Exploring Indigenous Material of Thorny Pandanus Pangandaran as

Indonesian Traditional Craft in the Creative Context

Yan Yan Sunarya

, Husen Hendriyana

and I Nyoman Darmaputra

Department of Craft, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia

Department of Visual Art, Institut Seni Budaya Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia

Department of Literature, Culture, and Tourism, UNUD Denpasar Bali, Denpasar, Indonesia

Keywords:

Creative Context, Exploring Design, Indigenous Material, Pangandaran Thorny Pandanus, Traditional Craft.

Abstract:

The creative industry is a mainstay of supporting the national economy. The novelty in the ﬁnding of this

research is that the people’s product taste generally becomes the main consideration in the creative context

aspect in the current and future creative industries, which includes the development of product design, along

with its economic projections, and additionally the Indonesian aesthetic characters integrated into traditional

craft products that have sociological impact. The scope of this research is the development of creative prod-

ucts such as design, production, effective technology, distribution and marketing, management of indigenous

renewable raw materials based on natural environment tourism on the coast of the southern coastal area of

Pangandaran. The focus is on exploring the indigenous thorny pandanus material as material for the develop-

ment of traditional craft products in the Pangandaran tourism area. The applied creative design methods with

explorative and experimental creative process and design of creative economic products. The aim is to realize

eco-design ideas and concepts by capturing potential natural resources, crafters as human resources of home

industry, and Pangandaran tourism as a representation of the national creative industry cluster, which enhances

the competitiveness of superior national creative products through expanding national and international market

access.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the book entitled “The Science of Art and De-

sign”, published by the Faculty of Art and Design of

Bandung Institute of Technology (B. Anas, 2010), it

is stated that design is a scientiﬁc phenomenon that

grows along with the development of design as an

object of study. In its scientiﬁc studies, design does

not only observe design objects as functional objects,

but also probes further by placing them as meaningful

objects. Gradually, in line with the scientiﬁc devel-

opments and research programs, design science has

established itself as a new science that has its own

epistemology.

As the level of education becomes higher, design

is no longer only seen as a speciﬁc object of study.

It is drawn into a broader area of cultural studies,

namely as a region of visual culture studies. In a

macro understanding, visual culture is a form of tan-

gible and visible human work. In a speciﬁc under-

standing, it is a form of visual work that becomes an

integral part of modern human life and its value sys-

tem. In addition to historical studies, especially ob-

servations of the dynamics of Indonesian culture, it

also extends to observe the phenomenon of the de-

velopment of modern design. The main issues that

are the focus of study and thoughts in design science

and visual culture include the development of design

theories, the development of design methodologies,

the development of basic science in the ﬁeld of de-

sign, cross-disciplinary studies between design and

other ﬁelds, visual language with various aspects, de-

sign history and visual culture in general, social im-

pact of design works, design strategies, design and

development, and development of futuristic designs.

As a relatively new scientiﬁc domain, scientiﬁc stud-

ies of design and visual culture have enabled efforts

to study and explain various phenomena in contem-

porary culture that have developed in the community.

In addition, it has examined the developing Indone-

sian and foreign visual culture. The condition has

been triggered by the widespread of the visual civ-

ilization over the past few decades which was built

by information and communication technology, thus

Sunarya, Y., Hendriyana, H. and Darmaputra, I.

Exploring Indigenous Material of Thorny Pandanus Pangandaran as Indonesian Traditional Craft in the Creative Context.

