Design draws from its surroundings; its function is completely dependent on context which is a complex mix of culture, time and place. Local context is a more direct combination of political and social influences specific to a time and place. Doing the studio in Banjarmasin, and visiting Java and Bali afterwards was a fascinating insight into a country that has so much diversity in religion, culture and ethnic groups. A focal point was understanding how this multiplicity and unity must be negotiated internally and as a collective, especially among Indonesian youth and their socio-political organisations and subcultures.

Music scene in Yogyakarta (Warning Magazine, 2014)

Indonesia is highly urbanised and operates around the cycle of consumerism that has become associated with modern life. This has only really developed in the past 20 years, after the fall of the authoritarian Soeharto regime in 1998. Combined with the flood of changes from globalisation and the internet, the country went through enormous changes and its design culture has been constantly trying to find and reaffirm the characteristics and definition of ‘Indonesian design’. (Luvaas, 2009) Part of this exploration was the DIY movement that grew in reaction to the saturation of mass-market global culture and its products. Indonesian youth culture flourished in the 2000s with this low-fi, punk sensibility across design, art, fashion and music, which has left a major impression on cities such as Bandung and Yogyakarta. (Luvaas, 2009) Reclaiming modes of production by reverting to handmade goods with smaller runs is a common feature of punk and anti-resistance movements the world over, as self-publishing gives one greater freedom of expression. (Moran, 2010)

Though that was an example of a reaction against the changing context, the local and global context we are simultaneously situated in can both be a source of inspiration for design. Architecture and furniture design is being experimented with by many Indonesian designers, such as Alvin Tjitrowirjo, whose contemporary furniture incorporates Indonesian culture through the materials used and is exhibited internationally. (Emond, 2010)

Design’s ability to change the physical, and thus the emotional world makes it uniquely poised to react to and influence the state of affairs, through subversive art, music, fashion, and architecture.

REFERENCE LIST

Emond, B., 2010, ‘Feature: Indonesia by design’, McClatchy – Tribune Business News, 11 October, viewed 1 February 2018, < https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/docview/757147145/A2EB77E1697344CCPQ/19?accountid=17095&gt;.

Luvaas, B. 2009, Generation DIY: Youth, class, and the culture of digital production in digital-age Indonesia, dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.

Moran, I. P., 2010, ‘Punk: The do-it-yourself subculture’, Social Sciences Journal, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 58-65.

Warning Magazine, 2014, Yogya crowd, photograph, viewed 1 February 2018, <https://www.cyclicdefrost.com/2014/12/new-weird-indonesia-by-zacharias-szumer/#prettyPhoto&gt;.

After the first week of our studio in Banjarmasin, I was still trying to understand the attitudes and behaviours tied to smoking, especially among the youth. Dylan Albrecht and I conducted an interview with Dina Ferdiana, a 2^nd year university student studying primary school education. We conversed with her about her personal experiences and opinion of smoking, and how actions might be taken to combat it.

Dina was well educated on the toxic effects of tobacco consumption, referring to a local anti-smoking TV ad where a laryngectomy patient was recounting her experience of smoking and cancer. This may have been the same campaign Vital Strategies launched, as the ad was screened across Indonesia and other countries. She also stated that most Indonesians were also well aware of the harmful impact of smoking, for themselves and those around them. There are no smokers in her household, but she talked about the prevalence of youth smoking as many boys from her high school started smoking when they were fifteen. She attributes this to peer pressure, stating that friends would try them together and this would become a habit due to the “good taste”. (Ferdiana, pers. comm., 2018) A report on youth smoking in Java also attributes the prevalence of youth smoking to cigarettes being part of social interaction and events; conveying cultural ideals of masculinity as male elders smoke and a sense of camaraderie is created. (Ng et al, 2007)

This correlates with other interviews my group conducted for our billboard project, where interviewees who had tried cigarettes did so in social settings. However, many of them did not like the flavour and sensation of smoking, and joined the burgeoning anti-smoking movement in Banjarmasin. Dina also commented that the number of smokers is declining, suggesting that the growing anti-smoking sentiment across Indonesia is making an impact. When asked how this change might be improved and expanded, she spoke about the government’s need and responsibility to regulate tobacco advertising and sales for the health of the country – smokers, non-smokers and especially children. (Ferdiana, pers. comm., 2018)

Considering the complexity of the tobacco industry and its network of consumers, producers, and suppliers, government control is certainly part of the solution but also the problem. (Astuti et al, 2017) The economic interdependencies that tobacco companies exploit and thrive on, such as making up the majority of sales for independent vendors and being the biggest source of revenue and jobs for the country, makes it a difficult issue to navigate and tackle. (Danardono et al, 2009)

References

Astuti, P. A. S. Freeman, B., 2017, “It is merely a paper tiger” Battle for increased tobacco advertising regulation in Indonesia: content analysis of news articles’, BMJ Open, vol.7, no. 9.

Danardono, M., Nitcher, M., Ng, N., Padmawati, S. & Prabandari, Y., 2009, ‘Reading culture from tobacco advertisments in Indonesia’, Tobacco Control, vol.18, no. 2, pp 98.

Ng, N., Öhman, A. Weinehall, L. 2007, “If I don’t smoke, I’m not a real man’ – Indonesian teenage boys’ views about smoking’, Health Education Research, vol.22, no.6, pp. 794-804.