Papers by Sean Martin-Iverson
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2015
Cultural Studies, 2021
Drawing on my research into the hardcore punk scene in Bandung, Indonesia, I argue for the concep... more Drawing on my research into the hardcore punk scene in Bandung, Indonesia, I argue for the conceptual and social significance of ‘the underground’ as a form of radical social imagination that continues to creatively reshape urban life in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia. I adopt a politics of value approach to understand the underground as a cultural terrain across which multiple struggles over value take place, as well as the role of hardcore punk and other underground scenes in the transformation of creative work, urban space, cultural identities, and political movements. These underground scenes can be understood as sites of precarious, creative autonomy won through struggles over value, in the context of wider processes of class recomposition, urbanization, and generational change. Such scenes constitute shifting communities of creative workers, political activists and urban youth struggling for autonomy. Underground scenes also both contribute to and contest neoliberal forms of urban development, as in the conflicts and compromises associated with the implementation of ‘Creative City’ policies in Bandung. In doing so, these scenes draw on practices from global underground networks and local informal economies to develop new ways of organizing cultural production. Thus, I argue that the evidence from Bandung demonstrates that there remains significant value in the concept of ‘the underground’ for understanding the interfaces of cultural production, spatial organization, and political struggle in urban Southeast Asia.
DIY Cultures and Underground Music Scenes, 2019
Drawing on fieldwork with the Kolektif Balai Kota, a DIY organising collective in Bandung, West J... more Drawing on fieldwork with the Kolektif Balai Kota, a DIY organising collective in Bandung, West Java, this chapter explores the value politics of DIY production, both in the specific context of Indonesian hardcore punk and as a more general strategy for creative autonomy and social transformation. Promoting the DIY ethic as a ‘positive punk’ alternative to the aestheticised rebellion and spectacular protest politics which have characterised Indonesian punk, these DIYers are attempting to build and sustain an autonomous community of production outside of capitalist circuits of value. However, while they have been quite successful in evading many forms of alienated labour, the autonomy of the DIY hardcore community remains partial, precarious and contested. Furthermore, their political significance is primarily as an internal critique of the ‘underground capitalism’ of the wider punk scene. Thus, this form of ‘positive punk’ remains entangled in a politics of antagonism and negation.
The Punk Reader: Research Transmissions from the Local and the Global, 2017
Draft version of chapter published in The Punk Reader: Research Transmissions from the Local and ... more Draft version of chapter published in The Punk Reader: Research Transmissions from the Local and the Global (edited by M. Dines, A. Gordon and P. Guerra, 2017, PSN Press and UPorto).
The city of Bandung, Indonesia is home to a substantial hardcore punk scene; within this scene, a small but assertive DIY hardcore current strives to build a creative community that operates according to anti-capitalist DIY principles. Drawing on ethnographic research in the Bandung scene, I explore the value practices and social organisation of this community, focusing especially on three specific DIY projects: the Kolektif Balai Kota (City Hall Collective), an open, consensus-based collective that organises non-profit hardcore shows; the Endless DIY Store, a local independent distributor of DIY records, zines, and other products; and Inkoherent DIY Nutritionist, a record label that releases localised, affordable versions of albums by international DIY bands. Through such projects, and the social relations in which they are embedded, the ‘DIY kids’ (anak DIY) are building a cultural commons of shared means, knowledge and value as an alternative to the alienating logic of the capitalist market. While the autonomy of this DIY community remains partial, precarious and contested, the values they express and realise point towards alternative ways of organising cultural production and social life. Such practices of radical social creativity are an important part of the continuing political significance of punk in Indonesia and elsewhere.
Punk & Post-punk [https://doi.org/10.1386/punk.6.2.233_1], 2017
In this article I examine the contested and equivocal role of ‘straight edge’ as a subcultural id... more In this article I examine the contested and equivocal role of ‘straight edge’ as a subcultural identity and lifestyle practice within the Indonesian DIY hardcore punk scene. Associated with a personal commitment to abstain from alcohol and drug use, straight edge was also understood by many in the Indonesian scene as a ‘positive punk’ movement for both self-transformation and progressive social change, reclaiming an authentic punk philosophy of autonomy and community from the ‘negative’ performance of transgressive rebellion. However, as the scene became entangled in both neo-liberal processes of commercialization and a resurgence of Islamic conservatism, many of those committed to positive punk began to question the role of straight edge and its relationship to DIY production as an anti-capitalist creative practice. Through a critical assessment of the lifestyle politics of straight edge in the Indonesian scene, I explore the potentials and limits of subcultural identity practices for emancipatory politics. Entangled in contradictory discourses and practices of collective identity, personal choice, subcultural authenticity, and anti-capitalist activism, straight edge both helped to cohere a distinct anti-capitalist DIY hardcore current within the Indonesian punk scene and constrained the political potential of DIY practices within a framework of subcultural identity and lifestyle. I situate this specific history of straight edge in the Indonesian scene within a broader analysis of the contradiction within DIY punk between building positive personal and social alternatives and critically negating existing modes of identification and sociality.
