Personal Computer : ramin ntaangan

Personal computer : ramin ntaangan (2022-2023) was commissioned by The Lock Up for ‘PLAYGROUND’, curated by Holly Farrell. It exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art as part of ‘Primavera 2023: Young Australian Artists’.

Personal Computer : ramin ntaangan (2022-2023) features a custom PC built by the artist in the style of a Bidayǔh longhouse. Longhouses were large, raised communal homes built by Indigenous communities in Borneo. Constructed from forest materials, longhouses were once the heart of Bidayǔh life and knowledge, but since colonisation most have been demolished and replaced with Western-style housing. Those few that remain are continually evolving, hybrid structures, built using native hardwoods with extensions in concrete and tile. As an isolated Bidayǔh woman living far from ancestral lands, much of Baker’s research and connection with culture is maintained through her digital life - on Facebook groups, Whatsapp chats with friends and family and using internet searches. Baker has imagined her computer as a personal trove of references - a knowledge machine that enshrines her connection to culture. Conceived of as an iterative project that undergoes continual adjustment and customisation, Baker’s custom longhouse PC imagines the intersection of her digital life and her Bidayǔh heritage as deeply treasured and full of world-building potential. 

Artwork details:
computer parts, computer monitors, screensaver videos, bamboo, timber, palm and coconut leaf, plastic twine, heirloom machete, sunflower seeds, LED lighting, foam, paint, lucky bamboo

Blender animation by Jean-Luc Schmid.


Personal computer : ramin ntaangan, 2022-2023, installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, NSW. Documentation by Zan Wimberley.



Personal computer : ramin ntaangan, 2022-2023, detail view, Museum of Contemporary Art, NSW. Documentation by Zan Wimberley.



Personal computer : ramin ntaangan, 2022-2023, installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, NSW. Documentation by Zan Wimberley.



Personal computer : ramin ntaangan, 2022, installation view, The Lock Up, NSW. Documentation by Ben Adams.