Going “Viral”

Wayang Elektrik, Wayang Climen and Other Forms of Online Javanese Shadow Puppet Theatre in the Time of Pandemic

Abstract

Wayang kulit (traditional shadow puppet theatre) is one of the most important performing arts in present-day Java. Even during the pandemic, performers did not abandon their vocation and employed various online platforms to share their art. Although the use of social media for advertising and, occasionally, livestreaming traditional performances was not entirely unprecedented, the circumstances of 2020 have clearly contributed to the significant acceleration of these trends. Issues of global mediatization and virtual participation have become crucial elements within the shadow puppet theatre of the so-called jaman now (“the time of now”). Some
of the most famous puppeteers of Central Java, Ki Cahyo Kuntadi and Ki Seno Nugroho, invented new formats, such as wayang elektrik and wayang climen, and adopted new marketing strategies to meet a new audience demand in a time of social distance. These new forms contributed to confirm and speed-up transformation processes already embryonal to the wayang art and drastically changed the function and fruition of one of the most important Javanese performing arts. Uniting practice-led research and digital ethnography, this article intends to offer an example of how oral traditions are affected by the social and technological reverberations of the pandemic era.