This article discusses the Bibitulit interactive installation series, which uses people’s technology—particularly the TOA—to examine the relationship between sound, technology, and power in Indonesian public spaces. Employing a practice-led research approach, Bibitulit recontextualizes the TOA as a symbol of sonic domination and a tool of social control, creating participatory experiences that reveal hidden power dynamics in daily life. The eight works produced between 2017 and 2023 combine readymade objects, sensors, and microcontrollers to explore issues such as sonic control, symbolic obedience, information distortion, and the representation of minority voices. Installations such as bowing TOAs and layered sound distortions go beyond technological aesthetics, functioning as social critiques of inequalities in public sound hierarchies. This article shows how people’s technologies like TOAs can be transformed into agents of critique within contemporary art practices, creating spaces for reflection on who speaks, who listens, and how sound mediates power relations.
Keywords: TOA, people’s technology, interactive installation, sonic domination