Transcript: Sacred Pixels, Episode Three

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Mahita Valluri: Having problematised, the digital colonial archive and what is lost when a manuscript is digitised, this episode ventures to explore the contraposition. What is gained when a manuscript is digitised? What does the widely accessible transcribed text revive? These will be some of the questions discussed as we shift our focus from the manuscript’s materiality to its exalted textuality. Dr Alan Darmawan, who is a postdoctoral researcher here at SOAS, leads this conversation with his personal insights from working with digitised Malay manuscripts to reimagine performative traditions for his project, Resonant Pages. His work provides a fresh perspective on how digital manuscripts reawaken traditional knowledge and contemporary efforts of reuniting this textual knowledge with performing arts. Resonant Pages is a perfect case study to grasp an understanding of current conversations around the newly digitised Yogyakarta manuscripts. In a symposium that was conducted by the Palace of Yogyakarta in 2019 after the digital returns of these manuscripts by the British Library, a few forms of traditional performing arts based on manuscripts were performed for the first time since the 19^th century. Due to the widespread access of these texts. This episode is a step towards understanding what preserving an object and a tradition means. Thank you so much for joining us today, Alan. It’s a pleasure to have you on the show. 

Alan Darmawan: Thank you. Thank you for having me. 

MV: Would you kindly introduce yourself and your positionality in this academic field? 

AD: Well, I’m a postdoctoral researcher at SOAS, and I’m working for the Mapping Sumatra’s Manuscript Cultures project [ed. Naskah Sumatra team]. So yeah, I like to work on interdisciplinary research basically on performing arts, where I did my doctoral research on the revival of performing art, and then it connects to my project, at SOAS working on manuscript cultures in Sumatra. So, I’m also interested in studying cultural heritage from island Southeast Asia. 

MV: That’s a very interesting position as well, looking at performative arts and ancient traditional knowledge. And it brings me to my next question, which is about your project Resonant Pages. Your project reunites text with performance, and it reactivates the oral and literary features of manuscripts after a period of silent dissonance. Could you tell us more about this creative project? How did you conceive this idea, and what do you aim to contribute to the existing philological scholarship with this project? 

AD: Well, the idea came up in our research team, Naskah Sumatra team at SOAS, and the question we ask is about if we can’t produce more than an academic paper, books, text editions and articles. Then we started thinking of creative work that we can produce from our research. This is also an effort to contribute to philological studies which for many decades we inherited from colonial scholarship, where these scholars mostly focused on the text itself. They avoid working on another aspect of this text, which is the performance, because the text is traditionally recited before the audiences. We start from here and started thinking of bringing back these texts into life, into performance. And then I tried to work on this, contacting friends, artists. So, these performers have been involved from the very start of developing this project and we started looking for funding. Then we selected some text that were interesting for them, and this is really exciting project where we give more space for the artists to select the text that they like. So I think, what we can contribute is to…well if you created text editions it’s mainly read by specialists, right? If you publish research articles, mostly the specialists read your publications. But here in this project, we try to ensure that the research product that we produce at SOAS is also useful for practical fields—in this case it’s art production, the performing arts—so we involve artists, performers to create artworks based on our research. So, this is how we work and try to contribute to this scholarship. 

MV: And you were mentioning how the artists chose their own texts from the digitized manuscripts, right? What kind of texts were there, and how did they change the quality of their performance? 

AD: So, as they chose the text that they want, we try to give them space to reinterpret the text. The first one is text from the northern tip of Sumatra, Aceh, the copy of this text that we found in the digital repository from Qalamos, and also from Endangered Archives Programs (EAP). So, these two copies contain the same text of Dalā’il al-Khayrāt, the text written by a Muslim scholar in northern Africa. We are not talking about transmission of this text, but some copies are here in Sumatra and then digitized by the EAP project, which is now accessible online. Another one was taken from the Palace of Palembang in southern Sumatra, brought to Europe in, I think, the 19th century, part of the colonial collecting practice. So, there is tradition of recitation, part of the ritual of reading this text in the Islamic tradition here in Sumatra, and also other parts of the Islamic world. Then, we asked the performers, especially the choreographer, to reinterpret the text, to bring part of the text into dance work. The dance work is, you know, new compositions made by the choreographer, but it’s adjusted to the potential they have, to the talents they have. We have 12 performers, 12 dancers, based in London, so we talked to them about how to make this happen and then what kind of dance work that they like, that they are able to do, to perform. This is part of the negotiation between research and researchers and performers. In this way, we did the project. And the second is a text from Central Sumatra, the Highlands [of] Minangkabau which is now [the province of] West Sumatra, which is about text that contains negotiation between Islam and the local customs. Two musicians tried to reanimate the sounds described in the text. And then the third is syair, like a narrative poem, from southern Sumatra, from Palembang Sultanate.  

