Aryo Danusiri
Harvard University, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Samuel P. Huntington Dissertation Fellow
Samuel P. Huntington Doctoral Dissertation Fellow, WCFIA, Harvard
Member of The Commission on Visual Anthropology of the IUAES (The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences)
Aryo Danusiri is a video artist and anthropologist who was born in Jakarta. Danusiri’s first Aceh documentary, “Village Goat Takes The Beating” was an official selection at the 2001 Amnesty Film Festival, Amsterdam. Since then, his ethnographic films, documentaries and short films about human rights and multicultural problems in Indonesia have been screened at various festivals including RAI (UK), the Margaret Mead Film Festival (USA), as well as in Singapore, Brisbane, Taiwan and Rotterdam. His three documentaries on Aceh has been released in DVD for International distribution by Monash University (Between Three World Project, 2005). In 2005, he finished his Master’s Degree in Visual Cultural Studies from Tromsoe University, Norway with an ethno-documentary about West Papua, “Lukas’ Moment”. This film received “Best Student Film” at the RAI Ethnographic Film Festival, UK. His latest documentary on Aceh, “Playing Between Elephants” was in asian competition section at Yamagata Documentary Festival, Japan. Danusiri is the filmmaker of Ragam Sensory Ethnography Lab, a Jakarta based Institution that develops visual media as a catalyst for cross-cultural learning and community knowledge management. At present, he is doing his Ph.D. studies in Visual Anthropology at Harvard University with a grant from Fulbright. More information on Danusiri’s work can be found at www.ragam.org and www.connexxcreen.com.
Supervisors: Mary Steedly and Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Member of The Commission on Visual Anthropology of the IUAES (The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences)
Aryo Danusiri is a video artist and anthropologist who was born in Jakarta. Danusiri’s first Aceh documentary, “Village Goat Takes The Beating” was an official selection at the 2001 Amnesty Film Festival, Amsterdam. Since then, his ethnographic films, documentaries and short films about human rights and multicultural problems in Indonesia have been screened at various festivals including RAI (UK), the Margaret Mead Film Festival (USA), as well as in Singapore, Brisbane, Taiwan and Rotterdam. His three documentaries on Aceh has been released in DVD for International distribution by Monash University (Between Three World Project, 2005). In 2005, he finished his Master’s Degree in Visual Cultural Studies from Tromsoe University, Norway with an ethno-documentary about West Papua, “Lukas’ Moment”. This film received “Best Student Film” at the RAI Ethnographic Film Festival, UK. His latest documentary on Aceh, “Playing Between Elephants” was in asian competition section at Yamagata Documentary Festival, Japan. Danusiri is the filmmaker of Ragam Sensory Ethnography Lab, a Jakarta based Institution that develops visual media as a catalyst for cross-cultural learning and community knowledge management. At present, he is doing his Ph.D. studies in Visual Anthropology at Harvard University with a grant from Fulbright. More information on Danusiri’s work can be found at www.ragam.org and www.connexxcreen.com.
Supervisors: Mary Steedly and Lucien Castaing-Taylor
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Talks by Aryo Danusiri
“Kameng Gampoeng Nyang Keunong Geulawa” (The Village Goat that Takes the Beating, 1999)
which was commissioned by a human rights-defender NGO based in Jakarta. The aim was to offer
critical views on the Aceh conflict to the Indonesian public. By using chronotopes (Bakhtin, 1981) as
the analytical tool, I delineate the way the Indonesian state and its military constituted a dominant
view of Aceh as the Other by applying a semiotic model of authoritarian nationalism that circulated
in the public sphere. As the counter-politics, I developed particular testimony chronotopes as a
strategy to capture victims’ points of view as embodied experience. In my reflection, I argue that
instead of producing a complex visuality of the Aceh actors as human beings, my portrayal of the
victims had taken on a sustained oppressor-victim binary opposition view which framed victims as
the articulation of singular experience. This study contributes to the emerging interest in media
anthropology and the study of non-mainstream film genres and independent cinema works.
on the global video workshop curated by Antje Ehmann and Harun Farocki
an international, interdisciplinary conference organized by
Detlef Gericke-Schönhagen
Director, Goethe-Institut Boston
Antje Ehmann
Artist, Curator and
Workshop Co-Organizer
Roy Grundmann,
Conference Co-Director
Gregory Williams,
Conference Co-Director
November 13-14, 2014
Aryo Danusiri, Anthropologist, Sensory Ethnography Lab, Harvard University
Stephen Cairns, Architect, University of Edinburgh
Moderator Lieven De Cauter, ASRO, KULeuven
This debates and presentation series offers an interdisciplinary reflection on the development of cities in the Global South and the different dynamics that shape them today. Renowned experts will share their alternative readings of these specific urban spaces. The lectures will acknowledge both the tensions and the frictions in such sites, as well as the opportunities that are generated thanks to or in spite of them. The debates pay much attention to the specific ways in which civil societies' and city dwellers' agency is enabled or disabled.
