural pada masainterkoneksi global sekarang ini. Penulis mensinyalir bahwa gagasan tradisionaltentang budaya terancam oleh “industri budaya” seperti teknologi informasi danmedia masa. Di Dunia Barat, fungsi budaya sebagai mesin perubahan dan reformasitampak tergerus oleh industri tersebut. Tapi di Asia Tenggara – khususnya Indonesia– kekuatan eksternal serta upaya internal untuk mempertahankan identitas budayalokal tetap terjaga agar berimbang. Isu ini diteropong berdasarkan perpektif Michelde Certeau. Gagasan ini ditampilkan melalui telaah kisah “kematian Semar” dalamWayang. Kesadaran akan keberimbangan antara pengaruh eksternal dan pemeliharaanbudaya internal itu sangatlah penting di dalam menyikapi jaringan kekuatan globalyang memaksakan masuknya berbagai struktur religius, politik, kekuangan danhukum ke dalam budaya Indonesia. This essay will examine the role of cultural memory in an age of globalinterconnection. It will discuss how the traditional idea of culture is threatened by the “culture industry,” information technology and the media. In the West, there seemsto be a loss of culture’s function as an engine of change and reform. But throughoutthe history of South East Asia (and especially in Indonesia) one sees a both a processof appropriation of ideas from the outside, and at the same time, the maintenance ofa deeper cultural identity that is resistant to complete control. It is an unconsciousmemory – or a cultural reflex – present within the languages and stories and rationalities.I will explain this with reading of Michel de Certeau . And I will show how the Wayangstory of the “Death of Semar” is emblematic of this idea. The awareness of these oldprocesses of appropriation and resistance are extremely important in our age of globalnetworks of power that attempt to impose, various religious, political, financial andlegal structures. &nbsp

Teacher’s Heads

This paper investigates the Wai Khru ceremony in Thailand and Cambodia which gives honor to the “teacher”. It traces this ceremony from its origins in India and the writings connected to the Natya Sastra. It shows the traditional practice of knowledge as ritualistic and continuous with one’s tradition. It contrasts this to the modern Western and contemporary understanding of knowledge as information and data

GARUDA INDONESIA, REGISTERED TRADEMARK*

This essay examines the restrictions imposed on the use of images. It contrasts forms of transmission of images with contemporary transmission. It begins by focusing on the traditional image of the Garuda or Krut, and its function as a royal and state symbol in South East Asia. It then moves on to examine the philosophy of intellectual property and the manner in which private factions claim a new forms of sovereignty through the restrictions associated with information and images. It finally examines the fragility of corporate sovereignty and the phenomena of intellectual piracy

Circum-Navigating The World Island, Among Enemies

Everyday our vision travels across time and space. We see images in the media about atrocities, disruptions, crises, famine, and wars. And in each case, our sense of injustice is awakened. We feel outrage and indignation based upon our ideals and value systems, which were formed through our traditions and religions. But in this age where the power of media and information is so powerful, what we see is often manufactured to appeal to our values. While these values circulate among the images we see in cyberspace, these manipulations are rooted in certain realities: geography, natural resources, and power relationships. Our values are managed to serve the control of resources and territory. They serve the deeper reality of geography and geopolitics. How then are these ideals and values created, manipulated, and opposed across various pivots or boundaries, between East and West, between the individual and the collective? Through English geographer Sir Halford Mackinder’s concepts of “pivot” and “heartland”; German philosopher Carl Schmitt’s importance of “nomos”; and French writer Victor Segalen’s reflections on the loss of cultural diversity, we outline this priority of geography. By examining these writers, we can begin to ask if our ideals and values have any real moral or theological significance, or if they are merely effects of the competition between powers. Can ideals and values lead to real change and development, or are they merely leashes to guide us based on the aims of power

Sacred Commodities

This presentation will examine the circulation of sacred images as commodities. In urban areas in Southeast Asia, the trade in images of Buddhist, Brahmanist and Animist deities in the form of amulets is very popular, as is the trade in these sacred images in the tourist trade. The traditional manner of approaching this phenomenon is to impose traditional academic theories of capitalist exchange, commodity fetishism or spiritual decay. But this approach condemns the negative aspects of this phenomenon without appreciating its more authentic aspects. This paper wishes to show how the religious “eclecticism” found in Southeast Asia, is also present in the trade of sacred commodities. The paradoxes present in the commodification of sacred images also provide them with a renewed possibility to contribute to types of cultural redemption

KINNARI: ON THE SPACE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND CORPORATE MYTH

We navigate within a landscape full of mythical images and icons which ask for our commitment or trust. These include both manufactured corporate myths whose aim is the circulation of commodities and capital, and traditional myths which lead us to a place beyond mere exchange value. This essay seeks to investigate how we can begin to disentangle the various myths which compete for our attention. It draws from the works of Hans Blumenberg and Georg Simmel and their ideas of “pregnance” and “value”. It uses the stories surrounding the Thai mythical creature – the Kinnari – to demonstrate how the richness of traditional myth, can provide reorientation for those of us lost in contemporary culture. The story of the Kinnari points to the very source of wealth, value and trust.

Probing the Solar Wind Acceleration Region with the Sun--Grazing Comet C/2002 S2

Comet C/2002 S2, a member of the Kreutz family of Sungrazing comets, was discovered in white light images of the SOHO/LASCO coronagraph on 2002 September 18 and observed in \hi\, \lya\, emission by the SOHO/UVCS instrument at four different heights as it approached the Sun. The \hi\, \lya\, line profiles detected by UVCS are analyzed to determine the spectral parameters: line intensity, width and Doppler shift with respect to the coronal background. Two dimensional comet images of these parameters are reconstructed at the different heights. A novel aspect of the observations of this sungrazing comet data is that, whereas the emission from the most of the tail is blue--shifted, that along one edge of the tail is red--shifted. We attribute these shifts to a combination of solar wind speed and interaction with the magnetic field. In order to use the comet to probe the density, temperature and speed of the corona and solar wind through which it passes, as well as to determine the outgassing rate of the comet, we develop a Monte Carlo simulation of the \hi\, \lya\, emission of a comet moving through a coronal plasma. From the outgassing rate, we estimate a nucleus diameter of about 9 meters. This rate steadily increases as the comet approaches the Sun while the optical brightness decreases by more than a factor of ten and suddenly recovers. This indicates that the optical brightness is determined by the lifetimes of the grains, sodium atoms and molecules produced by the comet.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figures. Accepted by Ap

Chantal Mouffe and Religious Pluralism: Agonistic Experiments in Non-Western Societies

This paper examines questions regarding the alleviation and management of religious conflict. It will first examine the philosophical framework of Chantal Mouffe as a response to Carl Schmitt’s critique of pluralism. Then it will give examples of conflict resolution and the preservation of diversity in such regions as, Lebanon, Indonesia and Thailand. Finally, it will examine these examples as exercises in “agonistics” as understood by Mouffe. This will be shown to be a valuable framework for conflict resolution and democracy in the ASEAN region