Then I asked musicians to reinterpret and to perform this into recitations combined with impersonations and singing and dancing. So, we were basically open for possibilities for performers to create their own artworks. We are not limiting possibilities for them to work. Basically, this is democratic way to produce artwork between performance and researchers. 

MV: Yeah, absolutely. And it’s also giving the space of flexibility when you’re preserving traditional culture and performing arts, right? And I wanted to ask how you define the term preserve in the context of performing arts and cultures. Is it keeping it from damage and loss or is it to maintain it in the same unchanged state? What does it mean to preserve? 

AD: Well, you should think of preservation in the wider definition. If it is related to materiality and then, yeah, you know, we maintained these objects from damage. But if we preserve this knowledge stored in writings and performing traditions, I guess that preserve it means that you retrieve it, you perform it, you reenact it, in a way that you memorize it. Audiences memorize this knowledge, and then you copy it, right? Before the object is damaged, you copy it. This is part of the tradition of preservation, I think, because copying is part of this preservation. Of course, I think change is unavoidable because we need to change to a certain extent to adjust to new context. You know, you copy kind of text from distant past and, yeah, basically, in Malay literary traditions, copies also agents [of change]. So, they made some changes to the text they copy. Change is part of, I think, the preservation itself. 

MV: Yeah. And when I was watching some of the performances in Resonant Pages on the website, I think the one that stood out to me the most was riwang, where a group of Indonesian women recite an old religious text. You change it up by having a whole bunch of female performers on the stage, which is something that is not quite prevalent in Malay literature and tradition as far as what I’m aware. The female role in writing and performing of traditional Malay literature has been vastly unexplored. So, what inspired this change, and how did you reinvent the tradition? And how was it received, more importantly, by the people who are watching it, especially the Indonesian audience? 

AD: Well, women, I think played roles in Malay literary traditions. I think Dr Mulaika Hijjas also studied this, how women in 19^th century riwang also played roles in, you know, reciting narrative poems. If you look at specifically riwang dance in the Resonant Pages project, then it is something related to religious texts, which in Islamic traditions in Sumatra, it is normally all traditionally performed by men. So, as I said, we started from the talents we have, right? We have 12 female performers, dancers, and then what can we do with this text? So yeah, we created new…we didn’t claim that this is a traditional dance. But rather, we say this is new artworks based on rituals, based on religious rituals, religious texts. From that ritual performance, we took inspirations about written movements, and recitations. So based on that, we try to create new artworks. The choreographer worked very hard producing these new artworks. We don’t claim this is traditional, but this is new artworks. So, it is to a certain extent safe, but of course, there were some questions when we performed it at SOAS in May. We can discuss about this, because what the audience, especially the Indonesian audience, asked us is about traditional. If you claim this is traditional, then people will criticize you because no, this is not tradition. They perceive tradition as something intact, something unchanged, and what we presented was not what they perceive as something traditional, and of course this is religious text, commonly performed by men. So, this is part of the negotiations, right? Because one thing that we thought—the researchers and the artists—are we want to bring this text into new…we give it a new life. We bring it from distant past, from 19^th century, early 20^th century, into 21^st  century audience, in London or across the globe. So, we are thinking of making this understandable for the people, especially for non-specialists. I think this is part of the negotiations of giving old text and giving it a new life. I think we don’t claim this [is] traditional, but a reenactment of religious texts into new artworks. 

MV: I see. And when you’re giving a new life to the text by allowing for it to be reinterpreted and also detaching it from its traditional context, do you think it’s also at the risk of being disenchanted? And I ask this because Javanese and also Malay literature are often something that is imagined rather than read. And this is done not just because the text is very exalted and out of reach for the local audience, but because there’s a strong belief that runs through Indonesia that the text is spiritually potent and enchanted. When you’re giving a new life to this, is that belief also disappearing and does that affect the artwork and the culture? What are your thoughts on this? 