Punks, Monks and Politics: Authenticity in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia (Lee & Ferrarese eds 2016), 2016
Chapter in Punks, Monks and Politics: Authenticity in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia edited by ... more Chapter in Punks, Monks and Politics: Authenticity in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia edited by Julian CH Lee and Marco Ferrarese (2016)
In this paper, I explore the social construction of authenticity within the Indonesian punk scene, and specifically the application of ‘Do It Yourself’ principles of autonomy and community to the production and performance of hardcore punk music. As with similar scenes elsewhere, Indonesian punks are very much concerned with establishing what counts as ‘real punk’ (punk sejati) and what does not. This includes an element of positional identity politics, concerned with group definition and underground status, but it is also a politics of value—a struggle over the desired forms and relations of social life. In the Indonesian scene, hardcore punk authenticity has become associated not only with fidelity to global underground styles and a confrontational counter-cultural stance, but also with a commitment to ‘Do It Yourself’ (DIY) production understood as an alternative to the alienating logic of commodification.
This article explores the entangled and contradictory process of territorialisation and deterrito... more This article explores the entangled and contradictory process of territorialisation and deterritorialisation that have shaped the hardcore punk scene in Bandung, Indonesia, while questioning the binary model of globalisation and localisation. The formation of the Bandung scene has certainly involved processes of local adaptation, translation, and territorialisation, but these cannot be disentangled from the global styles, orientations, and networks associated with hardcore punk. Through their active participation in global hardcore, Bandung’s punks adopt a standpoint of underground cosmopolitanism which goes beyond a merely mimetic relationship to Western scenes. Their valorisation of local “Do It Yourself” production and performance reflects the value practices of global hardcore punk, and the social relationships that constitute the local scene extend beyond any straightforwardly spatial definition of the “local.” At the same time, this global orientation takes on particular locally-inflected meanings in the specific cultural and political environment of Bandung, Indonesia.
Ethnomusicology Forum, 2014
The city of Bandung, Indonesia is home to a significant hardcore punk scene; within this scene, a... more The city of Bandung, Indonesia is home to a significant hardcore punk scene; within this scene, a small community strives to uphold anti-commercial ‘Do It Yourself’ principles, organising independent hardcore shows ‘by the kids, for the kids’. Inspired by global DIY hardcore practices, but grounded in the local scene, these shows are organised and experienced as displays of community solidarity and autonomy from the capitalist market. In this paper, I argue that the DIY values of autonomy (kemandirian) and community (komunitas) are expressed and realised through the intersubjective relationships established through the organisation and performance of hardcore music. DIY hardcore performances are collectively-organised and participatory events that explicitly challenge the divide between performer and audience. Their values of autonomy and community are symbolised by the circle pit, a form of punk dancing that expresses both social cohesion and playful disorder. In seeking to establish such a synthesis, DIY hardcore performances reflect the anti-capitalist politics of the ‘DIY kids’ (anak DIY) and their desires for another way of life. Rather than simply gesturing towards such a social alternative, the DIY show demonstrates that musical performance is an intersubjective act of social creativity, producing new forms of value and new models for social organisation. At the same time, the social creativity of DIY hardcore is limited by its aestheticisation as a set of performance styles that remain entangled in the contradictions of the commodity form.
Challenging the dichotomy of collective tradition versus individual creativity, the papers in thi... more Challenging the dichotomy of collective tradition versus individual creativity, the papers in this special issue explore the dynamics of creative intersubjectivity in diverse performance contexts from Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific. In this Introduction, we situate these contributions within the wider discussion of the social meaning, location, and organisation of the creative process, arguing for an anthropological approach that affirms the vital role of intersubjective relationships among performers, their audiences, and the wider socio-cultural context of performance. Furthermore, we emphasise the embodied as well as the discursive dimension of this creative intersubjectivity, an approach also affirmed by the papers that follow. By bringing together research into a range of music and dance forms from the Asia-Pacific, including modern, hybrid and more traditional performance styles, we aim to provide a distinct regional perspective on the creative process and its role in the reconfiguration of social relationships and social values.