DOI: 10.5220/0009323500380042

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Science, Engineering and Social Sciences (ICASESS 2019), pages 38-42

ISBN: 978-989-758-452-7

the exploration of visual culture is no longer lim-

ited to something visible, but it also covers ideology,

values, and the mentality of the practitioners. Since

creative craft industry is the research object, the in-

dustry has the potential to be developed, considering

that this industry has extensive resources and also a

production mechanism that encourages high demand

for the needs of creativity and character in the craft,

design, and tourism entrepreneurship. This research

covers the development of knowledge of creative de-

sign products such as design, production, effective

technology, distribution and marketing, and manage-

ment of indigenous renewable raw materials, based

on the local natural (tourism) area. Along the coast

of southern Pangandaran Regency, wild thorny pan-

danus plants grows. Thus the focus of this research

lies in exploring the indigenous renewable material

for the development of traditional craft products in

Pangandaran tourism area, towards the realization of

regional superior products in creative context and in-

creasing the welfare of local tourism crafters and sou-

venir traders, as well as increasing regional original

income with regional superior products characterized

by the cultural identity of Pangandaran tourism.

2 PANGANDARAN AND THE

POTENTIAL OF THORNY

PANDANUS

Pangandaran is known as one of the famous tourist

destinations in West Java that has the potential of nat-

ural marine resources. Southern Pangandaran has a

coastal area of 91 km, and the wild thorny pandanus

grows along 41.85 km of the southern coast region.

Hence, the focus of this research is on exploring the

indigenous thorny pandanus as materials for devel-

oping traditional craft products in the Pangandaran

tourism area towards the realization of superior prod-

ucts regions as well as the increasing welfare of local

tourism crafters and souvenir traders, that also adds

to the regional income, with regional superior prod-

ucts speciﬁc to the cultural identity of Pangandaran

tourism (H. Hendriyana, 2019).

The thorny pandanus plants (Figure 1) have the

potential to be used as raw materials for craft prod-

ucts, as well as regional superior products that can

support tourism in the Pangandaran Regency. Pan-

danus leaves can be used as raw material for prod-

ucts such as mats, sandals, bags, boxes, and wallets

(Figure 2). One example of superior product support-

ing Pangandaran tourism is hotel sandals. Using the

abundant raw materials, trained local crafters can real-

ize the advantages of quality and sustainable products.

The rationale is through the cooperation between the

academic sector, the craftsmen community, hoteliers,

local traders and exporters, and the government as

policy and regulation makers. The local government

requires the hotels to purchase or distribute products

(hotel slippers) made by local artisans. Moreover,

thorny pandanus ﬁbers can be used for composite

building materials, such as Asbestos, GRC (Glass-

ﬁber Reinforced Cement) with several variants (GRC

Panel, GRC Cladding, GRC Jali, GRC Reinforced,

GFRC (Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete), etc.) and

also interior body kit for cars, trains, and motorized

tourist boats or canoes.

Figure 1: Thorny pandanus plants in Pangandaran Regency.

3 PURPOSE

The objectives of this research include: (a) Realiz-

ing eco-design ideas and concepts by capturing the

potentials of natural resources, human resources for

home industry craftsmen, and Pangandaran tourism

as a representation of the national creative industry

cluster; (b) Designing a method and a creative process

model in realizing environmentally friendly and su-

perior local products based on thorny pandanus ﬁber

that support sustainable tourism and the economy of

Exploring Indigenous Material of Thorny Pandanus Pangandaran as Indonesian Traditional Craft in the Creative Context

Figure 2: Similar craft products that are competitors for wo-

ven pandanus products, to anticipate plagiarism, including:

hats by Japanese craftsmen, hotel sandals, laced shoes, and

by local craftmen.

communities in Pangandaran; (c) Strengthening and

applying product development methodologies in the

scale of Small and Medium Industries oriented to the

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) that prioritize cre-

ativity and effective technology in the production pro-

cess; (d) Designing joint commitments from various

related elements in realizing regional superior prod-

ucts, economic welfare of the local community, and

increasing regional income added value from the cre-

ative and tourism industry sectors in Pangandaran;

and (e) Increasing the competitiveness of national su-

perior creative products through the expansion of na-

tional and international market access.

