THE Penang House of Music (PHoM) will be holding a symposium, titled “Echoes, Shadows & Footprints”, focusing on Sustainability, Mobility and Nationalism in Malaysian Performing Arts & Culture, at Penang Institute from June 30 to July 2.
PHoM founder and director Paul Augustin said the symposium aims to bring together roundtable discussions and panels that are formed of performing arts professionals, government representatives and scholars currently conducting research and involved in policy development for Malaysian performing arts and culture.
He added that the symposium is the first of its kind organised by PHoM in collaboration with Penang Institute and supported by George Town Festival.
The speakers include researchers from UM, UMK, UPSI, UKM, USM, Sunway University, UCSI and ASWARA involved in research on Malaysian performing arts, music and culture.
Over the course of three days, sessions of the symposium will be centred on three themes:
1) National Identity, Cultural Diversity and Social Cohesion in Malaysian Music
2) Mobility, Migration and Transnational Flows in Malaysian Performing Arts and (Popular) Culture
3) Sustainability, Preservation and Rejuvenation of Malaysian Performing Arts Heritage
Key speakers in the symposium include Prof Ulung Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin (KITA-UKM), Prof Dr Tan Sooi Beng (USM), Datuk Dr Ooi Kee Beng (Penang Institute), Datuk Dr Anis Yusal Yusoff (KITA-UKM), Dr James Boyle (Aswara), Zubaidah Mukhtar (JKKN), Eddin Khoo (Pusaka) and Grey Yeoh (International Arts Consultant).
PHoM has been at the forefront of efforts to collect and preserve the music and performing arts cultural heritage of Malaysia and the surrounding Southeast Asian countries. It houses a growing archive of historical artifacts, which include entertainment magazines, photographs and vinyl records.
Augustin said the idea of organising a symposium came about when researchers from two universities recently came to PHoM to do some research.
“We’re looking towards the future. We started as a gallery and resource centre. We became a collector and a curator but we have to move forward. Some of the technical things that we implemented in our Gallery in 2016, like VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) are interestingly still relevant now.
“We are always looking forward to evolving to be relevant and better. So, we have become “content curators”. We use whatever content we have in our Resource Centre to curate something, it could be a news article, a monograph, a video documentary or an exhibition.
“We would prefer to not be just like a library, or an archive, where things are just laying there waiting for people to come and discover. We would like to, somehow, think that we are custodians of our invaluable heritage, and, we use these things of the past to create something new for the generation of tomorrow.
“Holding the symposium, is what we feel is a step in the right direction. Very importantly we have to focus on education, we have to look at posterity, we have to look at continuous archiving and documenting our history, our heritage for the collective future.
“If it (the symposium) is successful, we hope to make it sustainable and have it on an annual basis. It is hoped that this symposium will be a start for many more good things to come in the future,” Augustin said.
Seats for the symposium are limited and the participation fee is RM150 per person. For more information, kindly contact Penang House of Music (+6012 416 1550) or email [email protected].
Besides organising the symposium, PHoM will hold two other events under the banner of the George Town Festival at its premises in Komtar next month.
One of the events is themed ‘Down Memory Lane’ which will feature the Penang Songbirds of the 60s, Kathleen Rodrigues on July 10 (2pm to 3.45pm), and Colleen Read on July 17 (2pm-3.45pm). Ticket is priced at RM30.
Following that, PHoM will host an event titled ‘Songs at the Dawn of a Nation’ (Part 2) in which Augustin together with Daryl Goh will play songs and share anecdotes from the pre-Merdeka and post-Merdeka era.
For this event, admission is free but pre-registration is needed.
For more information about George Town Festival, visit https://georgetownfestival.com/2022/.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Alissala Thian and courtesy of PHoM