ABSTRACT
The case of Newsdotcom illustrated the limitations posed by government, sponsors and commercial television stations on dissonant programme makers. Video is widely used in Indonesia both within and outside the mainstream media. This chapter explores to what extent local video users obtain a sense of agency and intimacy in dealing with the medium and its related social practices and cultures. It focuses on the way in which video enables people to, or obstructs people from, having access to information and communication, reflecting on social and personal issues, and engaging in aesthetic exploration. The chapter examines these three different aspects of agency and intimacy by looking at bodily (self-) representations in commercial, home and artistic video genres, including music videos, amateur pornography and new media art. It also focuses on work of the Indonesian video art pioneer Krisna Murti, in which representations of the artist's own body constitute a central theme.
