A Milky Way of Endless Stories
Why I Forwent a Life of Science in Pursuit of a Life of Stories
9 AM, some time in June 2013. I stopped for coffee in a small shop close to my laboratory. I had soy instead of dairy that morning. Several steps later I was in an old research building: well-kept, but showed age in places — chipped granite floors, faded wallpaper, old furniture. An elevator ride later, I sat by my station looking at the plan for the day’s experiment: extracting astrocytes from a 19-day old rat’s hippocampus. I stood up, got into my lab coat, and headed towards the animal facilities.
3AM, the next day. I just finished cleaning the lab — knifes properly stowed, Erlenmeyer bottles properly cleaned, weighing stations free of salt and sugar residues. The hallways were empty as I exited the building into the parking lot. I made my way to the rooftop, climbed a platform meant for reception towers, and laid flat facing the dark night sky, and my mind drifted to her. What stories should I tell? I asked myself.
10PM, sometime in July 2013. I sat in a sofa with her by my side. A book splayed with writings and drawings in front of us — stories: real ones, and the ones we made up. Stories of people we met. Stories where the songs were silent. Stories where we were immortal. Stories of us.
2AM, sometime in September 2017. I sat in a coffee shop in Glodok, Jakarta. I had soy instead of dairy that morning, but I was nowhere near any research facility. I was with my camera, my lab coat long gone.
Throwing Away White Coats to Chase Stories
For anyone else, it would have been unthinkable: Quitting a promising career in a lab, with all the traditional path of upwards mobility set before oneself, to pursue a most unconventional path as an artist. If anyone called me crazy, I would believe them.
And yet my heart lies with stories, not mice and cells. Through my fingers, the shutter it holds, the paper upon which my hands draw, and the screen that portrays the words I type.
I used to play around a lot with cameras when I was much younger. I had this Olympus Trip-35 when I was around six years old. But when you were six, nobody takes your art seriously. When you’re quite good at science — which I was — you should aspire to become a scientist when you grow up. Not some lowly artist.
It was a quasi-natural law of society that everyone deemed true. It was a law believed back then.
I enjoyed science, so I pursued it for some years. In 2011 I started my position as a laboratory assistant in a neuroscience lab. And I found out the hard way that liking science as a topic that enrich your knowledge and curiosity, and the meticulous daily grind it takes to actually pursue it as a lifelong career, were two entirely different things.
So I needed an escape. I started playing around with cameras again, and started writing stories.
When I met her, stories were all we had. They were the glue that kept us together. They were my drug.
And so I began chasing for them, off the lab, and onto the roads.
A Cup of Coffee that led to a Spaceship
After some years in Ohio, then London, the chase for stories finally led me back to Jakarta. As with every place I visit, I wanted to meet fellow storytellers. That was when I came across Bonni Rambatan’s writings on Medium, and decided to shoot him an email. A cup of coffee later it was apparent that he and I had a similar interest in storytelling.
When NaoBun Project took off a year later, I was invited to work on a couple of projects that piqued my interest — CharaTalks and Sailor Spica.
CharaTalks is the first time I would be working in production dealing with the different stages of video production. For me, it’s about learning the workflow. But, as with all the projects we do, we always make room for spontaneous stupid jokes; there was this one gag that we came up with on the fly for a CharaTalks episode that I just adore — you’ll see it when it airs!
Sailor Spica, on the other hand, is a space-themed transmedia project that explores ideas of longing, love, uncertainty, and disappointment — both personally and as a society. For me, it’s a project propelled by my own longing for a person dear to my heart, in hopes that this spaceship will bring me closer to said person, no matter how unlikely. It’s a collaborative project told through music, photography, and comics, with a no-holds-barred sense of exploration into space, both thematically and figuratively, and it’s very exciting to do.
And so with NaoBun Project I encounter new stories. I listen to more and tell more. But most importantly, with NaoBun Project, I found friends and fellow storytellers.
Forever Chasing, Forever Cherishing
Recently, I also founded my own storytelling startup. With Yusgunawan Marto with his background in film and advertising, and Rendy Darmawan with his background in broadcasting, I founded SPARCstories, a visual storytelling studio that aim to tell poignant, memorable, and human stories.
And really, poignant stories are what I’m all about — stories people can remember and come back to from time to time. Be it with NaoBun Project, SPARCstories, or in my personal work, I aim to tell the best possible stories through my craft.
I’ve come a long way since that day in June 2013. A long way since I exchanged my first stories with her, since she gave me the realization of how meaningful storytelling can be. I long to see her once more, but until then, these pair of eyes that see the world through stories is a gift from her I will forever cherish.
And so I take to the roads once more. Forever chasing stories. Forever cherishing them.
Adhytia Putra is the resident photographer and videographer at NaoBun Project. This article was written by him from questions by Sesa Wulandari, further edited by Bonni Rambatan. Check out his works on his website below:
The NaoBun Project is a Jakarta-based comic book studio, storytelling consultancy, and artists development initiative focused on social transformation. If you’re interested in collaborating with them, or just saying hello, shoot an e-mail over to hello@naobunproject.id.
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