Art can be found anywhere around you. Art can express the messages in a thousand words rather saying words that people will forget as time goes. While I was in Indonesia, I went to visit one of the street village in Yogyakarta, the capital of the Indonesian Island of Java, and it was really an amazing experience. I was really shocked that those street arts in Indonesia are all very graphic, have a very deep meaning and pretty in its own way. Unlike Sydney, Australia, street arts are very contemporary and unique.
Walking through the village in Yogyakarta, it gave me a feeling of depression which shows the artist feels through art. According to MOCAtv that highlights about political street art in Yoyakarta, there are a lot of technique to do art, such as poster sticking and stencil painting just like graffiti. One of the taggers, named Digie Sigit (DS13), said his productions or creations were based on social, humanistic, political culture and concepts of local culture that he got from public. The other tagger is also a street artist who based on street poster. His works are also mainly talking about socio-political issues too.
On the other hand, in the city of Sydney, “art in public places is one of the indicators of a flourishing cultural life. It can add joy, texture and complexity to the public domain, help to define our places, tell our stories, and preserve our memories for future generations.” As myself, one of Sydney people, I feel like art in Sydney shows much more of freedom and contemporary. Talking about street art in Sydney, this is a street art program which is called City Art Program and it is for public art, to support local and international artists and contribute to the creative and cultural heartbeat of the City of Sydney. However, there are some street arts that is based on political and was painted illegally.
There are millions of arts across the world. I think street art is one of the good messenger to give people messages of what to be aware of and what is happening in today’s world.
Vehicles are caught in a traffic jam in Jakarta February 6, 2013. To match Special Report INDONESIA-AUTO/ REUTERS/Beawiharta (INDONESIA – Tags: TRANSPORT BUSINESS CITYSCAPE)
Indonesia, Jakarta has known for its traffic issue which happens everyday, all days and all nights. According to Jakarta Globe (2016), Jakarta has been selected as the city with the worst traffic congestion among the world. Few Indonesian guys has made a music video parody to One Direction song “What makes you beautiful” by changing lyrics they want to convey people of what Indonesia looks like and posted on YouTube via CameoProject channel. Basically, the video is about Jakarta unsolvable traffic congestion and corruption
In the video, it started with a guy was sleeping on a bed and the alarm goes off. Then he turned it off and woke up thinking that he has to renew his photo ID. He gets changed and went out of his house seeing traffic jams are everywhere. He sang saying “Hundreds of people taking on the jammed road and Cars, motorbikes, wagon, all fight for their path out”. He kept singing why it’s always become so trafficked. He also talked about government were going to build MRT but it’s not that as soon as they want it be. He said he would have moved to Bali where there is no traffic such like Jakarta always has been.
It took 3 hours for them to get to the office with their sweats. Then they were surprised how many people were also waiting and queue up just to go in. After they waiting with hot and unpleasant atmosphere. At last the officer came out and said that it will take three months to finish the process. He said to hand some money to hurry the process. They told that they don’t have sufficient money to bribe him.
They started question, “My Jakarta, how come you are so cruel like this?”. They stated those problems that are on-going day by day in Jakarta such as street jammed, soiled, disordered.
They wanted all problems to be solved so there will no more traffic jams and no more bribery.
From my perspective, most issues that were stated in the video are true because I heard the same thing from friends those are living in Indonesia and had experience to Jakarta traffic. Moreover, for corruption issue, they are everywhere all around the world. Money can buy most of the things you want. I hope there will be a way to solve these problems.
My alarms ring
in the morning
I’m still sleepy, gotta close my eyes for a blink
I recall that
I must be fast
Go to lurah nearby to renew my ID card
Right from the bed I jump immediately
Getting ready A-S-A-P
Falling astonished in the minute I find out
Hundreds of people taking on the jammed road
Cars, motorbikes, wagon, all fight for their path out
In what way
Ay.. Ay..
can I go across the way?
How come it’s always this trafficky?
It’s been so long, can’t the solvers be in hurry?
They said they were going to build an MRT **
If I knew this
I is
I would have moved to Bali
ih ih
Instead I’m stuck in Semanggi
(notorious for its traffic jam)
Three, THREE hours!
Trip of ours
Arrives in lurah’s office, after getting lost
Sweating like horse
Tired, oh gosh
Hugely surprised when I see how darn long the queue was
My Jakarta, how come you are like this?
Lining up without sign to cease
I sit in waiting line with thirty applicants
Fanning ourselves, we all were hot and unpleasant
Sweat starts trickling all over from our sweat gland
At what place
Ah ah
are lurah* officers here?
At last come out one man shows his face
Ferocious grimace with long, space-wasting mustache
He tells it will need three months to finish the process
Unless ya…
Ah ah
hand a sum to grease my palms.”
Ah ah
I got insufficient fund ._.
Where Where Where will I get cash from?
It’s left behind in my room.”
