The productivity of performing art organisations versus labor costs

Motivation: The study of the problem of “cost disease” contributes to the possibility of creating a model for effective subsidy to cultural institutions operating in the field of performing arts from public funds. The study also forms a part of a broader reflection on the values of culture, the humanism of culture and the economy in general. Aim: This article is to examine the connection between productivity and labor costs in public theatres in Poland. We investigate what the level of productivity depends on. We check whether it is based on costs or the so-called income gap or another factor. We verify whether costs in PAOs in Poland increase according to the theory of Baumol’s cost disease and whether labor costs are particularly significant in total costs. Results: Labor costs should be taken into account when subsidizing performing art organizations, as productivity growth depends on having funds to cover labor costs and increasing employment.

THE DYNAMICS OF WAYANG GOLEK IN PANDEMIC AND GLOBALIZATION: TRADITIONAL ART SUSTAINABILITY

This research aims to explore the dynamics of wayang golek art and to highlight its sustainability in the future. Modernity, the acceleration of technological devices and globalization wave in the last two decades, transfers great pressure on traditional arts and culture. Wayang Golek, a performing art originally from West Java, has recently received a fairly strong wave of resistance due to changes in the social culture which is mainly leading to modernity. By using a qualitative approach, data collection techniques were carried out by interviewing two main players as the puppeteers of Wayang Golek. The data analysis uses the theory of Miles and Hubberman, and the theoretical study of Islamic studies. The results of the study show that 1) Wayang Golek has unique characteristics, where the talent needed tends to go through the "inheritance" tradition, 2) Wayang Golek can be a bridge for internalizing religious and humanist values for the community through unique stories based on custom, 3) the restriction of Wayang Golek performance due to the Covid-19 pandemic leads the puppeteers to be more creative to survive, such as creating videos and uploading them in YouTube and other social media, and 4) the preservation of this art depends on the serious attention of all parties, from the government, regional officials, and the community.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengeskplorasi dinamika kesenian wayang golek, serta menyoroti keberlangsungan ‘hidup’ seni tradisional wayang golek dimasa yang akan datang. Era modernitas, akselerasi perangkat teknologi dan gelombang arus globalisasi dalam dua dekade terakhir, memberikan tekanan hebat pada wilayah seni dan budaya tradisional. Wayang Golek sebuah seni pertunjukkan yang berasal dari Jawa Barat akhir-akhir ini mengalami gelombang resistensi cukup kuat imbas dari perubahan kultur sosial masyarakat yang bergerak kearah modernitas. Dengan menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif, teknik pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan wawancara terhadap dua pemain utama sebagai “Dalang” Wayang Golek, observasi dan dokumentasi. Adapun analisis data menggunakan teori Miles dan Hubberman, dan kajian teoritis Islamic studies. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa 1) Seni Wayang Golek memiliki karakteristik unik, dimana bakat yang dibutuhkan cenderung melalui tradisi “warisan”, 2) Wayang Golek dapat menjadi jembatan internalisasi nilai-nilai religius dan humanis bagi masyarakat melalui cerita-cerita unik berbasis adat, 3) dilarangnya pagelaran Wayang Golek akibat pandemi Covid-19 membuat para dalang lebih kreatif untuk bertahan, seperti membuat video dan menunggahnya ke YouTube dan media sosial yang lain, dan 4) Kelestarian kesenian ini bergantung terhadap perhatian serius semua pihak baik dari pemerintah, pejabat daerah, maupun masyarakat.

THOLPAVAKOOTHU:A STUDY ON THE PERFORMING ART OF SHADOW PUPPETRY IN KERALA

Tholpavakoothu is a form of shadow puppetry which is the ancient art form found only in Kerala and it is a ritualistic worship for Goddess Devi. The main theme of tholpavakoothu is based on Kamba Ramayan and puppets which are chiseled out beautifully on the animal skin are used for the puppetry. Unlike other puppetry, it is the black shadow of puppets that forms on the white screen in the presence of oil lamps that portrays the tale of Ramayana. The study is for the deeper understanding of the origin, style, forms, and themes of tholpavakoothu and also to find out the different influences of applied puppetry in tholpvakoothu. This study uses a qualitative approach using interviews with the artists and performances. It has given a deeper understanding of the uniqueness of tholpavakoothu compared to other puppetry forms. This form basically emphasizes the concepts of mythology and how the form has taken a transition to contemporary issues to cater to all types of audiences.

