Design and art integrated into local culture is one of the “It” business ideas in Indonesia at the moment.
Jakarta
The Sound of the Underground
Wiku | February 16th, 2012
One of the drastic effects of this rapidly-growing digital world is the decline in music album sales, at least in their physical form.
Putting the Funk in Junk
Wiku | February 2nd, 2012
It only takes a little imagination to create something beautiful out of junk. There are endless possibilities, really.
Crowdsourcing T-Shirts
Wiku | January 22nd, 2012
The T-shirt holds an established place in the realm of fashion as it serves as a canvas for design ideas.
Figure Skating in Jakarta
Asia Scout | September 18th, 2009
Jakartans are known for seeking entertainment in big, air-conditioned malls. So it’s not that big of a stretch to imagine some getting bundled up to hit the ice skating rink at Mall Taman Anggrek. Read More
Jakarta’s Homegrown YouTube
Asia Scout | August 25th, 2009
Indonesia’s homegrown answer to YouTube, layartancap.com is an interesting little site with heaps of potential. If only it had better content… Read More
Jakarta’s Lifestyle & Entertainment Platform
Asia Scout | August 25th, 2009
If you live and work in Jakarta, there’s no way you could be unacquainted with FREE! (Full Review on Entertainment) Magazine.
Jakarta’s Secret Agents
Asia Scout | August 25th, 2009
How often have you been invited to view uploaded pics on Facebook or Flickr and with one click sent the said invite into your data dustbin? Let’s face it, looking at pictures of someone else’s holiday — or party that you missed — can be as exciting as that 1:30PM PowerPoint presentation. That’s why the The Secret Agent’s blog caught my eye. Rather than the typical “here-we-are-with-you-know-who-at-such-and-such-place” formula, these images invite you to build off of them, and can be used to inspire your own blog, journal, essay, letter, or poem. Read More
Finger Tapping Your Way to Topicality in Jakarta
Asia Scout | August 25th, 2009
It’s interesting to me that one of the media blurbs praising the new social networking platform, Koprol.com reads, “Beat it, Facebook! Jakartans are about to get their own local networking website…” Because the mobile-intensive, user-generated site seems — if anything — to be providing a way for social media brats to ensure that their Facebook sites are constantly updated and that their friends know where they are at any given microsecond. Read More
Jakarta Needs “We Need More Stages”
Asia Scout | August 25th, 2009
“put your cameras up in the air, like you just don’t care!!!”
Going to a concert or gig nowadays, you’d be forgiven for thinking that everybody in the audience is a documentary maker.
Hands held high no longer clap or hold lighters, they wave iPhones, Flip Cams or [insert your preferred micro-digital imaging device here]. But for every serious archivist who battles hangovers and peeved bosses to upload and post their pictures as soon as they get to the office the next morning, there’s a dozen of us whose pictures wallow in obscurity for months, years… sometimes forever.
We Need More Stages (www.WeNeedMoreStages.com) is an archive for photography, video, audio, posters and memorabilia of concerts and independent music gigs — specifically, ones held in Indonesia. Read More
Post Rock: Jakarta’s Silent Minority
Asia Scout | August 19th, 2009
In a previous post on Jakarta’s brewing post-rock cauldron, I had anticipated the rise of a sub-culture that apparently has been lying dormant for the last few years, waiting its turn to evolve. The experimental indie/post-rock community remains on the fringes, but it’s beginning a long, slow, silent march out of obscurity. Read More
Jakarta’s Silver Screen Savior
Asia Scout | August 19th, 2009
For Jakarta film freaks, living was hard a few years back. In order to see a cult, festival, or any other kind of non-commercial Hollywood film, we had to order DVDs online, contact friends living abroad to send them, wait for one of the few annual film fests with an indie focus (like JiFFest) or search the back catalogs of Mangga Dua’s DVD stalls, only to come up with one or two titles we “kind of” wanted to see.
Luckily, as the movie industry in Indonesia has grown more diverse and popular, the demand for good films from all over the world has grown! Read More
Jakarta Meets Jogjakarta in a Music and Visual Arts Exploration
Asia Scout | August 17th, 2009
I Walk the Urban Streets was a recent collaboration between an experimental band hailing from Indonesia’s contemporary arts capital, Jogjakarta, and a venerable artist-run collective from Jakarta (ruangrupa.org). Read More
Jakarta’s Online Fashion Mall
Asia Scout | August 17th, 2009
The latest buzz in town is the online shopping site, Barang Baru (barangbaru.com). It’s a clearing house for rags from all over the globe — most of which are made in Indonesia anyway — that offers big discounts and has attracted a huge following of desktop shoppers. Read More
Jakarta Hearts Buses?
Asia Scout | August 14th, 2009
There’s nothing more social than a crowded rush hour bus! And trying to comprehend the intricacies of greater Jakarta’s public transport system redefines the term “network”. So we thought it deliciously ironic that one of the least sexy fixtures of every day life in the big city could receive a new media boost provided by bismania.org, the site operated by BisMania Community (BMC). Read More