the pilomemetic of batics

7/27/2019 The Pilomemetic of Batics

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ThePhylomemeticsofBatik

HokkySitungkir[[email protected]]

Dept.ComputationalSociology

BandungFeInstitute

AbstractThepaperreportstheanalysisofphylomemetictreeontobatikmotifsdevelopeduniquely

inall cornersof livingand in theheartof traditionof Indonesianpeople.Thediversity is

visualized, be it classical traditional motifs and the ones recognized to be recently

innovated.This isthe first importantthingwecan learnabout throughthephylomemetic

tree,i.e.:asavisualizationofcreativitylandscapesofIndonesianbatik.Thesecondthingtobe learnt is that we could see the clustering of collective cognitive people respect to

differentethnicgroupsandcommunityinwhichthebatikmotifswereoriginallydeveloped

aswellas innovatedand improveddependenton thewaypeopleat the regionproduce,

design,andthenappreciatebatik.Thisbringsustotheconcludingremarks,thatbatikisthe

worldheritagegrowninIndonesianarchipelago.

Keywords:batik,phylomemetictree,memetics,Indonesianarchipelago,traditionalheritage,fractaldesign


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WehavecollecteddatafromtheopenlibraryofIndonesiandigitalculturalheritagelibrary1

and choose ones can be categorized as batik. Ourmotivation is to reveal thememetic

proximityamongtheartifactsthatareemergedfromthecognitiveprocessofwhichgood

fitness(highacceptanceandappreciation)respecttoparticularethnicgroups.Interestingly,

surfing through thedataof Indonesianbatik (in steadofjust theones from Java)would

bringamazementforthehighdiversityamongtheartifacts.Anillustrationisshowninfigure

2.

Figure2TheillustrativemapofIndonesianBatik

2.ThePhylomemeticTreeofIndonesianBatikMotifAs

in

genetics,

the

phylomemetic

tree

(in

genetics:

phylogenetic)

is

constructed

by

having

thesequenceofmemes(ingenetics:gene)representingthetraitsemergingthemotifaswe

see. The sequences, we call itmemeplexes, are thus aligned and we can calculate the

homologybetweenamotiftoanotherstatistically.Thedetailedstatisticalmethodologyfor

searching the memes in the alignments is explained in [5] covering the fractal [3]

dimensions (as the geometric properties of the ornamentation and decoration

incorporated)andthedistributionofprimarycolorsused inproducingthecraft.Fromthe

variablesobtained in the twocomputationalobservationsandcalculationswecan fill the

memeplexes emanating from each artifact. The method of the phylomemetic tree

constructionisbaseduponthecorrelationstransformedintodistancesinultrametricspaces

amongmemeplexesasithasbeendiscussedin[4]and[5].

From almost 500 batikmotifs from all over the Indonesian archipelago, we obtain the

phylomemetictreeasshowninfigure3.Thefiguredepictingthecognitivekinshipofthe

ethnic groups in the archipelago of Indonesiawhile all of them incorporating the same

methodofcrafting:mediaresistdyeing.Whendifferentexclusivesocialsystemsrecognize

the same methodology on reflecting what in their minds respect to visual aesthetics,

spirituality and transcendent views on social norms, social hierarchy, symbols and arts,

1ThePerpustakaanDigitalTerbukaBudayaIndonesia,http://www.budaya indonesia.org/


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observationontheyieldingmotifscanbringustothetrajectoryofcognitiveproximities

amongthem.

Figure3ThephylomemetictreeofIndonesianBatik

More or less, this is shown aswe gaze throughout the obtained phylomemetic tree of

Indonesian batik. As shown in figure 3, the different colors on each node before the

respectingmotifspresentdifferentgeographicalaspectsinwhichthemotifsareusedinthe


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socialrepresentation.Inthenextsectionwewilldiscusshowandwhatwecanlearnabout

Indonesianbatikfromthephylomemetictree.

Figure4ThreeexamplesofbatikfromCirebonthatarepresentedseparatedfromtheotheronefromthesameplace

butclusteredinmotiffromtheneighboringbatikcenter,Indramayu.

3.DiscussionsFigure3presentstheclosenessbetweenbatikmotifsoneanother,andapparently,motifs

fromsameplacesaremostlyclustered.Thefactreflectsthatthefitnessoftheinnovationof

particularproductsinaplacewouldbeverydependentonthememeticpropagationamong

individuals in the respectiveplaces.Themacroviewcharacteristicshere isemerged from

socialandcultural interactionsthatshapingtheappreciationscollectively.However,some

placescloseenoughgeographicallycouldalsoweaveoneanotherontheirculturalartifacts.

ThisexplainsthatseveralCirebonsbatikmotifsispresentedintheclusteroftheirneighbor,

Indramayu(bothareveryclosecenterofbatikinWestJava).

