Visual Media in Indonesia : Video Vanguard

This book focuses on the visual media, one of the key factors in shaping the contemporary ecology of colliding environments, in the fourth most populous country in the world, Indonesia. It deals with creative actors, including literary authors, television producers, video artists and community media activists, who demonstrate, reflect on, criticise and rework the multidimensional impact of the visual media in imaginative and innovative ways. Combining contemporary art and media theory with the detailed analysis of authentic texts and contexts, the author analyses the multidimensional ecological impact of the media in its role as one of the key forces of Integrated World Capitalism (IWC).

In the age of digital communication and global capitalism, people’s mental, social and natural environments are interconnected in complex and often unpredictable ways.

This book focuses on the visual media, one of the key factors in shaping the contemporary ecology of colliding environments. Case-studies include video artists, community media activists, television programme makers and literary authors in the fourth most populous country in the world, Indonesia. The author demonstrates that these actors are part of an international creative and social vanguard that reflect on, criticise and rework the multidimensional impact of the visual media in imaginative and innovative ways. Their work explores alternative and more sustainable presents and futures for Indonesia and the world. This research is urgent and timely, as Indonesia has emerged in recent years as one of the world’s most vibrant hubs for contemporary art and media experimentation.

Using an innovative interdisciplinary framework of visual culture analysis that derives from a wide range of academic fields, the book will be of interest to academics in the field of Southeast Asian Studies, Media Studies, Cultural Studies and Art History, Anthropology and Sociology.