Tromarama

The Kitchen presents Tromarama: Upon a Machine. Upon a Machine is a newly commissioned project for The Kitchen at Westbeth and marks the Indonesia-based art collective’s debut exhibition in the United States. Tromarama—comprising Febie Babyrose, Ruddy Hatumena, and Herbert Hans—has developed an installation that employs an AI model to remix and reinterpret The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (1992–94) by Don Rosa, a text steeped in capitalist themes that shaped the collective’s upbringing and is here reexamined through a postcolonial lens.

Upon a Machine continues Tromarama’s ongoing exploration of the role of technology in civic life. The exhibition constructs a hyperreal environment in which the boundaries between virtual and physical realities are heightened. Sculptural elements place the AI system in dialogue with household items that activate musical instruments throughout the space, creating an unpredictable, responsive soundscape. Sound plays a central role: passages from The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck are paired with a composition that reinterprets Disney’s 1940 anthem “When You Wish Upon a Star,” presented through karaoke-style projection to produce a dreamlike, dissonant score. Both the text and sound anchor the exhibition’s investigation into the cultural moment of the early 90s in Indonesia, an important reference point for the collective. Influenced by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart’s Marxist critique of How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic (1971), Tromarama reorients the narratives of Scrooge McDuck toward a postcolonial critique of capital, examining how cultural production circulates within global systems of power.

Activating the exhibition is a series of live performances featuring singers, musicians, and dancers working across gospel, opera, jazz, and tap, who improvise in response to prompts generated by the AI model. These performances extend the installation’s inquiry into collective interpretation, authorship, and machine-led composition and Tromarama’s continued investment in the blurred reality of labor and leisure within a global techno-saturated culture landscape. By inviting artists across performative disciplines to participate in this way, Tromarama underscores the importance of human expression inside technological frameworks. Community programs and public dialogues will further examine the intersections of sound, image, and critique within contemporary transnational contexts.

Tromarama has been working collaboratively since 2006, when its members first met in art school and their collaboration began with directing music videos. Their multidisciplinary practice spans video, installation, performance, and digital media, often addressing the entanglements of technology, culture, and everyday life.

Upon a Machine is organized by Robyn Farrell, Senior Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs with support from Fernanda Escalera Zambrano, Operations Manager and Curatorial Intern, Emma Huerta. Production by David Riley, Production & Exhibitions Manager, and Tassja Walker, Production Supervisor.