WHO ARE WE?

Simply put, we are a creative collective with the self-serving goals of pursuing our passions and intimately creating loving love letters to those aforementioned passions. We are essentially a multimedium and multiplatform digital magazine.

Established January 3, 2020.

Founder, Editor-in-chief: Bondan Syamsu

Co-founder, Contributor: Troy Vimalasatya

WHAT DO WE DO?

We create well-researched, meaningful deep dives in various formats. On this website, you are able to get a glimpse into our essays. But venture outwards and you might find that we also create podcasts and video essays. It is yet another elitist cliche to say that we do not subscribe to the idea of “content” that is meant only for creative consumption and engagement. We create simply because we want to create and desire to contribute our own criticisms or research.

WHY DO WE COVER EVERYTHING?

The short answer would be that was simply the intention from the start by the founders, we did not want to commit ourselves to becoming a film publication, or an art publication, but rather allow the leeway and possibilities of simply writing and creating anything we want from any medium and any format. That is why the oxymoronic name “Broadly Specific” was chosen.

The slightly longer answer would be that we believe everything has meanings, emotions, and purposes that deserve an equal spotlight. From cinema, gaming, music, literature and so on; every one of these mediums was created with hands that moulded it with a purpose, or at least with enough emotion for it to come across as some sort of message. From the obscure to the mainstream; the populist and the “artsy”, all have the potentials to be viewed through a critical lens that attempts to extrapolate meanings through the usage of the established sciences such as sociology, psychology, history, natural science, philosophy, and so on. More than that, we believe in the ability of criticism to add something to the piece of art, to be able to add new ideas and meanings into what was thought to be definite, rather than only inferring meanings from them.

Finally, we want to break the individual bubbles that most of these different mediums and niches have. Indeed, that is not to say that enthusiasts of, say, cinema would not touch a video game console; plenty of people are multifaceted and dabble in a bit of everything. But it is also true that oftentimes, any deeper analyses and insights into bodies of works often stay in certain circles and certain publications that specialize in them. Thus, we try to remove this barrier and have enthusiasts from one particular medium exposed to something that they might not usually even consider. Will this plan to reach everyone but cater to no one backfire on us? most likely.

A BREAKDOWN OF WHAT WE DO:

Features: These are extensively researched, long 2000-4000+ words essays about a particular topic in a particular medium. These are often done in a scholarly, academic way and attempt to push some sort of academic inquiry forward. An example of this would be ‘The Doctors of Akira Kurosawa: Between Ethics and Paternalism‘ by Bondan Syamsu.
Curated List Essay (Features): These are essays where we create a curated list of something but also add meaningful commentary and information on each entry. An example of this would be ‘Filmography: Contemporary Kurosawa‘ by Bondan Syamsu
Review: This is the typical style of review as meaningful criticism of a body of work, designed to not only examine the implications and messages of a work but also to infer whether the creators executed these ideas well or if they fell short. This does not have to be in the form of a review with a score at the end of it, but sometimes it may very well be. An example of this would be ‘Indonesian Films at the Center of Its Anti-Sexual Violence Discourse: Shifting People’s Perspective From Posesif to 27 Steps of May
Audio Essay Podcast: These are bite-sized, edited and scripted podcasts presented as an audio essay. What this means is that the podcast will act more as an auditory experience where the narration would provide essential information about a particular work with interview audios and other forms of music and dialogue interspersed in between. An example would be our Post-Watch Blues series, such as ‘Post-Watch Blues: Chungking Express‘.
Discussion Podcast: This is a series of talks and discussions with guests and panellists where we talk about a particular topic or a particular piece. This will be presented in our “B.S____Club” series such as ‘B.S Gaming Club: Why We’re Worried For That Silent Hill 2 Remake’. The tone will vary, but oftentimes they can range between serious, professional, or downright humorous and lighthearted.
Video Essay (Coming Soon): This will be our next big step, and we believe this to be our main path in the future. Stay tuned.