GENERAL PRIZE
Jungle of Nusa
Category : GENERAL
By Suzy Sulaiman (Malaysia)
Suzy Salaiman
Suzy is an artist, designer, wife and mom. Her works often explores intersections of art, architecture and media technology, curious to explore the human social dimensions. Her art perform as tools to dissect locality to uncover new trajectories of relationships between humans and the environment. Suzy is the co-producer for Digital Art + Culture Festival (DA+C) and Japan Foundation Asia Centre Fellow in 2015. In 2018, she curated ‘Merata Suara: Voices of the Marginalized’ for Projek Dialog supported by the Australian High Commission and joined “Namamahay” artist-in-residency project curated by Dayang Yroala for Balles Artes Project in Bataan, The Philippines.
It is an interactive sound installation that requires collective participation. Also, there’s the element of self-discovery because there’s no instructions on how to “use” it. I wanted people to “talk” to each other in an analogue way, instead of only “talking” on their handphones. I wanted the sound of people’s voices to connect other people. By speaking into the installation, a person will discover that their voice will travel to other parts of the artwork. There is also a component, where by using a guitar pedal, a person’s voice can be distorted. This is a way for me to give ownership to the people who will “take care” of this work.
There were many families in that mall, but there were not many activities families could do together. Most of the times, I see them interacting with their cellphones. I wanted my artwork to encourage people to come together and physically interact with each other. Like playing hide-and-seek in a rainforest, I wanted kids and adults to play with each other by rediscovering the sounds of their voice (analogue & distorted) in a joyful manner, creating a meaningful family experience.
I was inspired by Yuri Suzuki’s “Acoustic Pavilion” because of its simplicity of assembly and collective participatory. UPVC pipes were my main material because of its easy assembly and availability. But it’s non-structural, so various experiments were made to strengthen that material. There is one mic & a repurposed guitar pedal used to distort a person’s voice. The simple. almost intuitive assembly allows for anyone to build or rebuild it. I wanted visitors to take this idea and build for themselves. For this one, I had fun building it with my family and friends.
JUDGES, COMMENTS
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Leonhard Bartolomeus
Artist collective ruangrupa & Gudskul Ekosistem"Jungle of Nusa" are having a pleasant character on its own. It is an object installation, yet at the same time, it creates a space that intervenes in the urban infrastructure. The original concept itself is to re-create a "jungle", something that has been missing from urban daily life, especially in the maker's place of living. This attitude is not directly translated to create a green forest, but instead to reimagine what it would look like to have a shared space; a jungle where people can interact with each other-among the rapid development of concrete blocks and steel framework. The selection of material, PVC, is bringing familiar vibes through people's life in Malaysia, where PVC pipe has been a common material. PVC has strong durability and allowing the project to be flexibly installed on different spaces. It is also open the possibility for other people to build and rebuild it by themselves, which create the value of the open-source. Concerning the context of conviviality, this project has brought the idea of connecting people--which allows people to talk and play through interactive sounds. Having this interaction and collaboration value is an important aspect that emphasizes "Jungle of Nusa" as one of the winners.
