Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Michelle Ann Miller, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Yogyakarta and Surakarta are two Javanese royal cities which are considered as the cradles of Javanese culture. Both have similarities in historical background, cultural background, and even the physical layout of their palaces. Both royal courts still exist nowadays, but they have different power in that the royal court of Yogyakarta is recognized by the state in territory and property, and the king is automatically appointed as the governor, while the royal city of Surakarta has its political role diminished and is currently only recognized as a cultural symbol. It is interesting to see how this difference in their power is mediated in built environment, as built environment is always value laden therefore it always embodies social structure. At the same time, built environment also acts as ‘silent ideology’ to reproduce the social structure. Silent ideology is more effective when it is obscure or unrecognized.

Focusing on urban and architectural practices in both cities, I identified the power practices that take place in both cities and found that there are more urban practices in the city of Yogyakarta to support the domination of the royal court in the form of visibility, centrality, domination, authority and seduction. Those forms are mostly obscured so they are stronger in terms of silent ideology. Meanwhile the urban and architectural practices in the city of Surakarta show that there are less practices to support the status of the royal court of Surakarta, and most of them shows in the form of authority and force, which are visible therefore less strong in term of silent ideology.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Ofita Purwani is Associate Professor at the School of Architecture Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. She is currently a visiting scholar at Yale-NUS College. She got her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2014. Her research interests are Javanese built environment, traditionalism, heritage issues, tourism, urban studies, spatial politics, invented traditions and sociology.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.