4 METHODOLOGY

The applied creative design methods (Hendriyana,

2018), and (Lawson, 1980) with explorative and ex-

perimental creative process and design of creative

economic products are as follows: (a) Revitalization

of creative products by analyzing the potential of cre-

ative products in the research area, identifying cre-

ative products according to market needs in the Pan-

gandaran region as a tourism city, and developing the

creative product and transferring of technology from

traditional to simple machine technology; (b) Devel-

opment of traditional craft products into contempo-

rary products based on cultural identity by analyzing

market potential and identifying consumer lifestyles,

and re-conceptualizing the aesthetics of contempo-

rary products based on national/international market

reputation; and (c) Rebrand of superior products to-

wards the development of national superior product

concepts.

Figure 3: Creative process elaborates diverge and converge

ways of thinking.

5 VALUES

The economic potential of the products include: (1)

the product variations in line with the development of

people’s lifestyles; (2) fulﬁllment of the segmentation

of new market shares in various craft and hotel mar-

kets; (3) the shift from traditional home industry tech-

nology towards simple industrial machinery through

research on the feasibility and strength of thorny pan-

danus ﬁbers as renewable material that can be used as

ﬁber materials for products of car interior body, rock

climbing clothes, and other clothing products such as

pray mats, bags, slippers, mats, and so on.

The added value of the products to science, tech-

nology and art include: (1) development of appropri-

ate design/craft knowledge for Small and Medium In-

dustries (SMIs); (2) resulting an appropriate method

for the development of SMIs, both in terms of tech-

nology, design, work procedures, and market devel-

opment which will be applied in relatively the same

conditions in other regions; (3) improvement of de-

sign quality.

The national social impacts include: (1) an in-

crease in design and quality insights for craftsmen and

entrepreneurs; (2) the development and maintenance

of the potential of regional socio-culture that has nu-

ances of Indonesian culture.

Efforts to strengthen cultural heritage identity in-

clude: (1) increasing the understanding of user char-

ICASESS 2019 - International Conference on Applied Science, Engineering and Social Science

acteristics when interacting with creative products

that have cultural content, through revitalizing tradi-

tional craft regions as an effort to increase cultural

identity in eco-design contexts for creative economy-

based industrial clusters (contemporary craft products

made of pandanus ﬁber); and (2) demonstrating the

distinctiveness of craft products as unique products

and have a different visual application background

from other regions.

6 DESIGN IN THE CONTEXT OF

USEFULNESS AND

CREATIVITY

The elaboration on the philosophy of design in the

context of usefulness rests on the socio-historical

point of view of the ﬁeld of design that relates to

the ﬁeld of philosophy. This research did not try to

explain the linkages between the theories of the two

ﬁelds—even though there are linkages, it requires in-

tensive study—instead, it sought to explain the con-

nection of substantial conceptual phenomena as a

meeting point between the two ﬁelds of science.

It starts with an understanding of the world of de-

sign which is not only appreciating design works as

mere artifacts, but it is also an integrated view that

covers cultural values and thoughts, and the accompa-

nying socio-economic changes. Design is not a stan-

dalone product, but it is a living order of civilization.

Even historians argue that design is an integrated and

synergistic form of humans, nature, and social en-

vironment in a broad and substantial sense (Walker,

1989).

Design is inseparable from the aspect of creativ-

ity as the spearhead of design. Substantively, it can-

not be separated from human ideas, namely elements

of reason (ratio, logic, thoughts, ideas, and so on)

and elements of taste (creativity, intuition, inspiration,

taste, value -values, and so on). In viewing the cur-

rent development of design and creativity, there has

been an established mutualistic relationships, namely

as an order of physical cultural works, which are born

from various considerations of thoughts, ideas, tastes,

and souls of the designers, and they are supported

by external factors concerning discoveries in science,

technology, art, social environment, values, culture,

aesthetic rules, economic and political conditions, as

well as projections of future developments. Its role

is increasingly important in the order of physical cul-

tural work, especially to support creative economic

growth and increase the quality of human life.

