THE STSI-SOAS TELEVISION PROJECT


In 1990 a collaborative research project was set up to
document and investigate the effects of television on the
transformation of Indonesian society. The project has
systematically recorded broadcasts on Indonesian national and
commercial channels and engaged in preliminary research on the
findings. The project currently has an archive of about 700
hours of Super-VHS recordings and has three scholars
researching on the materials.

By Mark Hobart

The original goal was to record all programmes broadcast on
Balinese culture and religion. In 1993 the project expanded to
include all broadcasts on Islam and the range of other
programmes of general interest to scholars. The project also
holds a number of recordings of live theatre performances of
plays previously broadcast on television. All recordings have
been transcribed in the original language onto IBM disks in
ASCII.

AIMS
Indonesian television companies have no facilities for storing
master tapes. Granted the growing importance of television in
Indonesia, the preservation of, and research into, a unique
collection of cultural and documentary materials was the first
priority. These materials are of great potential value to
local and international scholars working on Indonesia, in
performance, cultural and media studies, and those interested
in changing social, economic and political processes. The
recordings and transcriptions of the project are designed to
provide an extensive resource for teaching and research across
a wide range of disciplines. The project therefore has three
main aims. The first is to record and transcribe broadcasts
for archival purposes. The second is to make these materials
available for the use of Indonesian performers and academics
for teaching and research. The third is to document the
development of Indonesian television, to promote research on
the materials and on the impact of television within Indonesia
more generally through seminars and publications notably
involving Indonesian scholars and performers.

ORGANIZATION
The project is a collaborative venture between STSI, the
Indonesian Academy of Performing Arts, under the Directorship
of Professor Made Bandem, and the School of Oriental and
African Studies, with additional involvement of staff from two
other British Universities, University College Swansea and the
University of Kent. The project is run by the author of this
article, who is a specialist on Balinese society at the
Department of Anthropology and Sociology, SOAS, University of
London, with research interests in postmodernism, development
and international media studies. Dr. Felicia Hughes-Freeland
of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University
College Swansea, a specialist in Indonesian theatre, visual
anthropology and television, assisted the setting up of the
project and works on theatre and television in Indonesia. John
Bousfield, Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies and
member of the Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing,
the University of Kent, is responsible for research into
television and religion in Indonesia, with a particular
interest in Islam. We are currently considering with
Indonesian colleagues what form of organization is the most
appropriate for the administration and dissemination of the
project's materials in the long run.

LOGISTICS
The recordings are made in Bali on Super-VHS machines with VHS
back-up and audio copies for transcription. The recordings are
made and tapes kept in a special dehumidified studio, with
special aerials and boosters, uninterrupted power supplies and
back-up generators to ensure the continuity and quality of
recordings. The British National Film and Television School
has analyzed sample tapes and confirms that the recording
quality is extremely high. An Australian ethnomusicologist,
Dr. Douglas Myers, who is a specialist in video, carries out a
monthly quality check on all installations. Tapes are stored
in the studio until they are brought back at regular intervals
to the U.K.
Recording and transcription to computer is carried out by
Balinese who have been trained by myself over a period of
twenty years, and are periodically supervised by Dr. Myers.
They have proved extremely reliable.
The recording of broadcasts and their use exclusively for
academic research and teaching purposes by the participating
institutions to the project is permitted under a copyright
agreement between STSI and the Indonesian television companies
concerned. The copyright of the transcriptions lies with the
project.

FUNDING AND RELATED PROJECTS
The project has been funded since 1990 by the School of
oriental and African Studies and the British Academy, with
additional technical support from the University College
Swansea and the University of kent. Bousfield has a Nuffield
Foundation grant for research into the impact of television on
islam in Indonesia. We are currently seeking future funding
from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities and other
bodies through Professor Fredrik deBoer, Theatre Department,
Wesleyan University.
The project has started to attract related research proposals.
For instance, Dr. Adrian Vickers, University of Wollongong,
and Dr. Carol Warren, Murdoch University have submitted a
large project to the Australian Research Council, on Industry
and cultural change in Bali, which depends on and ties in
closely with the television project. There are a wide range of
possible future directions in which the project's archives
might be developed beyond the initial goal of research by
Indonesian and other scholars working on Bali. Subject to
negotiating the appropriate copyright agreements, these
include the possibility of developing the multi-media uses of
selected materials for teaching purposes and the dissemination
of Indonesian cultural performances to a wider interested
academic audience.

DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS
The project now has sufficient holdings that we plan to
proceed to the dissemination of the results in various ways.
We are currently publishing details of the project and its
holdings through various newsletters and journals for scholars
with particular interests in Indonesia and the performing
arts.
The first intended use of the materials is for teaching. The
archive is already in active use by STSI for teaching and
staff seminars. once again subject to copyright agreements,
the material has extensive potential for language teaching.
This could include the production of university-level teaching
materials on theatre and performing arts, consisting of tapes,
translations and notes for teachers. Such teaching packages
could equally be designed for religious or media studies. The
longer term aim is to attract more students, for example from
other disciplines, to Indonesian studies, which the new
multi-media technology would make more accessible.
The second form of dissemination is through seminars. We
propose to organize a series of seminars in Indonesia in
conjunction with STSI with the aim of bringing together
scholars and performers to consider the effects of television
on changing genres and performance styles. Dr. Hedi Hinzler,
Department of Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia and
Oceania, Leiden University, has suggested a possible future
seminar series on broader aspects of Balinese culture using
the project's materials. Bousfield is exploring the
possibility of organizing a parallel series on Islam and
television in Yogyakarta. The author of this article is
currently discussing possible collaboration with Asian Media
Studies' specialists at Murdoch University on a seminar and
collection on articles on Indonesian television.
The third form of dissemination is the publications of the
current -- and future -- researchers on the project (see
below).
There is a proposal to set up a National Cultural Centre in
Indonesia. We have already offered our materials, both
recordings and transcriptions, to the centre when it is built
and are in touch with the chairman of the committee, Professor
R.M. Koentjaraningrat. It is precisely through this kind of
future initiative, especially in Indonesia, that we hope to
disseminate and make full use of the recordings.
We are currently considering other ways of making use of the
project's materials and existing research. Suggestions are
invited.

RESEARCH POSSIBILITIES
Although the initial aim of the project is archival, this is
intended as the basis for a range of research projects. Each
of the scholars involved is working on their own research
linked to the project. I am researching into the effects of
television on Balinese society, including the question of
audience response, and is planning a project with Bousfield on
the impact of television in Pacific Asia, with special
reference to Indonesia. Hughes-Freeland is working on the
effects of television on changing genres in theatre and dance.
Bousfield is engaged in research on Islamic movements in
Indonesia and Malaysia, and the impact of television on
representations of religion.
The project even on its present scale opens up exciting
possibilities for research and publication. The range of
materials and possible research avenues are far beyond the
capacity of the existing researchers, who have to date only
been able to undertake research during vacation time. There
are a number of evident possible research areas. The first is
specialized aspects of Balinese studies including performing
arts, theatre, dance and music to social change, modernization
and development, tourism and representations of Bali in the
media. A second is the role of television in representations
of religion in Indonesian societies, the link with the state
ideology of Pancasila, comparison of broadcasts of different
religions and the effects of television in producing hegemonic
or standardized representations. Another is the broader
effects of the media, such as the impact of television on
changing patterns of consumption and life styles, on an
emerging middle class, representations of cultural identity
and responses to foreign television programmes and life
styles. A further area is research into the use of television
for the dissemination of government ideology, representations
of the policy and civil society, the analysis of forms of
resistance and social criticism and the study of implicit
'sub-texts' in different programmes and genres. There is
extensive scope for research on non-Western media studies, for
instance on the relationship between the imagined, or planned,
uses of television and its actual effects in Indonesia, such
as the relationship between the intended 'message' or theme
and the problematic question of the audience response, the
creation of audiences and their expectations, new forms of
genre, narrative and image and their adoption in daily life.

FUTURE PLANS
The project therefore has potentially valuable materials for
researchers across a wide range of disciplines. Two possible
uses of the materials seem particularly interesting in the
immediate future. The first is their use by research students.
Given the tight restrictions on postgraduate funding both
within Indonesia and abroad, the project's holdings are
ideally designed as the basis for doctoral theses,
supplemented by short research trips if need be. The second is
the development of research programmes into some of the themes
outlined above. Two are of special interest to the present
researchers. The first is the effects of television on
consumption, life styles and identity. The second is the
impact of television on the representation of religion and its
implications for social attitudes and action. Such research
would be most effective if carried out by more than one
scholar working as part of a broader research programme.
The importance of the media, especially television, in South
East Asia remains vastly underappreciated and the television
project opens up avenues for future research which have not
been discussed above. As the project continues and develops,
we hope to explore some of these possibilities with other
interested scholars.