Thoughts on the Banjar

Today I thought I might discuss the Banjar and how it has affected my mind as to what a "classroom experience" should be. In some ways, I feel that we as a class have adapted the Balinese concept of a Banjar to our Western concepts of how a group should function. I noticed this particularly in our last class wherein we switched into our sub-banjars to work on certain aspects of our upcoming performances. In the posted reading the Banjar is described as a cooperative association of neighbors...and I suppose that's what we as students our. We are cooperating for our common goal to create art. Yet for so many aspects of Western culture art is an individual experience. This class, therefore, and the banjar structure of our classroom setting, has in fact changed my entire perspective of how art is formed. My usual art is creative writing, gourmet cooking, and the like, very individual projects. Typically group work for me is a much more commercial, functional experience. So when we were working in our sub banjar, discussing how our art was going to turn out, how the aesthetics and aural quality of what we were creating would turn out, it was a very strange experience to vocalize it, debate it, and build off other's ideas. I suppose this post is kind of an extension of the creation of art with body, because we aren't just creating art with our own bodies, but the "body banjar", if you will.

Last week we got the rough outline of our performance hammered out, so I'm excited to fine tune it in the next couple of weeks before our performance. I was curious to see how Balinese kechak circles look in completion, and I found these videos. Pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZMIifS9hIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZMIifS9hIE