Experimental Poetry-Music Video · Completed Work · 2016
An experimental audiovisual work bringing together the Minahasan traditions of Kalelon and Maka’aruyen with blues and poetry as a tribute to Prof. Dr. W. A. Roeroe.
About the Work
Traditional Expression, Poetry, and Blues
Rhythm of Soul is an experimental poetry-music video developed through a meeting between the Minahasan traditions of Kalelon and Maka’aruyen, poetry, contemporary audiovisual language, and blues.
The work was created to remember and honour Prof. Dr. W. A. Roeroe, regarded by those involved as a teacher whose thought and presence influenced cultural, intellectual, and creative work in Minahasa.
Rather than presenting a conventional biographical portrait, Rhythm of Soul approaches memory through sound, spoken and musicalised poetry, rhythm, image, and emotional atmosphere.
Logline
Kalelon, Maka’aruyen, poetry, and blues meet in an experimental audiovisual tribute that remembers the spirit and intellectual legacy of Prof. Dr. W. A. Roeroe.
Synopsis
Remembering the Teacher through Rhythm and Voice
Rhythm of Soul begins from a desire to remember a teacher not only through biography or formal testimony, but through artistic experience.
Poetry becomes voice and music. Traditional Minahasan expression meets blues, creating an audiovisual space where memory can be felt through rhythm, repetition, sound, silence, and image.
Kalelon and Maka’aruyen carry cultural forms rooted in Minahasan experience. Blues brings another language of emotion, struggle, reflection, and the human soul.
The meeting of these forms does not seek to erase their differences. Instead, it creates a new composition through which remembrance, gratitude, and respect for Prof. Dr. W. A. Roeroe can be expressed.
Core Idea
Memory can continue to live through sound, poetry, rhythm, and image.
A tribute does not need to reproduce an entire life. It can preserve the emotional and intellectual traces a teacher leaves within the people and cultural spaces influenced by his presence.
Kalelon and Maka’aruyen
Minahasan Expressions within an Experimental Form
Kalelon and Maka’aruyen are placed at the centre of the work as living forms of Minahasan cultural expression.
They are not presented merely as decorative traditional elements. Their sounds, structures, and emotional qualities shape the identity and movement of the audiovisual composition.
By bringing these traditions into dialogue with poetry and blues, the work explores how inherited cultural forms can continue to generate new artistic expressions.
Poetry and Blues
Different Traditions Meeting through the Soul
Blues carries a long association with memory, pain, endurance, reflection, and the expression of inner experience.
Within Rhythm of Soul, blues enters into conversation with Minahasan oral and musical traditions. Poetry becomes a bridge between these different forms.
The result is not a conventional music video, but an experimental work that allows image, voice, music, and cultural memory to move together.
A Tribute to Prof. Dr. W. A. Roeroe
Remembering a Teacher
The work was dedicated to Prof. Dr. W. A. Roeroe as an expression of respect and gratitude.
The designation “teacher” in this context extends beyond the formal classroom. It refers to a person whose knowledge, thought, example, and relationships continued to influence others.
Rhythm of Soul therefore functions both as an artistic experiment and as an act of collective remembrance.
Experimental Approach
Musicalising Poetry through Audiovisual Language
The work was developed as a poetry musicalisation video rather than a conventional narrative film.
Meaning emerges through the interaction of poetry, music, voice, archival or interpretive imagery, rhythm, and editing.
This approach gives the work freedom to move between tribute, performance, cultural documentation, and visual experimentation.
Launch and Discussion
Wale Papendangan, Sonder
Rhythm of Soul was launched and discussed on Saturday, 20 February 2016, at Wale Papendangan in Talikuran, Sonder.
The event brought the audiovisual work into a shared cultural space where audiences could watch, remember, and discuss the relationship between Minahasan tradition, poetry, music, film, and the legacy of Prof. Dr. W. A. Roeroe.
About Wale Papendangan
A Space for Literature, Culture, and Cinema
Wale Papendangan functioned as a learning and cultural space in Sonder, bringing together work connected to Minahasan literature, performance, history, music, and cinema.
The launch of Rhythm of Soul formed part of this effort to create encounters between artistic production, cultural knowledge, and public discussion.
Project Information
Work Details
Title
Rhythm of Soul
Format
Experimental poetry-music video
Year
2016
Artistic forms
Kalelon · Maka’aruyen · Poetry musicalisation · Blues · Experimental
video
Dedicated to
Prof. Dr. W. A. Roeroe
Production
Wale Papendangan · Literature and Cinematography Classes
Collaboration
KAMA—Kalelon Maka’aruyen
Launch and discussion
Saturday, 20 February 2016
Venue
Wale Papendangan, Talikuran, Sonder, Minahasa, North Sulawesi,
Indonesia