Intercultural Communication: A Study on Music as an Element in the Wayang Kulit of Kelantan

This research discusses intercultural relations in the performing art of wayang kulit Kelantan, by examining the phenomena of communication between cultures that occur within the multi-ethnic Kelantanese community, with a focus on the element of music. In order to understand the intercultural communication that occurs in the element of music, Kumpulan Wayang Kulit Sri Campuran was chosen as the main research subject due to the group’s characteristic ethnic diversity, which comprises Malay, Chinese, and Siamese, as well as the community that is directly and indirectly involved in the performance, which also comprises various ethnicities, thus illustrating the existence of the phenomena of intercultural communication. Methods of observation on the element of music in performances held at several locations by this group have been able to prove the existence of clear intercultural communications within the multi-ethnic community in Kelantan. These phenomena also show that this group specifically, and the Kelantanese community in general, upholds cultural collectivism that strengthens intercultural relations, whereby people from various cultural backgrounds can be brought together by a single performance that clearly showcases characteristics of teamwork, tolerance, understanding, compatibility, sharing, and harmony.

Exploring Physiology-Based Interactions in Performing Art Using Artistic Interventions / Kunstiliste sekkumiste kasutamine füsioloogiapõhiste interaktsioonide uurimiseks etenduskunstis

Technological innovations like physiological computing offer new possibilities when exploring audience-performer interaction. To avoid technological solutionism that often accompanies biosensor applications in performing art, an artistic interventions approach was used. This paper describes a recent art-science residency consisting of three artistic experiments: the audience’s electrodermal, activity-driven soundscape in a dance improvisation, a “lie detector” applied to the actor just after the performance, and a heart-rate-driven personal discotheque installation. Both artist and scientist provide reflections on future development of this transdisciplinary field from the performing art perspective. Nüüdisaegne interaktiivne teater toetub tehnoloogilistele uuendustele ja järjest enam kasutatakse uusi tehnoloogiaid ka kunstiteose sisu loomisel: on need siis vaatajate reaktsioone tajuvad riided, voogteatri etendus või vaatajate neurofüsioloogilisi reaktsioone mõõtvad sensorid. Etenduskunstnik Taavet Jansen ja neuroteadlane Aleksander Väljamäe töötasid publiku ja esinejate füsioloogiliste reaktsioonidega kunstiteaduse residentuuris Tallinna Ülikoolis veebruarist 2019 kuni juunini 2019. Füsioloogilisi reaktsioone uuriti kolme kunstilise eksperimendi jooksul või järel ning see artikkel kirjeldabki neid eksperimente, kunstniku mõtisklusi oma uurimisreisist ja arutleb, kuidas selliseid interaktsioonivõimalusi saaks kasutada voogteatri platvormidel. Iga kirjeldatud eksperimendi kohta avaldavad autorid ka oma mõtteid ja teevad ettepanekuid, mida eksperimendi kordamisel võiks teha teistmoodi. Kunstilises eksperimendis „Neurokoreograafiline eksperiment nr 4“ kasutati interaktiivset lahendust, kus neljale vaatajale kinnitatud sensorid mõõtsid nende erutuse taset (electrodermal activity galvanic skin response) improvisatsioonilise tantsuetenduse vältel Tallinnas, Kanuti Gildi SAALis 06.06.2019. Vaatajate reaktsioone kasutati reaalajas helikujunduse manipuleerimisel. Selline interaktiivne lahendus tekitas kunstiliselt intrigeeriva tagasiside-efekti, kus vaatajate tahtmatud reaktsioonid hakkasid mõjutama kogu lavastuse tervikut. Vaatajad said tahtmatult endale „hääle“, mida said interpreteerida kõik osalised kogu terviku kontekstis. Kunstilises eksperimendis „Macbeth“ kasutati erutust mõõtvaid sensoreid, salvestamaks näitleja reaktsioone intervjuu ajal, kus esitati küsimusi tema rolliloome kohta etenduses, mis oli lõppenud 10 minutit enne intervjuu algust. Tegemist oli Alo Kõrve Macbethi rolliga Tallinna Linnateatri lavastuses „Macbeth“. Prokurör Steven-Hristo Evestuse läbi viidud intervjuu eesmärgiks oli mõista, milliseid tehnikaid kasutab näitleja oma rolli luues, ning tehnoloogiat kasutades analüüsida, kas näitleja on teadlik laval tehtud otsustest. Heli- ja valgusinstallatsioon „Heartrate Party“ põhines kontseptsioonil, kus külastaja südamerütm mõjutas kogu installatsiooni heli- ja valguskujunduse tempot. Südamerütmi mõõdeti spetsiaalse sensoriga ja kasutatud videokujundus nii instrueeris osalejaid kui ka andis tagasisidet õnnestumisest või ebaõnnestumisest. Installatsioon oli avatud Tallinnas, Kanuti Gildi SAALi keldrisaalis 05.–07.06.2020 ja seda külastas 20 vaatajat. aasta esimeses pooles, kui COVID-19 pandeemia põhjustas eriolukorra kogu maailmas, ei tohtinud teatrid ja etendusasutused avalikke üritusi korraldada. Teatrid hakkasid oma etendusi andma voogedastust võimaldavatel platvormidel. Kuna voogteater avab etenduste mängimiseks palju uusi võimalusi, siis me analüüsime residentuuris kasutatud kontseptsioone ka voogteatri perspektiivist. Kõiki eelpool mainitud kontseptsioone oleks võimalik osaliselt kanda üle ka veebikeskkonda, kuid need eeldavad kasutajapoolset tehnoloogilist valmisolekut. Sensortehnoloogiad võimaldavad voogteatri etenduste vaatajate reaktsioone ja käitumist analüüsida ja salvestada. Kuna nende tehnoloogiate kasutus sellises kontekstis on veel uus, siis küsimused, mis puudutavad eetikat ja isikuandmeid, vajavad alles väljatöötamist. Kokkuvõttes väidame, et väga palju uurimistööd on alles ees ja meetodid, kuidas interpreteerida esinejatelt ja vaatajatelt kogutud andmeid, on alles vaja välja töötada. Tihti kasutatakse andmeid interaktsiooni eesmärgil pigem otseseid tõlgendusi luues – biosignaalide numbriline väärtus tõlgitakse otse mõneks audiovisuaalses kujunduses oluliseks väärtuseks. Selline tõlgendus annab küll laval toimuvale perfektse sünkrooni, kuid vastust jääb ootama oluline küsimus, mida need andmed väljendavad, mida nad tähendavad. Kunstis jääb tihti puudu teoreetilistest teadmistest, mis aitaksid intuitiivselt tehtud kunstilisi otsuseid raamistada. Selline teadmiste ülekandmine kunsti ja teaduse vahel avaks uusi võimalusi kunstiteoste interpreteerimisel, aga ka teaduse rikastamisel.

