ARI Working Paper Series

This article performs a listening to three stories by Seno Gumira Ajidarma. In the article, I argue that an analysis of sounds – and how sounds are invested with meaning – provide a means for understanding a particular culture and society. Sounds are a means of reproducing state terrorism, while at the same represent a threat to the ordering of a particular society. This article shows that hearing and sound are markers of urban space. The sounds of others are interpreted as being disruptive, while at the same time, other sounds such as the call to prayer (adzan) are used to homogenise space. Sound is used by those who are in power and those who are marginalised. The selected stories in this article show that the categories of ‘powerful’ and ‘powerless’ are dynamic, contextual and changing.

For twenty-five centuries, Western knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It is for hearing. It is not legible, but audible (Attali, 1985, p.3).

The sound of the scoop hitting the water in the tub was loud and suggestive of enthusiasm. But this not what the Pak RT was waiting for. Nor was he waiting for the sound of soap being scrubbed up against a wet body. A sound that could be interpreted in many different ways (Ajidarma, 2006, p.92).