PULSE MEMORIAL (2020)

Stone instalation inside Sonobudaya building

How is our life today? Have we ever had a deeper dialogue with the earth we walk on? Have we ever realized that the memories we share with the earth will be well cared for by the earth? This question comes from Landung Simatupang's poem "Unstoppable Steps". By trying to deconstruct and speculate on the meaning of the poem, the questions above emerged.

Investigation of geological materials is the material chosen in the presentation of this work. By trying to speculate that these materials store various historical data on the behavior of humans who live on them, and can then be used as information for future steps, in the main context of facing the global pandemic (covid 19). So how do you get that data?

"Grave Communication" is a science that is quite well known among Islamic boarding school students (traditional Islamic schools), where this knowledge is only given to Santri/students with abilities that are considered high. Knowledge makes someone who masters it able to dialogue with those who have died, knowing when they will die, and where they will be buried. This science is the study of how to decode codes, which are abstract to human logic.

This way of opening the code is then analogized in "Pulse Memorial". Soil and its various elements, including rocks, are the place where all memories, history, past times are buried. By selecting rocks from several places in Yogyakarta with their respective historical records and sounding them using a simple circuit via a programmed solenoid. Produces sounds that are sometimes structured dynamically or randomly. With flashes of light from the lighting installation as an aesthetic element to strengthen the experience of the space and installation.

This work was presented at the 2020 Yogyakarta Cultural Festival "Mulanira", in collaboration with Landung Simatupang (literature-poetry), and Kuntoaji (musician/singer) and responded choreographically by Mila Rosinta.