THE MOTOR SKILLS FOR PERFORMING MANIPURI PUNG CHOLOM

Manipuri Nata-Sankirtana is a unique type of performing art form where Manipuri male musicians sing Sankirtana using musical instruments such as Pung (Manipuri percussion musical instrument) by Pungyeiba (Pung player), Kartal (Manipuri cymbal) by Eshei-sakpa (singers), and Moibung (Conch Shell) by Moibungkhongba (conch blower) by following its prescribed sequence. The percussion musical instrument, Pung is the soul of such performance. It is necessary to know how Pung Cholom (the dexterous and vigorous movements of the body from head to toe in tune with the beats of playing Pung simultaneously in a creative manner by the Pungyeiba) is done and what are the motor skills involved in performing it. The discussion has the following objectives: Identifying the different parts of the body involved in doing Pung Cholom, knowing the basic foundations for playing Pung, and understanding the basic motor skills for performing Pung Cholom. It uses descriptive qualitative method. This utilizes the tools and techniques of interview and observation. This will bring out the different aspects of Manipuri Pung Cholom helping in the learning area of psychomotor skill, giving global benefits in performing arts.

GAMBUS PASER PERFORMANCE AS A CULTURAL LITERACY ENHANCEMENT OF PASER CULTURE FOR INDONESICAN CAPITAL RELOCATION TO EAST BORNEO

Gambus Paser music is one among traditional perfoming arts belongs to Paser tribe. Contextually, gambus Paser performing art cannot be detacted from its socio-culural since it geographically affects the characteristic of that cultural music. Generally, the culture of Gambus Paser music has its various values according to its various geographical dispositions. Geographically varied characteristic of Gambus Paser music is reflected on the interpretation of the music especially on the style of pentengan (picking technique) and the lyric of Gambus song. Gambus Paser music is also characteristically identified by the use of that pentengan style. On the other hand, coastal area also affects Gambus Paser characateristic which tends to be expressive and dynamic. Conceptually speaking, this research is qualitative research with descriptive analytical method. This research focuses on Gambus Paser performing art as the cultural (music) literacy enhancement. The purpose is to analyze the form of Gambus Paser performance as Paser cultural literacy. The result shows that literature related to Paser art is still hardly found, while on the other hand, we have also found how potential this performance as sustainable literacy and identity enhancement for Paser community to welcome the Indonesian capital relocation to East Borneo. A concrete step which is taken is to documenting and disseminating the Gambus Paser performance to create a cultural literacy and a sustainable traditional art.