Ethnomusicology Forum, 2014
Challenging the dichotomy of collective tradition versus individual creativity, the papers in thi... more Challenging the dichotomy of collective tradition versus individual creativity, the papers in this special issue explore the dynamics of creative intersubjectivity in diverse performance contexts from Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific. In this Introduction, we situate these contributions within the wider discussion of the social meaning, location, and organisation of the creative process, arguing for an anthropological approach that affirms the vital role of intersubjective relationships among performers, their audiences, and the wider socio-cultural context of performance. Furthermore, we emphasise the embodied as well as the discursive dimension of this creative intersubjectivity, an approach also affirmed by the papers that follow. By bringing together research into a range of music and dance forms from the Asia-Pacific, including modern, hybrid and more traditional performance styles, we aim to provide a distinct regional perspective on the creative process and its role in the reconfiguration of social relationships and social values.
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 2012
Indonesia boasts a thriving underground music scene that has become an important element in the i... more Indonesia boasts a thriving underground music scene that has become an important element in the identity practices of many urban youth. For dedicated ‘scenesters’, the underground is more than a personal expression of style; it is a way of life, and often a way to make a living. I draw on the concept of ‘precarity’ to examine the underground value of independence (kemandirian) in the context of the precarious position of urban youth in neoliberal Indonesia. The identities and practices of the underground scene are both a reaction against and a reflection of this experience. Scenesters draw on their underground identities, and the autonomous community networks they have established, in order to assert their independence from the demands of capital. However, they also mobilise this independence as the basis for their own entrepreneurial activities, resulting in a nascent tendency towards capital accumulation and class polarisation within the scene.
Youth, Media and Culture in the Asia Pacific Region, 2008
Thesis by Sean Martin-Iverson
This thesis explores the efforts by a group within the hardcore punk scene in Bandung, Indonesia,... more This thesis explores the efforts by a group within the hardcore punk scene in Bandung, Indonesia, to establish an autonomous community based on participatory 'Do It Yourself' cultural production. I examine the ways in which the DIY values of autonomy and community are expressed through their social organisation, musical performances, and DIY practices of production and exchange. The autonomous community of DIY hardcore is an attempt to realise a positive alternative to capitalist alienation, though it remains contained within a restricted sphere of cultural activity and may still generate some value for capital.
Books by Sean Martin-Iverson
Alastair Gordon and Mike Dines are seeking contributions from the inter-disciplinary areas of cul... more Alastair Gordon and Mike Dines are seeking contributions from the inter-disciplinary areas of cultural studies, musicology and social sciences, for an edited text on the global punk/DiY ‘scenes’ of the 2000s onwards; reflecting upon the notion of origins, music(s), identity, legacy, membership and circulation. Aiming to continue the work of George McKay – and, most notably his DiY Culture: Party and Protest in Nineties Britain (1998) – this volume will attempt to traverse the global as a means of mapping the existence of punk/DiY post-2000. As such, this volume will adopt an essentially analytical perspective so as to raise questions initially over the dissemination of the scene and subsequently over its form, structure and cultural significance beyond the 1990s.
Conference Presentations by Sean Martin-Iverson
Keynote paper presented to the Shifting Undergrounds in East and Southeast Asia Conference, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, 2018
The notion of 'the underground' is a slippery one, contested and shifting in its definitions and ... more The notion of 'the underground' is a slippery one, contested and shifting in its definitions and relationship to 'the mainstream'. Yet, as indicated by the vibrant punk scenes that continue to creatively reshape urban life across Southeast Asia cities, undergrounds remain a significant cultural and political force. Drawing on my own research into hardcore punk in Bandung, Indonesia, while reflecting on the role of punk and other underground scenes across the region, I argue for the continued salience of 'the underground' for understanding the politics of cultural production in urban Southeast Asia (and elsewhere). Beyond the relational identity politics of 'the underground' versus 'the mainstream', underground scenes are key sites for the production and transformation of social as well as aesthetic forms. Though not reducible to a one dimensional anti-authoritarian politics, undergrounds are inherently political, playing a role in reshaping social identities and relations, producing new aesthetic and social forms, and transforming and contesting urban space. The precarious autonomy of underground scenes expresses a creative social insurgency as well as familiar processes of repression, appropriation and accommodation. Underground scenes can be understood as spaces produced through and sites of struggles over value, in the context of wider processes of urbanization, class recomposition, and generational change. I argue that this politics of value approach helps us to understand the significance of 'the underground' as a radical social imaginary as well as the role of specific underground scenes in the transformation of creative work, urban space, cultural identities and political movements in the region.