Debates are free and open to all. Registration is recommended
Books by Aryo Danusiri
Jochen Becker, Katrin Klingan, Stephan Lanz, Kathrin Wildner (Eds.): Global Prayers. Contemporary Manifestations of the Religious in the City. Lars Mueller Publishers, Zurich.
ISBN 978-3-03778-373-3 | 544 pages | Published in October 2013
Articles by Aryo Danusiri
“Kameng Gampoeng Nyang Keunong Geulawa” (The Village Goat that Takes the Beating, 1999)
which was commissioned by a human rights-defender NGO based in Jakarta. The aim was to offer
critical views on the Aceh conflict to the Indonesian public. By using chronotopes (Bakhtin, 1981) as
the analytical tool, I delineate the way the Indonesian state and its military constituted a dominant
view of Aceh as the Other by applying a semiotic model of authoritarian nationalism that circulated
in the public sphere. As the counter-politics, I developed particular testimony chronotopes as a
strategy to capture victims’ points of view as embodied experience. In my reflection, I argue that
instead of producing a complex visuality of the Aceh actors as human beings, my portrayal of the
victims had taken on a sustained oppressor-victim binary opposition view which framed victims as
the articulation of singular experience. This study contributes to the emerging interest in media
anthropology and the study of non-mainstream film genres and independent cinema works.
on the global video workshop curated by Antje Ehmann and Harun Farocki
an international, interdisciplinary conference organized by
Detlef Gericke-Schönhagen
Director, Goethe-Institut Boston
Antje Ehmann
Artist, Curator and
Workshop Co-Organizer
Roy Grundmann,
Conference Co-Director
Gregory Williams,
Conference Co-Director
November 13-14, 2014
Aryo Danusiri, Anthropologist, Sensory Ethnography Lab, Harvard University
Stephen Cairns, Architect, University of Edinburgh
Moderator Lieven De Cauter, ASRO, KULeuven
This debates and presentation series offers an interdisciplinary reflection on the development of cities in the Global South and the different dynamics that shape them today. Renowned experts will share their alternative readings of these specific urban spaces. The lectures will acknowledge both the tensions and the frictions in such sites, as well as the opportunities that are generated thanks to or in spite of them. The debates pay much attention to the specific ways in which civil societies' and city dwellers' agency is enabled or disabled.
Debates are free and open to all. Registration is recommended
Jochen Becker, Katrin Klingan, Stephan Lanz, Kathrin Wildner (Eds.): Global Prayers. Contemporary Manifestations of the Religious in the City. Lars Mueller Publishers, Zurich.
ISBN 978-3-03778-373-3 | 544 pages | Published in October 2013
In this paper, I am going to discuss some methodological reflection in the process of making Lukas’ Moment (60 minutes, 2005), in the ways in which to understand how Papuan being-in-the-world in their everyday life struggle in the context of post-Suharto Indonesia. This film was conceived as an ethnographic film/observational cinema which focused on the lived events or the everyday events of the film subjects (see Nichols, 2001). I am going to problematize my experience in employing two kinds of methods or camera styles in the ways to do the observation. From the perspective of existential anthropology, I argue that the production of anthropological knowledge on intersubjectivity requires an endeavor to develop the position of the anthropologist from being observer into participant.
Produced in Sensory Ethnography Lab (SEL)
Finished in 2009 with a screening at Harvard Film Archive
The World Premiere of "On Broadway #3" was in Rotterdam Film Festival 2010
The Latest exhibition was Whitney Biennial 2014 (in the section of Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel and SEL)
Drawing upon work from native and diaspora filmmakers and artists from West and Southeast Asia, Monsoon, Prayers New Routes is a compilation of films and videos that document the Islamic communities dispersed around the Indian Ocean and beyond. Many of the featured filmmakers and artists reside in trans-oceanic port-cities, and their practice touches upon concepts that reverberate across diaspora and migration, urban culture and religious struggle, and new approaches to image and sound in the age of globalization.
