Not a Gurindam: Deconstructing Malay Poetics through Electroacoustic Practice
Not A Gurindam: Deconstructing Malay Poetics through Electroacoustic Practice explores the transformation of Malay poetic traditions through contemporary electroacoustic composition. The work takes Gurindam Dua Belas, written by Raja Ali Haji in the nineteenth century within the Riau-Lingga cultural sphere, as its primary point of departure.
Rather than presenting the gurindam as a fixed literary form, the work deconstructs its textual, rhythmic, and semantic elements and reimagines them through sound. Voice, field recordings, instrumental materials, and electronic processing are fragmented, layered, repeated, distorted, and spatialised to create an evolving sonic environment. Through these processes, language becomes not only a carrier of meaning but also a material for sonic exploration.
The work examines how historical poetic knowledge can be displaced from its original context and reconstructed through contemporary listening practices. It considers the tension between preservation and transformation, asking how cultural memory might remain meaningful when its familiar forms are disrupted.
In this presentation, Not A Gurindam brings together poetry, sound, space, and performance, proposing an encounter with Malay poetic heritage not as a static cultural artefact, but as a living material that can be continuously questioned, transformed, and reimagined through contemporary artistic practice.
Hery Kristian Buana Tanjung
Hery Kristian Buana Tanjung is an Indonesian contemporary composer and interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores electroacoustic music, field recording, traditional cultural materials, and contemporary performance. He holds a Master of Arts in Music Composition and Artistic Creation from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta (ISI Yogyakarta).
His artistic practice focuses on transforming cultural memory, traditional musical practices, and environmental sound into contemporary sonic experiences. His works have been presented and selected internationally, including at BEAST FEaST, MUSLAB, WOCMAT, SonicMatter, Asia Pacific Improvisers Symposium, and Performers(’) Present. Tanjung frequently collaborates with choreographers, performers, and artists from other disciplines, developing works that connect sound, movement, space, and narrative.
His current practice investigates the possibilities of electroacoustic composition as a means of engaging with Indonesian cultural heritage and contemporary social and environmental contexts.
Yayasan Bintan Resorts