Paper presented to the first Keep it Simple, Make it Fast! International Conference; edited version published in DIY Cultures and Underground Music Scenes (A. Bennett and P. Guerra eds. 2019), 2014
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with the Kolektif Balai Kota, a DIY hardcore organising collect... more Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with the Kolektif Balai Kota, a DIY hardcore organising collective in Bandung, West Java, this paper explores the value politics of DIY production, both in the specific context of Indonesian hardcore punk and as a more general strategy for creative autonomy and social transformation. These DIY activists position DIY hardcore as a form of " positive punk " , putting into practice the values of community and autonomy which constitute the DIY ethic. Through their non-profit hardcore performances and other practices of DIY production and exchange, they are attempting to sustain an autonomous community outside of capitalist circuits of value. However, while they have been quite successful in establishing a cultural commons of shared value and evading many forms of alienated labour, the autonomy of the DIY hardcore community remains partial, precarious and contested. Furthermore, I argue that this form of " positive punk " remains within a dialectical value struggle connected to an anti-capitalist politics of antagonism and negation.
Draft paper from 'Encountering Urban Diversity In Asia: Class and Other Intersections' Workshop (Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore), 2014
Since the 1990s, punk has become an increasingly visible part of urban youth culture in Indonesia... more Since the 1990s, punk has become an increasingly visible part of urban youth culture in Indonesia. Demonstrating that punk remains more than a mere fashion, Indonesian punks have engaged in diverse forms of contestation, accommodation, and at times open political conflict in order to carve out their own spaces in the urban terrain. They also make assertive claims to a global, modern working class identity, often connected to a combative anti-capitalist political stance as well as a cosmopolitan urbanism which transcends many of the social divides which structure Indonesian cities. The social composition of Indonesian punk is somewhat ambiguous – including urban poor, creative workers, student activists and assorted ‘middle class’ dropouts; however, I argue that the identification of punk as ‘working class’ expresses more than a symbolic political affiliation, and instead constitutes a precarious but potentially powerful class alliance grounded in the neoliberal transformation of urban capitalism in Indonesia. While this alliance incorporates diverse experiences and competing interests, it also serves as a critical response to the dislocating and disempowering experiences of capitalist development, with the potential to contribute to a wider recomposition of working class politics in Indonesia. While they may not be directly engaged in workplace struggles, I argue that Indonesian punk goes beyond subcultural identity politics to enact a form of urban working class politics, organised around autonomous cultural production and reclaiming the urban commons. Yet their spatial and cultural practices contribute to as well as contesting the neoliberalisation of Indonesian cities, demonstrating the weaknesses as well as the strengths of punk’s ‘anti-work’ politics as a form of working class struggle while reflecting the contradictory dynamics of the wider processes of class recomposition within which Indonesian punk is situated.
The Pasupati flyover (Pasteur-Surapati) connecting Bandung to Jakarta has become a new symbol for... more The Pasupati flyover (Pasteur-Surapati) connecting Bandung to Jakarta has become a new symbol for the city. Recent policy has made the space located under the bridge, transformed from ‘dead space’ into a socially-significant urban space for marginal people governed by many stakeholders and consequently a contestation of multiple and conflicting interests including the governmental and corporate interests. The community interests are only one amongst many who invested in this space. This paper draws on a participatory research method to explore the lived experiences and creative activities held under the bridge, with a particular focus on the urban activism of Komunitas Taman Kota (Urban Park Community) and their collaborative work with local communities. In this paper we argue that through reclaiming the ‘flyover’ under space, community activists are asserting rights of the local community and the wider interests of the people of Bandung, against domination of state or neoliberal privatization.
Kampung Dago Pojok is a local neighborhood within the Dago area of Bandung, an area wellknown for... more Kampung Dago Pojok is a local neighborhood within the Dago area of Bandung, an area wellknown for its cultural and artistic activities which have contributed significantly to the development of Bandung as a 'creative city' in the early 2000s. However, Kampung Dago Pojok has largely been excluded from this development and the wider creative atmosphere of the city. In response to this, the community art activist group Komunitas Taboo has collaborated with local kampung communities to adapt the 'creative city' concept to local conditions and forms of social organization, establishing it as a 'creative kampung'. This paper draws on a participatory research method to explore the lived experiences and creative practices of those who make use of the kampung, with a particular focus on the urban activism of Komunitas Taboo and their collaborative work with local communities. It describes how the 'creative kampung' is expressed and produced within the daily 'traditional activities' of Kampung Dago Pojok residents, as well as the community organizing work carried out through Komunitas Taboo. These activities draw on local knowledge and practices, and the kampung's social, economic and geographic position within the Dago area and the city of Bandung, to produce value for the community and to build a social movement for the 'creative kampung' as a localized counterpart to the 'creative city'.
