Bfm :: Night School

The arts might seem like the least important thing on our minds during the current pandemic. Jo Kukathas joins us this week to argue against this assumption, assuring us that it is ok to feel lost, so that we can discover our collective responsibility creatively. You can read the article that was mentioned in the podcast here.

This week, we are joined by anthropology major and gamelan ensemble director, Adam Farhan to explore what can we learn from the music of gamelan about limits and possibilities in the adaptive power of tradition.

How is the movement control order changing the ways educators teach? Joining us this week to dwell on learning under the condition of the new normal are two educators from across the private and public sectors, Prof. Ruslan Abdul Rahim and Dr. Azril K Ismail.

Heading into week 6 of the Movement Control Order, Haniff Baharudin and Simon Soon check up on each other to ponder about how social distancing is changing the way we interact with one another.

How can a set of photographs help us to ‘restore’ the identities of other lived experiences? Hoo Fan Chon joins us via Skype to discuss the different ways for us to retrieve alternative histories via photographs.

In what ways have the coronavirus pandemic changed the ways we communicate? How have we been adapting to the current situation? Joining us this week over Skype is researcher in medical history Por Heong Hong from the Universiti Sains Malaysia.

<p>In the age of social media celebrityhood, Korean wave, and middle-class ennui, three guys decided to create a printed quarterly journal to explore the many different literary and cultural voices in the Malay language. Hafiz Hamzah, Badrul Hisham Ismail and Nazir Harith Fadzilah join us this week to speak about why form and style matters.</p>

<p>Why do histories repeat themselves? For independent researcher Ong Kar Jin, repetition does not so much describe a historical process as a pattern of thinking where your average person tries to make meaning out of the past when faced with an uncertain future.</p>

<p>A new generation of activists/intellectuals are holding power to account. Huda Ramli, founder of Journal Sang Pemula, and Azura Nasrun, assistant manager of Rekod Media, join us this week to explore the cost of thinking.</p>

<p>Malaysian Chinese literature is undergoing a new renaissance. Postdoctoral fellow at the Australia National University, Show Ying Xin, joins us this week to discuss the recent global attention that Mahua literature has been receiving.</p>

<p>What is it about the photographic image that makes it so magical? Photo-historian Azril Ismail joins us this week to discuss the wonder that is photography.</p>

<p>R.AGE has come of age and gone digital. Ian Yee joins us from behind the editor&rsquo;s desk, to reflect on the principles of journalism he holds dearly to. He also shares with us what it takes to build a team of woke investigative journalists of the 21st century.</p>

Museums and galleries today are offering new ways of engaging with their exhibitions and collections, catering tailor-made programmes to different age groups. Rahel Joseph, director of Ilham Gallery, comes on the show to share with us why education is a priority for the privately funded public art institution she heads.

What can design teach us about the work of bringing people together for a conversation? How does it differ from social work? Italian researcher on social innovation, Viola Petrella, discusses how design is more than just making things pretty and what it can contribute to addressing larger social issues.

Mwaffa’a Al-Hajjar helps us to buka panggung for the year 2020. We discuss poetry, translation and the staying power of words. Because nothing is more pertinent or urgent.

As we cross over the threshold into 2020, nostalgia often looms large in our imagination. Haniff and Simon turns to each other to wonder aloud why we wax lyrical about the past.

Senario is a sketch comedy series that aired on public TV station, TV3 from June 1996 to 2013. Why take them seriously? Luqman Lee, a lecturer in screen studies from the University of Malaya, explores what television culture can tell us about state narratives.

Researcher and community builder Rocky How visits us from Singapore and shares with us his long term interest to critically unpack social housing rhetoric through fostering inclusive conversations around issues of land justice.

 How do we write a story about a colonial city from the perspective of the colonised? Scholar of Zamboanga’s visual culture, Felice Noelle Rodriguez, suggests we are required to place the city in its geographic context as it is part of events and changes of its neighbours and their relations as well with others. It is a story of borrowings and sharing.

What changes the way we communicate with one another in the 19th century and how did it change the world of literature? Wan Azriq joins us this week to discuss Munshi Abdullah, a pioneer in modern Malay literature, as a social media influencer.