collaborators
Common Room Network Foundation http://www.commonroom.info
Common Room is a platform for various activities organized by Bandung Center for New Media Arts (2001 – 2006). Founded in 2003 by Gustaff Harriman Iskander, the Bandung Center for New Media Arts has utilized Common Room as an anchor that serves diverse individuals, communities and organizations with increasing quantity of cooperation. Common Room facilitates numerous exhibitions, screening, workshops, lectures, discussions, small-scale music concerts, cultural festivals, etc. It is a place that bridge dialogue, intended to connect numerous individuals, communities and various organizations with diverse economic, social and micro-political interests. Common Room is an open platform for experimentation and creative collaboration to achieve common goals. Common Room activities include documenting and exploring phenomena, ideas, models and new concept born from multidisciplinary approaches in the field of visual arts, design, urban architecture, music, fashion, literature, media arts, network culture, as well as ongoing research & development on urban culture and urban ecology. Common Room is currently exploring the installation of a Fab Lab Maker Space to its facilities.
Gustaff Harriman Iskandar (b. 1974), graduated in 1999 from Fine Arts Department, Bandung Institute of Technology. By the end of 2001, along with R.E. Hartanto and T. Reza Ismail, he founded Bandung Center for New Media Arts, an organization that is focusing on the development of media arts and multidisciplinary artistic practice in Indonesia.
Pusbitari Dance Company and Foundation http://www.bvgnet.nl/pusben.html
Pusbitari (Pusat Bina Tari / Center for Dance Development Bandung West Java) was formed in 1987 by a group of dancers and musicians, to support, develop and retain the classical dance and music traditions of West Java, as well as performing a full repertoire of classical and semi classical dances from Sumatra, Sulewesi, Bali and Central Java. The Purpose of Pusbitari is to:
· Preserve, nurture and develop the arts area as the nation's cultural identity.
· Increase public appreciation of traditional Sundanese arts and archipelago.
· Provide personnel and facilities for the training needs of the community and Sundanese dance performances and the archipelago.
· Support government efforts related to and cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Pusbitari was founded by its current Director, Irawati Durban Ardjo, who was one of the original dancers in President Sukarno’s dance troupe. Bu Irawati has performed since 1957 throughout Asia, Europe and the USA, has taught at the national academy (ASTI, no STSI) and at U.S. universities since 1968. She recently presented her work at an international conference at the Smithsonian in Washington DC (July 2014), and is the author of six publications on the art and culture of Sunda (West Java).
Bu Irawati was born in Bandung, West Java, and has a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Interior Architecture from Institut Technologi Bandung (1975). She studied and performed Sundanese dance internationally under the direction of the teacher and choreographer R. Tjetje Somantri, (1956-1963). She served as assistant to the dance clubs Rinenggasari, then as dance coach for the Viatikara dance group. During this period Bu Irra participated in many international tours as a palace dancer under President Sukarno. Bu Irawati is also an accomplished master of the arts of Cirebon mask dance mask, studying under master teachers Pak Sujana, Pak Nugraha Sudireja, and Bu Dasih, and is accomplished in other forms of Indonesian dance, including Sumatran, Javanese, and Balinese.
Bu Irawati frequently teaches abroad, and was a guest instructor for Sundanese dance at the Center of World Music in Berkeley, USA (1974). Since 1978, she has continued to teach through her Pusbitari Foundation, and seasonally at the University of California Santa Cruz. She is currently working on a bi-lingual book on Sundanese culture, and has created dance curriculum for the education of elementary teachers.
Her current projects include creation of the “50th Anniversary of the Peacock Dance Festival” to be held in Bandung in the summer of 2015, and curating the West Java Bay Area Arts Tour for the summer of 2016.
Oakland Makers (www.oaklandmakers.org)
Is an organization co-founded in 2013 by Margot Lederer and Hiroko Kurihara, with support from the City of Oakland, CA, to support the creative invention of Maker arts, including those using technology, artisan processes and advanced manufacturing. Oakland Makers is founded on four principles: People, Place Products and Prosperity.