Kampong Dago Pojok is a local neighborhood within the Dago area of Bandung, an area well-known fo... more Kampong Dago Pojok is a local neighborhood within the Dago area of Bandung, an area well-known for its cultural and
artistic activities which have contributed significantly to the development of Bandung as a ‘creative city’ in the early 2000s. However, Kampong Dago Pojok has largely been excluded from this development and the wider creative atmosphere of the city. In response to this, the community art activist group Komunitas Taboo has collaborated with local kampong communities to adapt the ‘creative city’ concept to local conditions and forms of social organization, establishing it as a ‘creative kampong’.
This paper draws on a participatory research method to explore the lived experiences and creative practices of those who make use of the kampong, with a particular focus on the urban activism of Komunitas Taboo and their collaborative work with local communities. It describes how the ‘creative kampong’ is expressed and produced within the daily ‘traditional activities’ of Kampong Dago Pojok residents, as well as the community organizing work carried out through Komunitas Taboo. These activities draw on local knowledge and practices, and the kampong’s social, economic and geographic position within the Dago area and the city of Bandung, to produce value for the community and to build a social movement for the ‘creative kampong’ as a localized counterpart to the ‘creative city’.
Their vision for this community work is to develop a more sustainable and equitable future for this neighborhood, establishing the creative kampong as a vital part of the ‘creative city’ while also posing an autonomous challenge to the dominant forms of neoliberal urban development associated with it. At the same time, the forms of urban activism and artistic production associated with the creative kampong are themselves open to being drawn into such forms of development, producing forms of creative labor and social capital that contribute to the commodification of the creative community. Through revealing such conflicts and contradictions in the creative kampong project, this case study points to new ways of thinking about processes of urban kampong development in relation to community activism, the creative industries, the informal economy, and localized social networks.
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Papers by Sean Martin-Iverson
The city of Bandung, Indonesia is home to a substantial hardcore punk scene; within this scene, a small but assertive DIY hardcore current strives to build a creative community that operates according to anti-capitalist DIY principles. Drawing on ethnographic research in the Bandung scene, I explore the value practices and social organisation of this community, focusing especially on three specific DIY projects: the Kolektif Balai Kota (City Hall Collective), an open, consensus-based collective that organises non-profit hardcore shows; the Endless DIY Store, a local independent distributor of DIY records, zines, and other products; and Inkoherent DIY Nutritionist, a record label that releases localised, affordable versions of albums by international DIY bands. Through such projects, and the social relations in which they are embedded, the ‘DIY kids’ (anak DIY) are building a cultural commons of shared means, knowledge and value as an alternative to the alienating logic of the capitalist market. While the autonomy of this DIY community remains partial, precarious and contested, the values they express and realise point towards alternative ways of organising cultural production and social life. Such practices of radical social creativity are an important part of the continuing political significance of punk in Indonesia and elsewhere.
In this paper, I explore the social construction of authenticity within the Indonesian punk scene, and specifically the application of ‘Do It Yourself’ principles of autonomy and community to the production and performance of hardcore punk music. As with similar scenes elsewhere, Indonesian punks are very much concerned with establishing what counts as ‘real punk’ (punk sejati) and what does not. This includes an element of positional identity politics, concerned with group definition and underground status, but it is also a politics of value—a struggle over the desired forms and relations of social life. In the Indonesian scene, hardcore punk authenticity has become associated not only with fidelity to global underground styles and a confrontational counter-cultural stance, but also with a commitment to ‘Do It Yourself’ (DIY) production understood as an alternative to the alienating logic of commodification.
Thesis by Sean Martin-Iverson
Books by Sean Martin-Iverson
Conference Presentations by Sean Martin-Iverson
artistic activities which have contributed significantly to the development of Bandung as a ‘creative city’ in the early 2000s. However, Kampong Dago Pojok has largely been excluded from this development and the wider creative atmosphere of the city. In response to this, the community art activist group Komunitas Taboo has collaborated with local kampong communities to adapt the ‘creative city’ concept to local conditions and forms of social organization, establishing it as a ‘creative kampong’.
