If I were to receive the £10,000 Dover Prize bursary, I would use the funding to develop a large-scale, immersive sound installation rooted in Darlington’s unique identity. The project will explore the town’s character through a layered soundscape that combines field recordings, community interviews, live performance, and gamelan instrumentation—a reflection of my own cultural background.
The bursary would be instrumental in enabling four key areas:
• Fieldwork and community collaboration: I will spend dedicated time in Darlington engaging with residents, gathering stories, and capturing site-specific sounds—church bells, rivers, street performers, and public spaces—that reflect the area’s geography, social life, and cultural fabric.
• Production and equipment: The funding will support the use of high-quality audio equipment and studio access to ensure professional-grade sound recording, editing, and mixing.
• Collaborations: I will commission local musicians, gamelan performers, and visual artists to contribute to the installation, fostering local creative partnerships.
• Public presentation: The bursary will also support venue hire, technical setup, promotion, and documentation, including an online version of the work to maximise reach and accessibility.
This award would mark a significant milestone in my artistic development, allowing me to scale up my practice and deepen my engagement with sound and place. The opportunity to work directly with communities in Darlington aligns with my long-term interest in participatory, culturally responsive art. By fusing Darlington’s local sounds with gamelan, I aim to create a contemporary, cross-cultural work that reflects both the town’s voice and my own.
The Dover Prize offers more than financial support—it provides a vital platform to connect with the North East’s vibrant arts scene and contribute meaningfully to its cultural narrative. Through this project, I hope to celebrate Darlington’s identity, invite dialogue across cultures, and leave a lasting impact on the local arts landscape by creating a distinctive, community-rooted artwork.
This project will enhance and raise the profile of the creative arts in Darlington by creating a contemporary sound installation rooted deeply in the town’s cultural, historical, and social identity. By capturing and creatively reimagining authentic local sounds—such as church bells, river currents, street musicians, and community voices—the work transforms everyday elements of Darlington into a powerful artistic experience. These soundscapes, interwoven with narrative interviews from residents, will offer an honest and intimate portrait of the town, making the community both the subject and co-creator of the work.
To further distinguish the project, I will incorporate the sounds of gamelan from my own cultural background, introducing a unique cross-cultural dialogue that broadens artistic perspectives in the region. This fusion of global and local elements creates a fresh, non-mainstream work that celebrates Darlington’s identity while inviting new artistic conversations.
Presented through public installations and online platforms, and involving local collaborators throughout, this project will engage broad audiences, spark community pride, and strengthen Darlington’s reputation as a hub for innovative, inclusive, and place-based contemporary art. It is not only a work of art, but a vibrant celebration of Darlington’s creative voice and potential.
I am an Indonesian composer, traditional gamelan musician, and educator based in London. My music is deeply inspired by my gamelan heritage and my expertise in gamelan, which I transform into compositions for a wide range of ensembles—from solo and duet to quartet and full orchestra. I explore diverse musical mediums, incorporating Western ensembles, traditional gamelan instruments, hybrid setups blending gamelan with other instruments, and electronic elements. Collaboration is a key aspect of my work. I have partnered with puppeteers, jazz musicians, folk ensembles, choreographers, dramatists, visual artists, programmers, and DJs. My work has been featured on the Indonesian Gamelan Composers album by Yatra Production (Italy), in residencies at Snape Maltings, and in publications by the American Gamelan Institute. I studied music in Indonesia before earning a Master’s in Composition from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and a PhD from the University of York. My research and compositions focus on the intersections of gamelan and contemporary music. Recent highlights include performances at the Colourscape Music Festival in London, a collaboration with artist Arahmaiani for her Tate Modern exhibition, and a partnership with Sriwhana Spong for the Busan Biennale. This year, I presented my string quartet Cekaking Carita at the Asian Composers’ League festival in Japan and performed my composition for gamelan and electronic at Classical:NEXT 2025 event in Berlin, Germany.
In 2013 I founded the Gamelan Composers’ Forum. That same year, we launched an annual international event—the Concert and Discussion of New Music for Gamelan—hosted at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), which ran until 2019. The event successfully brought together composers from around the world to present and discuss their work, while fostering collaborations with artists from various disciplines and professional musicians.
I was commissioned by the School of Oriental and African Studies to present my compositions as part of their concert series.
My interactive composition, ‘5 (Lima)’, a piece for gamelan Gadhon ensemble and Max/MSP (or interactive music
software) featured on Balungan, an international gamelan bulletin published by the American
Gamelan Institute.
Some of my compositions for various ensembles have been published by the American Gamelan institute.
In 2017 I was selected to participate in the composer residency programme at Snape Maltings, Suffolk
Email: arisdaryono@me.com
Address: 20 Raymere Gardens, Plumstead, London, SE18 2LD, GB
Local Authority: London Borough of Greenwich
