Transcriber: Tatjana Jevdjic Reviewer: Denise RQ
About seven years ago, my two colleagues and I
had a chance of meeting with this batik legend,
one of the most famous batik designers in the country.
We were telling him
that we're able to create batik patterns using fractal mathematics
that's running in a computer.
As naive as we were,
because we were happy to have this chance to meet him,
we kind of hoped that he'd support us...
Of course, he'd be excited
that we were doing new things about batik.
But it turned out he hated it.
He hated the idea of combining traditional batik with technology.
He looked at our laptop and our batik samples,
as if there was a bad smell in the room.
(Laughter)
He said, "Batik and technology should not come together."
He ended our presentation by saying
that what we're doing is a blasphemy,
it's an insult to batik as a sacred culture.
So, what is batik anyway?
The practice of hand-drawing specific patterns,
from your mind to a specific cloth,
has a long history in Indonesia.
Batik doesn't originally come from Indonesia.
The practice can be traced back
to more than 2,000 years ago, back in Egypt.
It was entering Indonesia in the era of Majapahit and Sriwijaya Kingdom.
The traditional way to create batik was to directly hand-draw
a specific image to a piece of cloth, using a tool named canting.
[a pen-like tool] filled with hot liquid wax
[and used in] resistant dye-fixing techniques.
This is the traditional way of creating batik.
It takes months or even years to finish.
It will produce one-of-a-kind batik.
Batik traders, designers, and merchants usually draw
the specific batik pattern on a piece of paper.
After that, they'll keep it and use it to reproduce another batik.
The problem with this practice is
they will keep producing the same batik patterns over the years.
So we will see similar batik patterns everywhere.
Surely, of course, this ancient art is abandoned,
especially by the younger generations.
It's so uncool, it's strict in its rules,
very traditional, takes a long time to do it.
Well, the younger generations now didn't really know what batik is.
So, how can batik survive in the present-day art in Indonesia,
when technology [is present] in every aspect of our life?
How batik can survive?
This is where, I think, technology can be a solution.
What if a set of fractal mathematics
based on the Mandelbrot and Lindenmayer systems that we use,
can create batik patterns?
What if a computer can take over the design process?
Most importantly,
what if the younger generations now can [design] their own batik,
can improve their own batik?
Back in 2007,
I and my two colleagues,
found out that fractals can create batik patterns.
While none of us has no previous batik expertise
- I studied communication science in college,
and the other two guys are a mathematician and an architect -
I think that creating batik with fractals was a [sum-up]
of our experience, [of us being] Indonesian
where batik is really rooted in our culture,
and the things that we studied back in college.
We think that it will really be cool if everybody can use software,
can use an app to learn about batik.
Fractal can actually create patterns of batik in a short [period] of time.
If you use our software, the pattern can be changed,
[even with] a tiny change of one parameter.
If you change another parameter, it will change the image.
If you click another parameter, it will change the image.
We can get various patterns in a short period of time.
We had a chance...
We thought it'd be cool if we had a chance
to try this out with a few of our friends.
Firstly, we invited a few of our designer friends to use it.
We said, "Hey, we have this software
that can create batik patterns with fractal mathematics."
They said, "Cool! Can we try it?"
Yes! We got good feedback.
Finally, the most important thing is
we're finally able to meet the traditional batik artisans
to try our software.
Of course, it wasn't easy at first
because they are already used to the traditional method of doing batik.
What kept us going was the persistence to learn about this technology
despite they've never seen a computer before in their life.
They learnt how to use this technology to improve their crafts.
That's overwhelming for us.
We keep perfecting the software.
All the batik artisans actually proved us
that our technology improved their crafts.
Plenty of younger and older generations create the batik patterns
using old batik patterns to create new patterns.
Or they're creating completely new modern batik patterns like this skull.
It's very popular right now.
It's actually bird feathers and everything,
it is super-modern right now.
Currently, we've been training
more than 1,000 batik artisans in Indonesia,
where we [went to] their villages, [offering] hands-on [experiences]
and directly trained them to use our software.
They can't afford go to Bandung-Rumah where we have our workshop.
We're very happy to see
these younger and older generations collaborating with each other
not only [for preserving] batik as a culture icon
but also [for supporting] the industry
and millions of traditional batik artisans in Indonesia.
This way, I see that the technology allows
the younger generations to [design] their own batik,
allows them to preserve their batik.
Technology has bridged batik from the past to the future.
And, of course,
technology has proved that it will improve our ancient art,
and will let batik live in a modern era.
At the end of the day, we're happy,
we never listen to anyone [who said]
that Batik and technology should not come together
even if he was a batik legend.
Thank you.
(Applause)