Figure5Batik

motif

from

Jambi

of

which

high

proximity

with

those

from

Inderamayu

(left)

while

the

colorful

with

floweringmotif(right)hascharacteristicssimilarwithbatikfromcoastalregionofCirebonwhileitiscoming

fromYogyakartasbatiktraditionitself.

However, today memetic propagation can be possibly occurring from places to places

independent from the geographically neighboring ones. The batik designers from Jambi

(Sumatera), for instance, can learn and employ styles ofdrawing and ornamenting from


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products from Inderamayu (West Java), and sometimes the innovation could widely

accepted.

Wecouldfinda lotofthesesimilarphenomena.Evenmore,batikmotifsfromaparticular

place are spreading in different clusters in our phylomemetic tree. Possibly this

phenomenoncomes from the fact that thedataweuse to represent theplaceare those

inspiredor

innovated

from

batik

from

other

places.

This

is

obvious

regarding

the

vast

and

rapiddevelopmentontransportationandtelecommunicationtechnologysincethelasttwo

decades ago or more. This is an interesting fact about the visualization with the

phylomemetictreeasatooltovisualizehighdiversitydatabecause itcanbe innovatively

utilizedmappingspectraldatawithhighdimensionality[9]thus inthecaseofbatikasthe

living culturalartifact,artists and innovatorsof todaybatik canenrich their landscapeof

creativityforfutureinnovation[6].

Figure6Theclusteringofshowingtheproximitiesoftheappreciationonparticularandspecificbatikmotifsfrom

placestoplacesinIndonesiaasderivedfromphylomemetictreeinfigure3.

ThefurtherquestionwhenweobservethephylomemetictreeoftheIndonesianbatikisthe

pattern thatcouldemerged from theclusteringamong representeddata. Inorder to see

this,wegroupdatasets fromthesameoriginstoseehowapeople fromoneplacehave


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proximity with those from other places from the view of their appreciation on their

respective batikmotif. Thus,we neglect some data sets that are not in their respective

clusterof largedatasetsandthengroupmotifdatasets fromthesamebatikcenter.The

resultisdepictedinfigure6.

Figure6shows19placesthatwidelyrecognizedasbatikcenter in Indonesianarchipelago.

Interestingly,the

main

branches

of

the

customized

tree

more

or

less

confirm

some

classificationsofbatik inconventionalapproaches.For instance, theworkof [7] reported

that in Javanese tradition (batik craft across the Java Island),patternsofdecoration and

geographicalaspectswheretheyaredeveloped,batiktextilescanberoughlycategorizedas

BatikVorstenlandenandbatikfromcoastalregions.BatikVorstenlandenistheartoftextiles

thatisexistedinplaceslikekeraton,Javanesetraditionalgovernmentormonarchy,i.e.:Solo

andYogya,whileCoastalBatikisthosedevelopedinnearseashoreareasandharborswhere

interactionswith traders abroad are high, e.g.: Cirebon, Indramayu, Pekalongan, Tuban,

Madura. Intuitive thought from thisworkgiveusexplanationon themajordifferencesof

theornamentationinBatikVorstenlandenanditscoastalcounterpartforthelatterarerichwiththeinfluencefrommanyotherculture,e.g.:Chinese,Arabictradition.

The interestingpartfromourphylomemetictreeofbatik, isthatwearenotexcludedany

batikornamentation from thegeographical localitieswhere theyweregrown.Allofbatik

motifsknowntobeexistinginIndonesianarchipelagoareincludedinouranalyticalmethod

and let the data talks about the obtained clustering. Thus, from our calculation and

computationtogeneratethecladistictree,atleastwecoulddiscoverfourbranchesofthe

batikdevelopedfromgenerationstogenerationsinIndonesianarchipelago.

The first branch is where batik motifs from Rembang, Yogyakarta, and Solo is highly

clustered.Itisinterestingtodiscoverthatthelatesttworegionshasbeenconfirmedasthe

centerofkeratoninIndonesia,andinbatiktraditions,botharewhereBatikVorstenlandenisgrown.

However,

the

existence

of

batik

motif

from

Rembang

(also

known

as

Lasem

Batik)

is

not inconsistentatall,sinceeven thoughRembangbatik is frequentlyclassifiedassortof

batikfromcoastalarea,thisregionisoneoftheoldestplacewhereIslamiccivilizationwas

begun throughout Java [8].Thus, it isverypossible,batikornamentations fromRembang

wereinspiringorbeinginspiredfromthetwootherplaces.

ThesecondbranchistheplacewherebatikmotifsfromPekalongan,Cilacap,Banyumas,andKebumen are highly clustered. Those are the centrals of batik ornamentation frequently

categorizedasthosefromcoastalareasfortheirgeographicalaspectsaswellasthespecific

ornamentations.