He tells me to try come back tomorrow
He gets my mouth wide open
My Jakarta, how come you are so cruel like this?
Street jammed, soiled, disordered, going day by day
In every place, payoff does not seem to cease
I do need
eh ed
I do need Mas*** Jokowi
I do want Jakarta’s street jams to be solved
I do want Jakarta’s slum places to be handled
No longer bribery taking place here and there
I do want
ah ant
Jokowi and Basuki
I do want flooding to be handled
Development fund is not going to be slipped
Impoverished townsmen also to be assisted
I do want
Ah ant
I do want mas Jokowi
Ih ih
Also mas Basuki
Ih ih
Jokowi and Basuki
* “Lurah” is a district headman
** MRT refers to Jakarta’s monorail train; an unfinished project—suspected due to great corruption in its development fund—for Jakarta’s mass transportation. Its pylons now litter the streets of Jakarta. Semanggi is one of the most crowded points in Jakarta, known for its shopping centres. They imply that they are caught on Semanggi’s traffic jam.
*** Mas is the Javanese word for big bro. Instead of ‘Mister’, Jokowi uses a more friendly term to address himself in campaign.
air, and land are all now polluted. In Indonesia, there are a lot of environmental issue. One of the issue that have been one of biggest issue in Indonesia is waste management that is now mounting as growing household consumption and the rising business activity and create a higher volume of food waste, plastic and industrial byproducts. In order to solve the problem, Indonesian government has tried to stricken waste management and recycling regulation. In addition to help solving the waste. A collective of creative people has grouped up and brainstorm around the idea of helping the environment to get better. Upcycling is their solution. In stead of recycling by burn and melt those waste into different product, Upcycling is even better solution by make those waste for different uses.
Sapu is what they called themselves. Sapu is based in Salatiga which is a town at the foot of the volcano Mount Merbabu, and formed of designers, sewers, recyclists, artists, musicians, scientists and writers whose are originated from Central Java and Australia. Initially, Sapu was just a group of few members and involved with local Indonesian NGO named Komunitas TUK—Tanam Untuk Kehidupan. They collect recycle material from waste, other used objects, unused pieces found in households or work spaces, such as inner tire tubes, plastic drink bottles, old magazines, and etc. to create beautiful, useful and stylish products and art. Those products include bracelets, necklaces, wallets, bags, t-shirt and other jewelry and they believe that “recycling makes the world a better place!”. They aim to give those trashes a second life.
In the process of creating the products, they first start off collecting those inner tire tubes that are thrown away and then get it cleaned and treated. After that I cut in into a shaped that is measured into size that fit a certain type of design, such as wallet, bag or a bracelet. It then got design into a very unique style to suit the use of the product itself. In term of profits, Sapu always gives their 10% of their turnover to TUK to help with environmental issue.
I feel like Sapu is really great community which can help their art and craft of Indonesian culture. Doing upcycling is really helping environment a lot with the waste that cannot be disposed. By making it for another use and give it second life, earth will be a better place.
Magno is a product brand which is known for its flawless wooden radio. Magno was created in 2004 by Singgih Kartono. Magno logo beauty is in the letter ‘g’. He was interested in letter ‘g’ that has a really complicated and zig zag form. Most logos usually uses its first letter to be its logo, however he thought of it in different way. He took a letter from his brand that has a better and interesting form to make it more recognizable. When he first started the company, he was interested in metal weaving, however it was not success as he was expected. Then he got inspired from one of his friends while he was visiting his friend’s house, and he saw a magnifying glass that was made of wood. He started brainstorming around wood idea and what he can create out of the wood. His first initial was to make stationary series, such as stapler, scissor and scalpel.
In 2005, he won a Gold award and a Good design for his wooden stationery design. After that, he started to create another unique product that made out of wood which is a manual radio that we need to wheel up and down to find specific channel. However, he was struggling with the inside electronic part for 7 years that he had been contacting with different electronic company until he lost his patience and broke a radio just to get the inside just to get his wooden radio worked. Surprisingly, his wooden radio got selected and won a Gold award.
The reason behind his wooden design, he thinks that nature is the only thing that is the closest to human. Since wood is a part of nature, he believes that he could bring his design that are made out of wood make human feel a sense of closeness to the nature itself.
Singgih Kartono is now on a new project to create wooden backpack which is called “Nag-Nad-Nak”. He wants to create his own and local brand for students to use because students nowadays are zoned out with international brands, such as Adidas and Nike. Due to this issue, he wants to educate them to be proud of what they have and not upset about not having those trendy branded products.
One thing that I learnt from interviewing Singgih Kartono is answer that from the question that I said him of what he will see himself in the next 5 years. His answer is so simple and professional. He said that he made the right choice since he has come this far by himself. He also said in the next 5 years, he can himself lose and fail or big successful person, so he is not afraid to fail or lose because people make mistakes so they can grow from it. I found it really inspired.
Indonesia Global Design Studio 
