ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Indonesian new media art communities with a special interest in urban life and infrastructure. It focuses on the collectives from Jakarta and Bandung. The collectives use works of art, exhibitions, festivals, and other activities to involve a diverse group of people and institutions, including artists, governments, businesses, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and ordinary citizens, in rethinking, reimagining, and, where possible, redesigning urban space. The chapter introduces the post-totalitarian and globalized context in which the Indonesian new media art communities emerged in the late 1990s. Making use of the increased freedom of speech and wider availability and accessibility of new information and communication technology in Indonesia, these communities have addressed a diversity of issues relevant to Indonesian contemporary life. The chapter demonstrates how their specific engagement with urban space can be seen as an aspect of a 'back to the city' movement in reaction to the socially disengaged elite urban development projects from the mid-1970s to the late-1990s.