AD: I think. When we digitise manuscript, we give some possibilities to be, you know, revived in a way that people can claim this is the traditional way to consume this text or giving possibilities also to new creations. So, there are two possibilities of giving new life through digital manuscript. I think most of the surviving manuscripts in Indonesia or in Europe, Malay, Javanese manuscripts, most of them are not a living tradition anymore, except for if you see in Bali or in some part of Java. But, mostly, they are not a living tradition, so they are already not productive anymore. The manuscripts that are now kept in the European institutions are also taken from their original context. So now what we are working on is not a productive, not a living tradition, and by digitising this manuscript we give possibilities. We are giving chances for this text to be reenacted, to be reinterpreted, to be revived. Or, you know, to be made into new works that we don’t know what kind of works that can be produced from this text. What I know—that we produce dance, soundscape music, and syair or poetry recitations, and I heard also from a colleague here in Indonesia, that they are now making a comic book based on the manuscript. Or another scholar collaborating with a craftsman to try to produce textile based on the illuminations, the motif found in the manuscript. So this is some example of how, by digitising manuscript, we give chances for the manuscript to have a new life, regardless of traditional or non-traditional…new traditions. I think there are two sides of these possibilities. Of course, there will be debate, but that’s good. That means that some people are aware of these possibilities, aware of these new materials for art production, for research and for cultural productions. 

MV: Yeah, and now that digitised manuscripts are making these texts widely accessible to read. Like you said, the comics and the revived text, they’re sort of making sure the text is being read by a lot more people than it initially was. So, what does it actually mean to read a text? And I’ve also seen cases, especially in the symposium that was held in Yogyakarta in 2019, where they were using manuscripts to cite as evidentiary sources for reactivating a performative tradition like wayang, or like recital. The manuscripts have turned into something that is now citable because the text is readable. So, what does it mean to read this text? 

AD: What does it mean to read this text? So, I asked this question to our performers, when we worked on the Resonant Pages project. I ask [the] dancers, musicians, because most of them don’t read Malay literature—Jawi, they don’t read Jawi. But we try to work with them to read the text together or they read the transcription of the text. So, what does it mean to read this Malay manuscript? For them, for the performers, that means that they really connect to their heritage, the unknown heritage, they didn’t know that, oh, there is this kind of text written in modified Arabic script, and there is this book, which is a good book. It looks fancy, you know, in the way that this is bound. There are many questions, you know…What they perceive? I mean, the performers, it’s kind of surprise and also excitement of dealing with this old book. But reading it means that they are trying to reconnect to their heritage and try to understand, try to make use of it in the contemporary context. It’s not giving life like it was in the past, we don’t know, no recording, but now we try to ask the performers to work together to reconnect with this text to make use of it, to make it part of their academic life or their creative effort. So, this is what it means to read these old manuscripts. 

MV: You know, when I was putting together this research, I came across a paper written by Nancy K Florida, and she talks about how poet Ranggawarsita’s works was sort of now accessible for people to read, and they were all baffled by the content written by this great poet. For the longest time it said, Oh this is an exalted work. You can’t read this text because it might drive you insane if you don’t know how to handle it. And when they finally did read it, they found that Ranggawarsita was actually a very playful poet. Right? And he was writing about his dad, about not wanting to do anything, and it kind of gives that unique connect to your past as well where you don’t look at it just as something that is seriously bestowed upon you, but as something very human, right? Something that has extended into the 21^st century and something that we can still relate to. So, I think that is one of the rare advantages of digitised manuscripts. When manuscripts are digitised, they are being mechanically reproduced to be available on a digital media platform. I was reading Walter Benjamin’s book “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” to see if I can fit his theory to understand what’s happening to Javanese manuscripts, or any manuscripts that are being digitised these days. And I came across this part of the book where he talks about how when the work of art is removed from its dependence on ritual, the function of art is reversed, and it becomes based on politics instead of being based on tradition. Considering the contemporary reconstructions of traditional knowledge through performing arts due to the increased access to digitized texts, as we can see in your project Resonant Pages, to what extent do you think Walter Benjamin’s hypothesis applies to contemporary visual art production in Indonesia, if it applies at all? 