Kerala´s Ancient Mizhavu Drum: Transformations and Sustainability

The Kerala state in India offers a huge assemblage of various percussion eccentricities. Each percussion instrument sustains and preserves its own attributes: some drums accompany visual arts, others create a vibrant world of percussion music, and a few maintain both attributes. Almost all instruments are related to ceremonial pursuance and worship customs. Mizhavu is a single-headed drum from Kerala that employs these kinds of ceremonial pursuance. The purpose of the instrument, which had also been used in temples in Tamil Nadu, is to accompany the Kūṭiyāṭṭam and Kuttu performances in the great temples (mahakshetras) for the pleasure of God’s souls and the invocation of their powers. Kūṭiyāṭṭam and Kuttu – Kerala’s Sanskrit drama performing art forms – have been recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage due to 2000 years of tradition. As ‘visual sacrifice’ staging scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, they combine dance with theatre performance, Sanskrit verses (slokas), and percussive music in a ritualistic context. The main supporting percussion instrument (mizhavu) serves as deva vādyam – an instrument for the deities. Its classification as a one-headed drum covered with skin (avanaddha vadya of the dardura type) goes back to the Natya Shastra of Bharatamuni – some 2000 years ago. Definitions as kettledrum (bhanda vadya) trace it back to Kautilya’s Arthasastra. The Buddhist Pali Tripitaka refers to pot drums (kumba toonak). Tamil epics mention a muzha or kuta muzha drum. Publications in recent decades nearly mention that drum. Production methods, forms, and material of the drum have changed over the ages. Attached to the artistic heritage of a certain Brahmin caste – the Nampyar – the drum has spent a long period in the environment of temple theatres. Since 1966, it has been taught to pupils of all castes at the Kerala Kalamandalam, Thrissur District. P.K.K. Nambiar worked as the first mizhavu teacher in the later added Kūṭiyāṭṭam department. He was followed by his pupil K. Eswaranunni, the first mizhavu guru from another caste, fighting for acceptance among members of Chakyar and Nampyar families. As a passionate master with numerous awards and performance experience all over the world, K. Eswaranunni has trained most of the contemporary mizhavu percussionists, who are still performing all over India as well as abroad. This paper gives an overview of the instrument and shows how the mizhavu is described by both gurus in their books written in Malayalam and by both authors including their personal relations to the drum.

Attention, Music, Dance: Embodying the “Cinema of Attractions”

In this essay I take up the question of whether the “cinema of attractions,” as identified and analyzed by film scholars Tom Gunning and André Gaudreault, might be a useful tool for critical analysis not only of early silent film, its exhibitionist aesthetics, and approach to spectatorship, but of theatrical dance from the period. Certainly, as for its general historical currency, the “cinema of attractions” is thought to encode the culture of modernity from which it arose: the visual spectacle, sensory fascination, bodily engagement, mechanical rhythm, violent juxtapositions, and new experiences of time and space available within the modern urban environment. Moreover, that cinema relied in no small part on dance itself: as a performing art, dance was central to the “attractions” industry, prime raw material starring The Body in Motion, a favorite fascination of contemporary art and popular entertainment. My aim is to push the analogy further, suggesting how cinema and theatrical dance might cue a similar mode of attention: that is, despite the former’s reliance on the camera, its reproductive aesthetic and industrial mechanicity, and the latter’s live theatrical aspect. Indeed, in the latter, I argue, music can be analogized to the camera itself, helping determine and sustain a particular attention economy, while pointing to itself—just as filmed objects stare at the camera—as artifice or contrivance.

Academic Majors and HEXACO Personality

Self-reports on the HEXACO-PI-R scales were examined in relation to academic majors in post-secondary education ( N > 73,000). Openness to Experience showed the largest mean differences across academic major areas, with the Visual/Performing Arts and Humanities areas averaging higher and Health Sciences and Business/Commerce averaging lower. Emotionality showed the second largest differences, with the Engineering and Physical Sciences/Math areas averaging lower and Visual/Performing Arts averaging higher; these differences in Emotionality became smaller in within-sex analyses. In addition, Extraversion tended to be higher for Business/Commerce and lower for Physical Sciences/Math, while Honesty-Humility was lower for Business/Commerce. The facet-level analyses provided additional detail, as facet scales in the same domain sometimes showed considerably different means within a given academic major area. In one case, Visual/Performing Art majors averaged lower in Prudence, but higher in Perfectionism, even though both facets belong to the Conscientiousness domain.