Gold Award Winner 2022
Jitr - Nitcha Tothong & Kengchakaj Kengkarnka (United States)
Artwork description
Jitr(จิตร) is a speculative, imaginary electronics ensemble using computer programing to generate and provide possibilities of decolonized Southeast Asia sound culture and its visual representation. Jitr(จิตร) is interdisciplinary by its nature and stretches beyond the art of sound making that covers improvisation, live coding, electronics, music technology, storytelling, and visual art.
The core concept was inspired by crucial Thai activist, writer, and historian, Jitr Poumisak(จิตร ภูมิศักดิ์), who was seen as a threat and killed by the Thai government in the 1960s. The project approach examines the suppression within the history of art and music in Southeast Asia. Reclaims the long-lost innovation–the effects of classism, colonialists, imperialism, and nationalism–and reimagines the new process using Southeast Asia tuning systems, philosophy, and indigenous knowledge to create new work and define its unique forms. The visual uses words extracted from an Jit Poumisak’s writing, synthesized with archived materials.
The project itself challenges the music technology rooted in the hegemony and dominance of western sound. Western tuning is the definitive cause in our way of hearing and perceiving music, thus creating a bias toward Southeast Asian sound heard as out of tune. The project explores the question of how might we unlearn and situate historical knowledge in a new context by reshaping them and making it relevant once again by using algorithms and electronic sound. Our approach is to look into the past and honor the non-dominance history, honor the suppressed history, experiment and search for an alternative future.
Partners and collaborators
ele-khle-kha อีเหละเขละขละ is a collaborative research-based artists group consisting of Kengchakaj and Nitcha Tothong. We are interested in subversive storytelling using sound and visual archives, researching historical context, and using multimedia and technology to experiment, explore, and define decolonized possibilities. ele-khle-kha means dispersed, chaotic, and unorganized.
ele-khle-kha was formed during a residency at Babycastles in the summer of 2021. Since then, they have been performed and showcased at LivecodeNYC in-person and online events, JCAL, The Weekly Weekly-Homeward bound, and The Jazz Gallery. They've received project development funds from the City Artist Corps grant, Queens Council on the Arts, and Babycastles.