You’re probably wondering what it is I’m doing in Indonesia (or maybe you just thought I was having a great holiday). The truth is that I am doing fieldwork here. To most people, you probably have a vision of some Indiana Jones-esque archeology expedition when I say that, but real fieldwork is nothing like that (although it may be for archeologists, I can’t comment). Fieldwork is generally referred to when, for research, we head somewhere outside of our usual place of being to discover new things “on the ground” so to speak. So rather than reading or listening about a particular region, we actually go there and talk to people and experience life, for it is in experiencing life that we can best explain it.

In some disciplines, fieldwork is long and somewhat specific. It is generally expected, for instance in an anthropology PhD, that a student will spend one year of their program doing fieldwork – i.e. moving somewhere for one year so you can experience the full range of life over a year. The extended nature of it is important to build relationships and demonstrate a real desire of care towards any research participants. For example, say I came to Bali for 2 weeks, stayed in a resort the whole time, only did tourist-y things, and then came back home and wrote about that. Sure, I did “fieldwork”, but I didn’t really experience what life is like in Bali for most people. Compare that with my current experience – for this first trip, I’m spending a month (which is still quite short!) in a homestay in Ubud village. Although this homestay is rented out to tourists, the family which runs it also lives here, so it is very different to living in a hotel. I plan on coming back for a longer period of time later in the year (although, probably not a year!)

My fieldwork specifically is looking at music in Bali and the best practices for collaboration. To that end, here I am trying to talk to as many musicians as possible, source possible collaborators, and experience as much music as possible. I have fortunately come at a time when Pesta Kesenian Bali (PKB, Bali Arts Festival) is on, which has almost a month’s work of music in Denpasar. My research differs a little bit from, say, an anthropology PhD because life here is not my main focus, the collaboration question is, and Bali is just one part of that. There will also be surveys and interviews with people outside of Bali – but I still think it of high importance to spend an extended period of time here to best understand the culture I am collaborating with.

This is a very short update from me this week – there has been a lot on and I ran out of time to write this article, truthfully. I hope to have an update with more videos and photos next week!