tinyUH
FILM//Music // 23rd May 2024 // MUSIC by tinyUH // VIDEOS by CONNECTING ECOSYSTEMS (Ella von der Haide und Amber Theisen) & tinyUH
“tinyUH means brew in Sundanese, while there is a small word ‘tiny’ whose members consist of small entrepreneurs who live in a small city in Indonesia called Majalengka. tinyUH are collective of small entrepreneurs of coffee, tea and spices, as well as terracotta tableware, while playing their brewed compositions solemnly as daily ritual. In addition to playing musical compositions, tinyUH also plays economic activities as part of the show. tinyUH reconstructs the whole atmosphere of taste, visual, aroma, sound, up to the trading process, based on the long history of colonialism in Indonesia that intersects through spices, coffee, tea and clay.”
We meet tinyUh as always by spending time and Nongkrong at Saung in the mountains nearby Majalengka (Indonesia). The fresh mountain climate was a welcome change to the heat of Jatiwangi – one of the hottest areas on Java.
Over our time at Jatiwangi Art Factory we came by several times to visit our new friends and to exchange upon music, coffee and food. We had the pleasure to listen to several practice sessions and became acquainted with the mixture of sounds from brewing tea, coffee and herbs, sometimes combined with voices or electronic sounds.
tinyUh consists of four young artists: Arman Knaci as Spice Brewer, Aldizar Ahmad as Serving Introduction, Alfi Syahrian as Coffee Brewer and Yussan AF as Tea Brewer.
“We are often presented with various food and beverage products that are instant, practical and ready to serve. Are we really set up to not be able to know or witness the process of making drinks until they are ready to be served? In some cultures such as the Tea Ceremony in Japan, we witness a ritual that is considered sacred because there are special rules that have certain meanings during the brewing process that we can enjoy as an art and even spiritual. With that in mind, we are inspired and offer a performance on how the process of making and serving food or beverages for us to realize that it is a performance art that we can enjoy aesthetically audio (sound) visual (movement, appearance) and once ready to serve we enjoy with the senses of smell (fragrance) and taste (flavor).”
Since Ella von der Haide and Amber Theisen are filmmakers and Karsten Winnemuth had his sound recording device with him we recorded them performing.
With this post, we want to appreciate and share the practice of our friends. We hope to collaborate with you soon!
You wanna know more about tinyUH? Check out their instagram and website!