Miko talks to us about how the vast forests and wide, empty roads of Suriname give rise to ghost stories, the reasons the ghosts in his paintings take classical Greek poses or animalistic positions, the fantasy of prosperity and whitewashing of historical paintings, how cultural signifiers in his paintings carry double meanings, and feeling alienated from art as a child. Plus, we ponder the prevalence of white clothing on ghosts and discuss the specific locations of ghosts in Indonesian folklore. To be enjoyed with a bowl of steaming hot saoto soup!

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Miko Veldkamp is a Suriname-born Dutch-Indonesian painter based in NYC. Combining elements of his personal life with folklore and ancestral themes, his works range from surreal landscapes to pseudo self-portraits. His paintings offer brightly layered narratives on identity, memory, space, and the multiplicity of perspectives rooted in his fluid identity and cross-cultural experiences.

Miko has a BFA in video and sculpture from the Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam and an MFA from Hunter College in New York. He was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and was awarded the Hodder Fellowship of Princeton University.

His work has been exhibited around the world in group and solo exhibitions in Seoul, London, and New York.

www.mikoveldkamp.com

Nasrikah and Okui Lala talk to us about their collaboration project, Rasa and Asa, a short film, shot during the height of pandemic via online video platform, capturing the activities and daily meetings of the PERTIMIG members.

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Okui Lala (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) is an artist and cultural worker. Her practice spans from video and performance to community engagement. Okui’s work explores themes of identities, diaspora and belonging through the performances of domestic acts or vocational labor. She also facilitates visual workshops with nonprofit organizations and social groups that work with various communities. Past presentations include Seoul Mediacity Biennale (2023), Singapore Biennale (2019), Festival/ Tokyo (Japan, 2019), Para Site (Hong Kong, 2018) and National Art Gallery (Malaysia, 2017). 

Nasrikah is an Indonesian migrant worker who has been living in Malaysia since 1997. She is the founding member and coordinator for PERTIMIG Malaysia (Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers Association). Her advocacy focused on campaigning for migrant domestic workers to be treated with the same respect, status and access to justice as workers. Nasrikah is also a poet and coordinator for arts and cultural events.

PERTIMIG is an independent organization fighting for the rights of migrant domestic workers. PERTIMIG’s vision is to advocate for decent work and welfare for the domestic workers and their families in Malaysia. At this moment, PERTIMIG has more than 200 members and is an affiliate of International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF).

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34_S8CT7FbQ

Tao talks to us about urban geography and morphology in Southeast Asia. We discuss historic preservation and patterns of heritage-making in Southeast Asia, touristification, image-making and nationalist architecture, the evolution of neighborhoods and their communities as cities get reinvented, and whether Chinatowns in Southeast Asia are "disappearing and dying" as they are in Western countries. To be enjoyed with extra spicy Indonesian food or super sour Thai food with lots & lots of lime!

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Napong Tao Rugkhapan is a geographer of urban planning interested in the geographic implications of planning intervention. In particular, he focuses on the technopolitics of urban design and planning, which he defines as the political contestations over knowledge-laden, spatial instruments – maps, zoning, building codes, architectural guidelines. The goal of is work is to expose their ideological, political underpinnings that legitimate planning intervention. Tao's other research interests include comparative urban theory; cross-context circulation of planning ideas; gentrification and inner-city revitalization; and urban architectural heritage, specifically in historic cities in urban Southeast Asia.

NTRS

Inspired by her grandfather, who followed the stars to navigate the seas and landscape of Bangka, Janette shares the colorful journey of her astrophysics career. She talks to us about black holes, massive stars, supernova explosions, and how reverse culture shock can almost derail you from your career.

Optional: episode to be enjoyed with a plate of pempek.

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Janette Suherli is a PhD student at the University of Manitoba, Canada, working with Dr. Samar Safi-Harb in the eXtreme Astrophysics Group. Her doctoral research focuses on utilizing integral field spectroscopy for supernova remnants research in optical wavelength, particularly on Central Compact Objects (CCOs) and Intermediate-Mass Black Holes.

Aside from doing research, she writes for Astrobites and volunteers at the Lockhart Planetarium, Winnipeg. She is a co-organizer for the Open Cultural Astronomy Forum and currently serves as the chair of the Graduate Student Committee at the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA).

Janette completed her Bachelor in Astronomy at Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia and her Master’s in Astronomy at Wesleyan University, U.S.A., where she was also a Fulbright Fellow. She has also conducted research internships at the European Southern Observatory in Chile and the Australian Astronomical Observatory in Australia, in addition to her former position as Assistant Astronomer at the Bosscha Observatory in Indonesia.

www.jsuherli.github.io

Damar talks to us about his research on supernatural phenomena. We discuss different elements and even marketing methods used by dukun in Indonesia. Plus, paranormal sensitivities, indigo people, and Ruth's untapped powers. Everything is magic is Southeast Asia.

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Andamar Pradipta obtained his bachelor’s degree in Social Anthropology from Universitas Indonesia. He then continued his studies at Central European University in Hungary, and graduated with an M.A. in Sociology and Social Anthropology in 2016. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan.

His research interests include psychology, marketing, corporate culture, and supernatural phenomena. Due to his anthropological background, he has a strong fascination with qualitative research which he actively works on and develops at the Indonesia International Institute for Life-Sciences, where he also teaches.

Elliott talks to us about the Rohingya political situation amidst dislocation and mass violence, especially after the coup in Myanmar, and how R-Coin is a new initiative helping stateless Rohingya diaspora in Malaysia.