This paper draws on a participatory research method to explore the lived experiences and creative practices of those who make use of the kampong, with a particular focus on the urban activism of Komunitas Taboo and their collaborative work with local communities. It describes how the ‘creative kampong’ is expressed and produced within the daily ‘traditional activities’ of Kampong Dago Pojok residents, as well as the community organizing work carried out through Komunitas Taboo. These activities draw on local knowledge and practices, and the kampong’s social, economic and geographic position within the Dago area and the city of Bandung, to produce value for the community and to build a social movement for the ‘creative kampong’ as a localized counterpart to the ‘creative city’.
Their vision for this community work is to develop a more sustainable and equitable future for this neighborhood, establishing the creative kampong as a vital part of the ‘creative city’ while also posing an autonomous challenge to the dominant forms of neoliberal urban development associated with it. At the same time, the forms of urban activism and artistic production associated with the creative kampong are themselves open to being drawn into such forms of development, producing forms of creative labor and social capital that contribute to the commodification of the creative community. Through revealing such conflicts and contradictions in the creative kampong project, this case study points to new ways of thinking about processes of urban kampong development in relation to community activism, the creative industries, the informal economy, and localized social networks.
The city of Bandung, Indonesia is home to a substantial hardcore punk scene; within this scene, a small but assertive DIY hardcore current strives to build a creative community that operates according to anti-capitalist DIY principles. Drawing on ethnographic research in the Bandung scene, I explore the value practices and social organisation of this community, focusing especially on three specific DIY projects: the Kolektif Balai Kota (City Hall Collective), an open, consensus-based collective that organises non-profit hardcore shows; the Endless DIY Store, a local independent distributor of DIY records, zines, and other products; and Inkoherent DIY Nutritionist, a record label that releases localised, affordable versions of albums by international DIY bands. Through such projects, and the social relations in which they are embedded, the ‘DIY kids’ (anak DIY) are building a cultural commons of shared means, knowledge and value as an alternative to the alienating logic of the capitalist market. While the autonomy of this DIY community remains partial, precarious and contested, the values they express and realise point towards alternative ways of organising cultural production and social life. Such practices of radical social creativity are an important part of the continuing political significance of punk in Indonesia and elsewhere.
In this paper, I explore the social construction of authenticity within the Indonesian punk scene, and specifically the application of ‘Do It Yourself’ principles of autonomy and community to the production and performance of hardcore punk music. As with similar scenes elsewhere, Indonesian punks are very much concerned with establishing what counts as ‘real punk’ (punk sejati) and what does not. This includes an element of positional identity politics, concerned with group definition and underground status, but it is also a politics of value—a struggle over the desired forms and relations of social life. In the Indonesian scene, hardcore punk authenticity has become associated not only with fidelity to global underground styles and a confrontational counter-cultural stance, but also with a commitment to ‘Do It Yourself’ (DIY) production understood as an alternative to the alienating logic of commodification.
artistic activities which have contributed significantly to the development of Bandung as a ‘creative city’ in the early 2000s. However, Kampong Dago Pojok has largely been excluded from this development and the wider creative atmosphere of the city. In response to this, the community art activist group Komunitas Taboo has collaborated with local kampong communities to adapt the ‘creative city’ concept to local conditions and forms of social organization, establishing it as a ‘creative kampong’.
This paper draws on a participatory research method to explore the lived experiences and creative practices of those who make use of the kampong, with a particular focus on the urban activism of Komunitas Taboo and their collaborative work with local communities. It describes how the ‘creative kampong’ is expressed and produced within the daily ‘traditional activities’ of Kampong Dago Pojok residents, as well as the community organizing work carried out through Komunitas Taboo. These activities draw on local knowledge and practices, and the kampong’s social, economic and geographic position within the Dago area and the city of Bandung, to produce value for the community and to build a social movement for the ‘creative kampong’ as a localized counterpart to the ‘creative city’.
Their vision for this community work is to develop a more sustainable and equitable future for this neighborhood, establishing the creative kampong as a vital part of the ‘creative city’ while also posing an autonomous challenge to the dominant forms of neoliberal urban development associated with it. At the same time, the forms of urban activism and artistic production associated with the creative kampong are themselves open to being drawn into such forms of development, producing forms of creative labor and social capital that contribute to the commodification of the creative community. Through revealing such conflicts and contradictions in the creative kampong project, this case study points to new ways of thinking about processes of urban kampong development in relation to community activism, the creative industries, the informal economy, and localized social networks.