Napak Tilas term means a journey to trace back the paths of someone/some people to look back on important events and to relate them to the realities that are happening in the present.
"Napak Tilas" is a sound installation consisting of two soundscapes that speculate about the acoustic situation on the event of Jakarta in May 1998, Gwangju in May 1980, and one juxtaposition soundscape among the two cities. Each of the soundscapes is composed from Jakarta and Gwangju urban sound materials in the present and then composed into a soundscape based on the published data of those events.
The work intended to amplify the similarity of the acoustic situation between the riot caused by the monetary crisis in Indonesia (especially in Jakarta), and the democratic uprising moment in Gwangju. This is a manifestation to get to know how our perception is shaped by past events which are presumably designed by the authorities.
The sound materials were collected while Mira walks in the areas where the events happened both in Jakarta and Gwangju. Through the soundscapes, Mira tries to exchange the auditory memories between the two cities by using Jakarta's present sound materials composed into Gwangju in May 1982 soundscape speculation, and Gwangju's present sound materials composed into Jakarta's May 1998 soundscape speculation. The composition is arranged narratively to tell the event chronologically.
The installation was built with used domestic cardboard from each city that articulate something that is valuable and we could keep for the future, but at the same time, it is something that has already been destroyed, and taken by others. The audience is able to enter each room which contains a multiple-channel sound system inside.