KAM: Ki Ageng Mangir (trailer) - Steve Everett

KAM: Ki Ageng Mangir an interactive javanese shadow play
Steve Everett - music/video/direction
Midiyanto - Javanese shadow puppeteer
Sarah Weiss - Javanese gender, voice
Pramoedya Ananta Toer - text
Thamyris New Music Ensemble - Atlanta, USA
Live Digital Media - Kyma computer music system / I-cube interactive sensor system
Max/MSP programming environment / Videodelic interactive video system

KAM is a two-hour Javanese shadow play with video, musicians, and interactive sound, video and movement based on the play Ki Ageng Mangir by Indonesian author and political dissident, Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Movement, shadow puppets, and music are able to interact with the use of several computer-based hardware-software programs.

In combining traditional Javanese and contemporary Western art forms, KAM attempts to mirror the cyclical nature of current and past sociopolitical dynamics in Indonesia. In attempting to maintain political power, Javanese rulers throughout their history have used the shadow puppet play as a tool of propaganda. KAM provides a modern glimpse into this intriguing world of shadows, corruption, and political power.

The composer has met with Toer on two occasions (1996 and 1997) in Jakarta to discuss this play and his projections on the future of his country. The play is a retelling of a sixteenth-century Javanese conflict, but the situations in Toer's adaptation are quite current. Individual recordings have been made of the gamelan sekaten instruments in Surakarta, Java dating from the 16th century, and analysis/resynthesis of their timbral spectra have been performed using the Kyma system. The resultant timbres then served as the basis for the construction of many of the vertical sonorities used in the composition. Original shadow puppets of the characters in the play have been created in Java for this production as well. Selections from KAM have been performed in ten countries since 2000.

Steve Everett is professor of music at Emory University in Atlanta (http://www.steveeverett.org/)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• gamelan
• Toer
• Java
• shadow
• puppets
• Midiyanto
• wayang
• kulit