Laon Laon is a program of cooperation among Music Research Centers in Asia. It is a platform, a venue for music research centers in Asia to converge and interact.

  • An inter-institutional access to materials, a regional clearing house of materials, subject to individual or international rights.
  • An inter-institutional access to services, experience and expertise.
  • A forum for sharing new information, specially on preservation of traditional practices.
  • A network by which concrete projects can be developed and implemented.
  • An opportunity by which continuing dialogues on cultural preservation can occur.

As the world grows smaller and smaller, inter-dependence among people becomes even more acute. The disparity of conditions brought in different parts of the globe need to be mitigated. In Asia, post-colonial times have brought about different conditions by which countries and nation-states found themselves coping with various levels of reality—in economy, politics, and culture.

In the field of cultural preservation, such reality is manifested in different forms, mainly brought about by the various national agendae in culture and the arts. While each country has its own program, there exists no forum by which all these efforts are known to one another. With the age of technology, there should be greater effort not only in knowing what each other is doing but also in renewing ties with the musics, practices, and cultures especially those that share common heritages.

It is in this regard that a forum be established in order to know what the different music research agencies are doing, what they are capable of, the nature and extent of their collection, as well as their willingness to share.

The UP Center for Ethnomusicology was able to organize successfully the LAON-LAON 2008 in Quezon City, Philippines and the LAON-LAON 2009 in Pnomh Penh, Cambodia hosted by Pannasastra University of Cambodia. The principal aim of the Forum was to explore possibilities of establishing mechanisms and building capacity for exchange and collaboration on the scientific investigation, documentation and creative production of the musics of Asia. Both forum was conducted as a 3-day intensive dialogue with an involvement of an insider Convenor, Dr. Verne dela Pena, who is also from a dialogue member institution and a resource person, Dr. Dietrich Schueller of Austrian Academy of Science, who is not a dialogue member.

The UP Center for Ethnomusicology being the spearhead of the Laon-Laon network remains the secretariat for the 3rd meeting to be held in Taipei, Taiwan on 26-28 September 2012, hosted by National Taiwan Normal University.

The meeting is expected to be attended by representatives of the 14 permanent dialogue members, 12 new dialogue members and 2 resource persons. The resource persons are Dr. Yamaguti Osamu who has worked with the NTNU, and Dr. Anthony Seeger, an expert in safeguarding and providing access to musical records.

For more information, please download the following documents:

Laon-Laon 2012 Project Brief
Project Introduction for the Laon-Laon 2012:
3rd Forum on Music Research Centers in Asia

Laon-Laon 2012 Tentative Schedule
Tentative Schedule of Activities of the Laon-Laon 2012:
3rd Forum on Music Research Centers in Asia

 

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