Events

MODERATOR

Prof Isaac Kerlow, art-science-media, USA

PROGRAM

 
ABSTRACT

In just a few hours the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the community and the region. The scale of the devastation practically brought the civil war in Aceh Province, Indonesia, to an end. A discussion of any disaster of such dimensions is fraught with human, social, political, scientific and religious issues.

The most common way of describing a disaster is with statistical data that can be easily understood in an international context. Such quantitative information typically includes casualties, cost of the damage, reconstruction funds. Comparing a particular disaster to others in the context of similar historical disasters is also a common approach.

The individual reflections of disaster survivors can be informative and revealing of how the community mitigates or amplifies the impact of a disaster.

Using the documentary Tsunami of New Dreams as a case study, this roundtable examines methodologies and techniques for investigating a disaster from the inside out, putting qualitative information aside and focusing on testimonies from the local community that are meaningful in their local context and traditions. Insights gained from this approach can be useful to minimize the impact of future disasters.

The roundtable will emphasize the strong partnership with our local Acehnese partners, interviewing best practices for independent documentary filmmaking, and bringing social science and cultural explorations to a wider audience.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Annabel Teh Gallop is Head of the Southeast Asia Section at The British Library. She received her PhD from University of London, and her research focuses on the British Library’s Malay collections: writing traditions, book cultures and the art of the Qur’an in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean world; Malay and Indonesian manuscripts, letters, documents and seals, and comparative Islamic diplomatics. She curated the exhibitions “Early Malay Printing, 1603-1900”, “Golden Letters: Writing Traditions of Indonesia” (1991) and “The Legacy of the Malay Letter” (1994). She has done particular research on Malay seals, and published a comprehensive catalogue Malay Seals from the Islamic World of Southeast Asia (2019). Gallop is also an editorial board member of Indonesia and the Malay World, and earlier in her career she was a senior producer for the Indonesian and Malay section of the BBC World Service.

Isaac Kerlow is an independent filmmaker and digital art pioneer based in Los Angeles. His work bridges innovative storytelling, education and creative exploration, and his work has been recognized internationally. Kerlow lived and worked in Asia for 15 years, where he was Executive Creative Director and Principal Investigator at the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS). His team specialized in developing and producing interactive games and movies to improve the level of natural hazard preparedness in high-risk communities and the general public. Many of Kerlow’s projects are interdisciplinary collaborations with research groups and creators throughout the world. His Earth Girl strategy game was awarded with a National Research Foundation Interactive Media Award, and he received the prestigious AXA Research Fund award in Paris, France. Kerlow is Founding Dean of the first professional art school in Singapore: School of Art, Design and Media at the Nanyang Technological University, and Founding Chair of legendary Department of Computer Graphics and Interactive Media at Pratt Institute in New York.

Michelle Miller is Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on intersections between the political geographies of environmental governance and urban change. She has conducted ethnographic and archival research on emerging spaces and boundaries of environmental governance, social justice, conflict resolution and urbanisation in Indonesia since 1999, and she is a permanent resident of Singapore, where all her children were born. She is the author of Rebellion and Reform in Indonesia (Routledge, 2009) and she has contributed to wider theoretical debates and policy issues in the political and environmental transformation of Southeast Asia.

Rizanna Rosemary is Researcher at the International Centre for Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies (ICAIOS), and Lecturer at the Department of Communication Studies, Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, Indonesia. She specializes in issues of communicating health, climate change, and disaster risk reduction. Her PhD in Health Communication from University of Sydney focused on tobacco control and mental health. Her current qualitative research explores how women in Indonesia interpret tobacco advertisements and anti-smoking public service announcements. Rizanna was Assistant Producer in the film Tsunami of New Dreams, where she identified key interviewees and coordinated the Indonesian subtitling of the film.

ARI20 ANNIVERSARY ROUNDTABLE SERIES

The ARI20 Anniversary Roundtable Series marks the founding of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore in 2001. The series celebrates our current scholarship while exploring how these themes and topics continue to inspire new trajectories of research. The ARI20 Anniversary Roundtable Series concludes with the convening of a final roundtable featuring the Institute’s current research cluster leaders, who will discuss ARI’s role in charting future humanities and social science research on Asia. While the virtual roundtable format arises from pandemic-related necessity, it will enable ARI alumni and partners around the world to join the discussion on the Institute’s research directions and prospects.

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.