Otonomi Feral
Commissioned by Samsung Foundation of Culture.
Taking the anti-civilization movement, anarcho-primitivism, jungle radio, and the aesthetics of refusal as a starting point, and motivated by the type of alienation produced by primordial changes in experiencing the technological world and the future, Otonomi Feral is a research, science fiction, and installation project that includes audio drama, photography and video installation about a group of eco-terrorist organising an amateur radio in the middle of the forest as an act of rejecting the future. An exploration of the ideas of withdrawal, negation, anti-progress, and reconfiguring the role of technology in everyday life, this project attempts to depict and dissect the aesthetics of refusal by presenting a story that straddles the line between fiction and non-fiction, while examining anti-technology ideology as a catharsis for an increasingly accelerated future.
Installation view at 2024 Art Spectrum, Dream Screen, Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul
Stereo 26 minutes audio play with English and Korean subtitle video, 16 minutes video in used ATM machine, four photographs framed printed on semigloss photo paper with archival inkjet print 100x150cm, and built environment.
Photo: Yeonje Kim. Courtesy Leeum Museum of Art.
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Installation view at ARTJOG 2024, Jogja National Museum, Indonesia
Stereo 3 minutes excerpt from the audio play, English subtitle video, and three photographs framed printed on semigloss photo paper with archival inkjet print 100x150cm
Photos courtesy of Tim Dokumentasi ARTJOG 2024.
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Otonomi Feral - film installation. The film is part of a larger project Otonomi Feral.
Duration 16'13"
Amongst the urban ruins, DIY hardcore punk show, piles of garbage, wild forests, and deep jungle, a man prepares to execute an act of eco-sabotage. Inspired by the tradition of cinetracts, the film piece of Otonomi Feral is a docufiction on the reflection of ecoterror in contemporary Indonesia. Produced while doing field-research to complete a radio piece on the aesthetic of refusal and shortwave radio culture, this film portrays a conversation between the filmmaker and an anti-civ discussing the notion of ecotage and romanticisation of primeval lifestyle in tropical frontiers.
Featuring anonymous. Camera by Adythia Utama. Some sounds by Wahono.
Film stills
Installation view at duo exhibition New Pessimism: Tropical Frontier, Tomorrow Maybe, Hong Kong, 2023.
Single-channel film, 2.35:1 format, colour and sound (stereo), 16 min 13 sec, printed images on wall.
Images courtesy of Eaton HK. Photographed by Tze Long.