AD: Well, I think I don’t know if we can separate tradition and politics, traditional means something’s not political. So, we should question this statement. I think it’s not only political aspect that we can find in this performing arts or manuscript-based performing arts or say art production in general. It has political aspect, of course. For me, it’s safe to say this is multidimensional. So, it has political aspect, it has traditional aspect, it has nostalgic aspect of, you know, heritage, something old. It was silent for many decades, for centuries. And now, ta da!, you try to understand it. You try to read these texts closely and you find something, Oh, it’s not like what it was said, and like people judge. And then, oh, this writer is good, it’s very human, and it’s very playful text that he wrote. But I think there are many aspects of this, one of which is, of course, politics. It can be political, it can be medium for cultural diplomacy. It can be perhaps for tourist industry. It can be scientific materials for research. I think we can see many aspects of art works, art production, performing art. It can be part of ritual. So, I think we cannot see this as only single aspect, “political or not political?” I think there are many aspects of this, right? We should do justice to performing art or art production in general. 

MV: Alan, so far we have discussed what the digitised manuscripts revive and also how some old beliefs and traditions have an opportunity at taking on a new life. I would like to hear your thoughts on repatriation, or the return of manuscripts, through the means of digitisation. As you know, the British Library’s digitisation process which this podcast is based on is dubbed as a digital return by Indonesian news sources and also by the British Library themselves. So how do you perceive this concept? Do you think it’s feasible? Do you think digital repatriation is a feasible concept? 

AD: I think part of the very important part of the restitutions is conversation between two parties, right? Say in this case, Indonesia and European countries like Netherlands and United Kingdom. I can give one example of digitisation of three manuscripts from Palembang taken during the attacks in the early 19^th century, and then taken to the UK by British soldiers and then came to William Marston’s collection, which then donated to Kings College and then transferred to SOAS. Now we have these three manuscripts in digital form and accessible for, but if we ask a question whether this is restitution or not, it’s really hard to say this is restitution because there is no conversation, no dialogue between British institutions like SOAS and Indonesia. And it is just one-side initiative: the initiative from SOAS to digitize its own collection, and then put it online. It is not collaborative effort to deal with the past, to deal with this colonial collecting practice. There is no ethical issues discussed here about the return of these objects, but only digitisation by SOAS itself, and then put it online. When I visited Palembang, no one knows that part of their royal collections are now online, or made it available online by SOAS, so this is it! This is what we have so, I think this is what is missed from this digitisation project which we can hardly say restitution. Sorry to say that, but yeah, I have to say. 

MV: And lastly, this is a question coming from somebody who is interested in exploring this field as a researcher. So as someone who’s been working with textual material for a long period of time, what are some questions that you keep asking yourself as you contribute to this field and what are some questions you want people to ask? The questions that you think aren’t asked yet. 

AD: Well, this is basic questions that I have. As a researcher, I like some basic questions, and I position myself as a naive researcher who tried to understand these materials. I asked who cares of these materials, besides myself, besides the community of researchers? Who cares of this? Because, you know the owners of the manuscript in the field that I visited, I encountered, here in Indonesia, most of them don’t understand this text. They don’t use…what they do is that, OK, this is family heritage. We should keep this, OK? They preserve the manuscript. They keep them. But who cares of this? They don’t do more than that. Some of them do. Some of them read. But most of them no. So, I keep asking myself, who cares of this and what am I doing now? That’s a very critical question for myself. What am I doing now, and how can I attract attention of the students and younger generations? How can I attract them to work on these, to work together, to produce not only text editions, research papers, but also, I like working together with artists and performers. So, I keep asking myself how can I attract the attention to work on these materials? Because we have now, on the cloud, there are many big numbers of digital manuscripts. So yeah,  what shall we do about this? What can we do about these materials? Because there are many. And we need more researchers, we need more efforts to work on these collections. 

MV: Thank you so much, Alan, for those intriguing insights. It’s been lovely hearing your thoughts and getting to know more about your project and all of the efforts that went into it. I’m sure it’s been an enlightening conversation for people who will be tuning in to listen. So, thank you very much for making time and best of luck. I am really looking forward to see what else you put on in Resonant Pages.