On one hand, when referring to efforts in applying

innovative approaches of design to that produce inno-

vative products, then design innovation in the context

of creativity is the solution to the deadlock of creativ-

ity. This design innovation is based on exploration

activities on the superiority and uniqueness of indige-

nous materials and design ideas to be developed into

products that have originality and new function val-

ues. On the other hand, the world of creativity indi-

cates the convergence of concepts and practices from

creative design works, originating from individual tal-

ents collaborating with cultural industries on a large

scale through the use of new technological media in

the digital era which is a new economic knowledge

as a way of using new interactive media in the con-

sumer community. The emergence of this new-faced

world of creativity is a result of changes in the global

technological and economic ﬁelds and the widespread

use of various forms of interactive media (such as

high-capability computers), as well as commercial ex-

ploitation of IPR-based goods and services. In short,

design is a modern object culture. In essence, it is

built by involving aspects of human images in view-

ing the world, mastery of technology, understand-

ing of science, and aesthetic values. Starting from

creative images, humans build their world—with the

support of science, technological proﬁciency, and tan-

gible aesthetic values—into products that are func-

tionally useful, and meaningful in human civilization

((A. Sachari, 1999) and (Sunarya, 2014)).

7 CURRENT AND FUTURE

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

The creative industry in Indonesia is one of the main-

stays that is expected to support the national econ-

omy (Pangestu, 2008). At present, the creative in-

dustries, especially small industries, are the one that

empowers the most workers, which utilize local nat-

ural resources, and national cultural wealth, so that

its development deserves attention. The products pro-

duced by small industries now have relatively short

and fast changing life cycles. Therefore, a strategy

model is needed in developing new designs. This is

one of the keys that becomes the strength of the na-

tional creative industry to be able to have excellent

competitive power in the national and regional mar-

kets. In developing an accurate product development

strategy, all elements must be assessed on the basis of

the goals and objectives. Another element is the con-

trol function that identiﬁes the phenomena of global

change and development. This function must work

responsively and quickly in informing processed data

in evaluating the strategy. Thus, as a designer, it

Exploring Indigenous Material of Thorny Pandanus Pangandaran as Indonesian Traditional Craft in the Creative Context

is necessary to strategize by adopting a design con-

cept with an interactive-participatory approach (Hen-

driyana, 2017).

The development of design in creative industries is

related to the development of culture in the visual cul-

ture setting, coupled with the increasingly widespread

claims of ownership of designs. Design innovation

in product diversiﬁcation with applied local wisdom

as a cultural heritage step is to become the basis for

exploring and implementing local-based designs. In

general, it is said that there are still weaknesses in

the craftsmen’s competency level due to: (a) the qual-

ity of production, the lack of visual appeal/design and

quality; (b) lack of the ability to read the market situ-

ation; and (c) competitors of similar small industries.

Thus, an aspect that must be improved in this case

is the ability of the craftsman to be able to carry out

production techniques in terms of the production pro-

cess and design improvements, and to diversify their

products through creative capabilities.

8 CONCLUSIONS

Exploring the indigenous material of Thorny Pan-

danus Pangandaran as Indonesian Traditional Craft

in The Creative Context is a design strategy that has

aspects of design innovation in its implementation

related to the current and future creative industries

including the development of product design, along

with economic projections. In general, the products

of public taste are the main consideration, in addition

to the Indonesian aesthetic character is sought to be an

integrated part of the product which has a sociological

impact.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This article is part of the 2019 DIKTI (Higher Edu-

cation) applied research, entitled: Eco-Design: Ek-

splorasi dan Aplikasi Material Bahan Pandan Berduri

untuk Mendukung Ekonomi Kreatif Kriya Seni dan

Pariwisata di Pangandaran (Exploration and Appli-

cations of Thorny Pandanus Material to Support the

Creative Economy of Craft Art and Tourism in Pan-

gandaran).

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ICASESS 2019 - International Conference on Applied Science, Engineering and Social Science