Filmmakers Monira Al Qadiri and Aryo Danusiri will be present for a post-screening discussion.
Programmed by Xin Zhou in collaboration with Harvard University Asia Center
Film " Playing Between Elephants " Seekor Pelanduk di antara Gajah Di aula itu berkumpul banyak orang. Geuchik atau kepala desa menyampaikan laporan penggunaan uang. Dari penjelasan geuchik, semua orang jadi tahu bahwa terjadi pembengkakan biaya pembangunan rumah, lebih dari taksiran semula. Uang yang diperkirakan sisa, malah kurang. seorang warga langsung protes. Geuchik berusaha menjelaskan lagi hitung-hitungannya. Orang-orang dari lembaga bantuan ikut membantu geuchik menjelaskan duduk perkara. Tetapi lelaki yang emosi itu tak terima. Ia merobek-robek buku anggaran, mengumpat-umpat, lalu meninggalkan aula. Tingkah lakunya menular pada sebagian besar yang hadir. Ada yang menggerutu, ada yang mengajak yang lain pergi ke kantor lembaga bantuan untuk mengadu. Suasana hiruk-pikuk. Geuchik tak bisa mencegah mereka. Namun, ia tetap tegar dan bahkan, masih bisa tertawa. Inilah konflik yang paling menegangkan dalam film dokumenter garapan Aryo Danusiri, Playing Between Elephants. Sang geuchik menjadi karakter utama cerita ini. Ia hadir dalam setiap sekuel, menjadi sorotan sekaligus perekat tiap bagian. Sosoknya sangat hidup. Ia kesal, sabar, bertanggung jawab, dan kadang terlihat ingin menguntungkan dirinya sendiri. Ia sosok yang kompleks, tidak hitam-putih dan sederhana. Ia pahlawan, tetapi juga bukan tanpa cacat. Aryo begitu jeli memperlihatkan perkembangan watak dan tingkah-polah geuchik dengan kameranya, merekam bagaimana si tokoh bertarung dengan dirinya sendiri dalam menjalankan perannya sebagai geuchik yang harus memperhatikan kepentingan warga serta kepentingan pribadinya, atau bermain-main di antara kedua hal tersebut. Pertarungan internal dalam diri geuchik bisa kita anggap sebagai pertarungan dua " gajah " dan pelanduknya tak lain dari metafor tentang kemampuannya mengelola kedua kepentingan tersebut dengan cerdik. Warga akhirnya memperoleh tambahan uang pembangunan sejumlah Rp 2,1 juta, sedang geuchik punya rumah besar berdapur luas berkat hubungan baiknya dengan penyalur bahan bangunan. Film berdurasi 89 menit ini sama sekali tidak terjerembab sebagai film propaganda program perumahan, meski ia merekam kegiatan lembaga bantuan tertentu dalam melibatkan masyarakat mendirikan rumah mereka, tahap demi tahap. Kadangkala ia begitu puitis, juga dramatis. Selain adegan-adegan yang menampilkan dinamika di lapangan, Aryo juga menghadirkan gambar-gambar secara semiotik yang berfungsi sebagai jeda sekaligus membubuhkan estetika pada filmnya. Beberapa kali muncul pemandangan pantai dan perahu di sela-sela adegan lain. Semula tak ada gerak, tak ada aktivitas apa pun, kecuali lanskap. Namun, perlahan-lahan Aryo menampilkan kehidupan di sana. Anak-anak memancing ikan dekat pantai, lalu suatu ketika orang-orang mendorong perahu ke laut dengan disemangati seruan, " Dalam hati sama rasa, hayooo.. ! " Proses interaksi Film Aryo dengan cerdas mengajak penonton menyaksikan dua proses interaksi. Pertama adalah hubungan manusia dengan alam yang terus-menerus (dalam hal ini manusia dengan laut), rutin, dan bermanfaat (dalam hubungan nelayan dan ikan-ikan), yang kemudian dirusak kekuatan alam lainnya (bencana atau tsunami) dan bagaimana manusia bertahan hidup dengan memulihkan lagi kepercayaan mereka terhadap alam sekaligus memulihkan kembali mata pencaharian atau kehidupan mereka.
Full title: "Unfold= Negotiate, Localize and Assemble. How Urban Studies Can Examine Religion"
published in "Global Prayers - Contemporary Manifestation of the Religious in the City" (Metrozone: 2013)