Thethirdbranchmakesourobservationthroughthephylomemetictreeevenbecomemore

interesting, for this is where batikmotifs fromWestern Java is dominated, be it from

Inderamayu, Cirebon, Tegal,Garut,Banten, and evenBandung,where the contemporary

batikmotifsaredevelopedandimprovedsofertile.Fromthisfact,wecanlearnthatthere

existuniquedifferencesbetweenbatikmotifs fromwesternpartof Java islandwiththose

fromtheireasterncounterpart.Interestingly,thephylomemetictreepresentsthissolelyby

incorporatingthemotifsemployedinouranalysis,whilesomeanthropologicalandaesthetic

observationstronglyconfirmit.


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Thefourthbranch ispresentedby thosebatikmotifs fromwiderbatikcenters,be it fromplacesinJavaislandi.e.:Pacitan,Madura,andCiamis,andalsothosefromouterregionsoftheIsland,i.e.:SouthernKalimantan,Papua,Riau,Jambi,andBengkulu.Thisfactexpresses

howbatiktraditionsareveryvariousanddiverseofthethreeplaces intheJavaIslandsas

well aswith those from the Sumatera and Kalimantan covered by our data. It is very

interestingthat

different

production

and

appreciation

to

traditional

fabric

of

batik

(social

aspect) is confirmed by analytical model that is merely laid upon the memetic

ornamentation.

Thus,thefourbranchescouldbeproposedasanalternativeclassificationoftheverydiverse

Indonesian batik traditionalmotifs that ismade up from empirical observations through

data. This is the contributionmotivated the presentationof the phylomemetic tree that

expresses theheterogeneousandvariationsofbatikwhich isdevelopedand improvedas

traditionalheritagebypeopleinIndonesianarchipelagoinsteadofonlyJavaasperceivedby

commonality.However,since it ispossible forusto includetheresultsofrecentandnew

innovationsinthepresentationofthephylomemetictree,itcanalsousedasavisualization

ofcreativity

landscapes

where

innovators

could

take

advantage

to

which

possible

and

interestingmotifs that are existed could be incorporated for future development of the

beautifulbatik.

4.ClosingRemarksWepresentthephylomemetictreeincorporatingthedataofbatikmotifsfromalloverthe

placesinIndonesianarchipelagothatiscoveredbyonlineandopendigitallibrary.Fromthe

obtainedphylomemetictreeweseethekinshipofthehighlydiversecognitiveaesthetic

appreciationofbatik.Weused thebroader terminologyofbatikmotif inour analysisas

motifyieldedfromtheprocessofmediaresistdyeing. Interestingly itshowstheclustering

presentedby

the

phylomemetic

tree

is

not

only

observable

from

the

spatial

aspects

as

well

astheprocessofproductionandcraftingbutalsoemanatesfromthemotifitselfreflecting

thewayofthecognitiveappreciationcollectivelybytherespectivesocialgroups.

Incorporatedmotifsareclustered inthetreebytheproximitiesbetweenthememeplexes

analyzedbyfractalgeometryandstatisticalaspectsofspectralcolorings.Thedataused is

notonly thewidely recognizedones since theold times traditionallybut alsoones from

recent innovations. The visualization of the large dataset thus can be seen as the

cartographyof the creativity landscapesof Indonesian batik that is not as fame and

commonlyrecognizedonlydevelopedandimprovedbyJavanese,butalsoa lotofethnic

andsocialgroupsthroughoutthearchipelago.

Inadvance,ourfurtherobservationontheobtainedphylomemetictreeofbatikbringsusto

someconfirmationandevenfurtherelaborationofbatikclassificationasasortofproposal

laid upon empirical data.As it hasobviously shown in the phylomemetic tree, from the

coverageofourdatasets,batikmotifsareclusteredwhether in the leafofvorstenlandenbatik,batik incoastalareasofeasternregionsof Java,batikdeveloped inwesternpartof

java, and batik from outer places of Java Island. However, further analysis on larger

datasets are still on demand, since the more data we employ in our phylomemetic


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construction(especiallythoseinthefourthclassthebatikfromregionsoutofJavaisland)

themoreaccurateclusteringthusclassificationspromisedbythetree.Thisbringsustothe

concludingremarks,thatbatikistheworldheritagegrowninIndonesianarchipelago.

AcknowledgementIthankSantiMustikasari,AsriKania,andSonyFebrindafordataprocessing,RolanMauludy

fordataprovision,colleagues inBFI fordiscussionson the roughversionof thepaper,as

wellasSuryaResearch International forsupport inperiodoftheresearchreported inthe

paper.

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[4] Situngkir,H.(2008).ConstructingthePhylomemeticTree:IndonesianTraditionInspiredBuildings.BFIWorkingPaperSeriesWPIII2008.BandungFeInstitute.

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[7] Sondari,K.&Yusmawati.(2000).BatikPesisir.CulturalMediaDevelopmentProjectDepartementofEducationandCulture,RepublicofIndonesia.

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