Kakiseni.com was established in July 2001, and is the only publication in Malaysia, online and offline, dedicated exclusively to the arts.
With an events database that is updated daily, Kakiseni offers its subscribers one of the most comprehensive sources of information on arts and cultural events held in Malaysia.
The website also carries articles, reviews and profiles that aim to explore issues, challenge the status quo and speak out on contemporary life, filtering and dissecting the things that matter most to Malaysians.
Contributors include such well-known writers as prominent Indonesian writer, Gonewan Mohamad, activist Dr Farish Noor, Kam Raslan, film-maker Amir Muhammad, Shanon Shah, Amir Hafizi, theatre critic Sherry Siebel, art critic Lee Weng Choy and Ruhayat X to name a handful of the over 50 writers who have contributed the articles currently in our archive.
THE SUPERHEROES
Jenny Daneels, Co-founder and Director
Jenny Daneels is French. After spending time in Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Malaysia,
she is now seeking adventure in the English countryside. In between the village's
many intrigues, Jenny finds time to explore the politics of GM crops, keep her
three daughters fed and clothed, while keeping an eye on the online arts magazine
she co-founded five years ago.
Kathy Rowland, Co-founder and Managing Editor
Kathy's been involved it the arts for many years, as an administrator, producer,
problem maker and sometimes problem solver. She has an MA from NUS and has written
on arts and culture with a particular focus on censorship in several regional
publications. Since temporarily relocating to Miami in 2007, she mostly spends
her day haranguing everyone listed on this page to get back to work, stop slacking,
be more productive, sell their soul/body for the website - via email, SMS, IM
and Skype.
THE CARTOONS
Juliet Jacobs
Juliet studied mass communications in Perth. Upon her return, she realised that
skills developed in Oz were not particularly conducive to saving the world, being
that it was confined to the best way to roll thin white paper filled with dried
leaves. Nonetheless, she remains unfazed by the demands of keeping the events
listings complete and up-to-the-minute. Thereby confirming that her time in Perth
was not wasted. Even if she is. Sometimes.
Juliana Choo
Juliana studied law and decided to save the world by editing a lifestyle magazine
about KL's happenings. She then moved into the not-for-profit world, working
for an organisation that dealt with disaster relief. In her capacity as the resident
busybody of Kakiseni, her skills in disaster management have come in handy on
more than one occasion.
Viji Nair
Viji studied Psychology. In Dublin. All of which makes her particularly well
equipped to save the world through working with artists and managing the cartoons
running around in Kakiseni's office. She spends an inordinate amount of time
talking about the latest book she's read and her cat in Port Dickson. She is
known to put the fear of God in contractors and directors alike.
Yasmin has been blessed since the day she was born with the super-human ability to tell which way the wind blows by licking her finger and sticking it in the air. This ability paid her way through her Diploma in Performing Arts at Sunway University College's Department of Performance + Media. Her mentors at Kakiseni have trained her to use her magic finger for the good of the arts scene, in the form of typing reviews, plugs, event listings, and angering the self-righteous. Yasmin is still trying to figure out how this saves the world, but she's sure the answer will hit her sooner or later (in the form of Viji's silver hammer).
Alvin Tan
Alvin is from Malacca and therefore destined for greatness. For 10 years, he
was a very successful sound designer with Scat Productions, being much sought
after for concerts and theatre productions. In 1999, he started his own web-design company, Inscribe Webmedia. Alvin also gave Kakiseni its
content management system and events search engine. He has done it such that
even the computer-illiterate team of Kakiseni can manage the website by themselves.
Through Kakiseni, Alvin hopes to save not just the world, but the universe.
* Kakiseni’s new look, logo and icons were designed by Oyun Md Salleh and Petrina Roach.