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Elliott Prasse-Freeman is a political anthropologist studying social movements, violence, and symbolic culture in Burma. As part of a related ongoing project on the Rohingya genocide, he is exploring novel forms of personhood and conceptions of the political as they are mediated by and generated through new technologies such as blockchain, biometric scanners, and AI.

He received his PhD from the Department of Anthropology at Yale University and his Bachelors and Masters from Harvard University. He has conducted long-term fieldwork in Myanmar, and currently teaches sociology and anthropology at the National University of Singapore. He has a book, titled Rights Refused: Grassroots Activism and State Violence in Myanmar (Stanford University Press) on Burmese subaltern political thought as adduced from an extended ethnography of activism and contentious politics in the country's semi-authoritarian setting.

Emy talks to us about disinformation challenges in Southeast Asia and its evolving relationship with democracy, civil society participation, and digital maturity. To be enjoyed with a hearty bowl of Sinigang!

Emy Ruth Gianan is a full-time professor teaching classes on public policy, governance, and development economics at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila. Alongside teaching, she work as Chief of Internal Relations Services of the university’s Communication Management Office to harmonize policies and processes centered on digital communications. She also undertakes research endeavors focused on disinformation trends across Southeast Asia and its impact on democratization; civil society participation; digital communication processes; and the nexus of decentralization and regionalism efforts. Her current research endeavor is focused on comparative disinformation challenges in Southeast Asia and its evolving relationship with democracy and digital transformation. She is also host of the Taglish podcast Extra Notes.

Ernst and Veronika talk to us about their process of composing Expedition Content, the augmented sound piece composed from 37 hours of recordings which document the encounter between members of the Harvard Peabody Expedition, particularly Michael Rockefeller of the Rockefeller family, and the Hubula people of West Papua, at the time Nederlands New Guinea. The piece reflects on visual anthropology, the lives of the Hubula and of Michael, and the ongoing history of colonialism and occupation in West Papua. “Expedition Content” premiered at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival and has been screened at Cinéma du Réel at the Centre Pompidou Paris, the Art of the Real, Lincoln Center New York, and Camden international Film Festival.

Veronika Kusumaryati is a social anthropologist and artist working on the issues of Indigenous politics, conflict and violence, race/racism, and digital media. The geographic focus of her research is Indonesia, primarily West Papua, a self-identifying term referring to Indonesia’s easternmost provinces of Papua and West Papua, where she has conducted extensive fieldwork since 2012. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology with a secondary field in film and visual studies from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Asian Studies Program at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University during the 2020-2021 academic year. Her writings have been published in journals, such as Comparative Studies in Society and History and Critical Asian Studies. She is an incoming assistant professor in anthropology and international studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison starting in the spring of 2023. www.veronikakusumaryati.wordpress.com

Ernst Karel works with sound, including electroacoustic music, experimental nonfiction sound works for multichannel installation and performance, image-sound collaboration, and postproduction sound for nonfiction vilm, with an emphasis on observational cinema. Lately he works around the practice of actuality/location recording (or 'fields [plural] recording') and composing with those recordings, with recent projects also taking up archival location recordings. Sound projections have been presented at Sonic Acts, Amsterdam; Oboro, Montreal; EMPAC, Troy NY; Arsenal, Berlin; and the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Sound installations in collaboration with Helen Mirra have been exhibited at the Gardner Museum, Boston; Culturgest, Lisbon; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Audiorama, Stockholm; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; and in the 2012 Sao Paulo Bienal. Audio-video collaborations include Expedition Content (2020, with Veronika Kusumaryati), Ah humanity! (2015, with Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel) and Single Stream (2014, with Toby Lee and Pawel Wojtasik). CDs of his often collaborative work, including with the electroacoustic duo EKG, have been released on and/OAR, Another Timbre, Cathnor, Gruenrekorder, Locust, Sedimental, and Sshpuma record labels, and a duo with Bhob Rainey is forthcoming on Erstwhile. From 2006 until 2017 he managed the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard University, doing postproduction sound for vilms including Sweetgrass, The Iron Ministry, Manakamana, and Leviathan. He has taught audio recording and composition through the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard (through 2021), the Center for Experimental Ethnography at Penn (2019), and the Department of Film & Media at UC Berkeley (2022). www.ek.klingt.org

Ruth and Alexandra often find themselves furious about foreigners coming to the "exotic" islands of Indonesia and using the archipelago as a pretty background for their Instagram photos or YouTube vlogs. With Fred Clapp, they share stories of treading responsibly on foreign lands, deromanticizing distant locales, and finding a home halfway across the world. Plus, feline hierarchies, protesting babi guling, practical forms of censorship in Vietnam, exporting culture, and the constant cycle of imperialism. Maybe make yourself some Mexican food to accompany this episode!

Frederic Clapp is a Vietnam-based game designer and cat enthusiast originally from Mexico City. He is passionate about interactive narratives and how game systems provide a good model for understanding the systems governing our world. His passion for designing games and interactive narratives took him to Ho Chi Minh City, where he has been living for the last 5 years. There, he spends his time trying new food and writing about cats he meets in his travels around Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

IG: @CatsofSEA

Alexandra is in CDMX shooting a film and Ruth is off to Bali to reunite with her boyfriend. We recorded this episode last month to reflect on borders, passports, visas, Indonesian cartels, “forbidden areas” and the Forbidden Fruit. Is this the episode in which we get cancelled? As always, let’s feast and find out.

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