Bandung leads the way in creative innovation

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 11/06/2007 5:13 PM  |  Life

Eilish Kidd, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Dodging the rain under newspapers and umbrellas, we arrive at the brick building that houses clothing company Airplane Systm.

Up a narrow staircase, past a row of plastic seats designated for smoking breaks, is the company's workspace, a series of partitioned cubby holes for designers. T-shirts and sweatshirts with loose hoods spill off hangers and racks. One with a red boxing glove design says,""Never, never give up"".

This was the second stop on our half-day tour of Bandung's creative industries, showcasing outstanding examples to international symposium delegates from around the world.

Emerging as a hub of creative enterprise in Indonesia, Bandung was chosen to host the symposium, entitled ""Strategic Dialogue in Southeast Asia -- Developing Creative Industries"", from Oct. 29-31.

The event, organized by the British Council in Indonesia, was initiated as part of the U.K. prime minister's commitment to internationalizing education.

Bringing together delegates from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the U.K, the symposium was a chance to exchange ideas on ways for government, business and education institutes to work together to promote creative industries.

The British Council has been engaged in mapping creative clusters in ""transnational economy countries"" for the past several years, encouraged by the finding that the creative industries in these countries have the potential of contributing up to 5 percent to the gross domestic product.

""A lot of arts and Indonesian creativity is developed from the bottom up, without initial government support,"" explains Yudhi Soerjoatmodjo, the British Council's project team leader for learning and creativity.

""There was a focus on cheap manufacturing because manufacturing employed a lot of people (but) the Asian economic crisis changed all that. People realized that it's not big businesses that are driving the economy but smaller industries, including creative industries.""

Such enterprises are resilient because they are small. Happy to grow their businesses gradually, these young entrepreneurs don't tend to risk more than they can afford to lose.

Airplane Systm, for instance, started off investing US$30 in their idea. Today their gross monthly revenue is about Rp 500 million ($US55,200). Their clothes, influenced by skater designs, pop art and music, were initially sold through the underground circuit of indie hipsters -- their friends.

Yudhi at the British Council explained that creative people tended to form links with like-minded people, until networks developed. Two new creative enterprises might support one another for a year or two and then go their separate ways, each one now strong enough to make it on their own in the marketplace.

""Today Airplane Systm is one of the three most popular clothing labels in Bandung,"" said company director Tb. Fiki Chikara Satari.

Airplane Systm is worn by rock stars, actors, artists and teenagers, basically anyone seeking to distinguish themselves from the mainstream.

Their website lists their target market as teenagers 14-18 years old, adults 19-27 and kids 3-6. While that counts my daughter in, sadly, I am four years on the outer of that world of asymmetrical haircuts and never-say-die T-shirts.

I stealthily picked out three of the best, wondering if I was in for a slap on the wrist. But there were none of the standoffish looks that I am accustomed to getting at trendy places.

One of the three owners, Helvi Sjarifuddin, answered my questions with a cheery intelligence, explaining that they started off selling jackets to friends, sold out and ordered more material. It went from there.

""It was a trial-and-error process. There was nobody to tell us if we were using the right sort of material for our designs until we got big. Then they were only too happy to share information,"" he recalled.

The guys also have a bus -- they call it an airbus -- set up like a clothing store. It travels from place to place. Their website tracks its movements so customers know where they can be found.

Back at the symposium, British Ambassador Charles Humfrey said the opportunities for creative industries were huge but emphasized that imagination and superior organizational skills would need to underpin such efforts.

""It is difficult to bring off without sustained attention, without building up a great deal of personal trust between people,"" Humfrey admitted.

But the rewards can be enormous.""The creative industries are no longer something that might be considered on the periphery of economic activity, they are genuinely at the heart of it,"" said Stuart Bartholomew, chief executive of the Arts Institute of Bournemouth, U.K , and a delegate at the symposium.

The British Council is keen to be a catalyst for linking creative communities, both within Indonesia and the U.K. ""What we are bringing into Indonesia is not an exhibition or a dance but a `best practice',"" said Yudhi.

The symposium is about an exchange of ideas, of learning from the successes of creative practitioners in the delegate countries. Certainly Bandung has provided many with shining examples of innovation and imagination.

The next stop on our tour was Urbane, an urban planning and architecture firm established in 2004 by M.Ridwan Kamil, winner of the British Council International Young Designer of the Year Award in 2006.

The company, located in a typical Deco-style Bandung building, has notched up a series of successes with projects like the Epicentrum Tower in Jakarta and Jeddah City Center, Saudi Arabia.

Urbane is particularly interested in urban context, hoping to improve the quality of public buildings. Explains, Yulianti Tanyadi, one of senior partners,""Those with opportunities to access large-scale projects are often driven by mere profit-oriented business. The question is how to accommodate a business plan without sacrificing good design for our cities"".

Urbane aims to do this by carefully researching the context of every project. ""Local knowledge is necessary to avoid misleading advice, while international experiences are important to expand possibilities,"" Yulianti said.

Ultimately, Urbane's vision is ""to make more creative and progressive architecture and planning applicable in our cities, not only by Urbane but together with fellow architects."" Sounds pretty good to me.

When we visited Common Room, an artist-run space set up by the Bandung Center for New Media Arts, there was a thunderstorm brewing and a scruffy, mongrel dog wandered about from room to room looking worried.

That day a clothing exhibition was on display at the entrance -- the design work of MonikCeltic, a leading local brand. There was a grey hoodie with a peacock feather pattern, soft grey trousers, stitched bags featuring dolls and owls. The clothes were arranged among cardboard cutout trees.

Irma Sari, a designer and co-owner of Monik clothing, later appeared, waif-like and dressed in a velvety top over ripped leggings. She was pretty and other-worldish, wearing a large butterfly on a chain around her neck.

Common Room started in 2001, developed as a technical environment where artists could learn together. ""We focus on the young, creative community because we think that this new and emerging graphic scene is very important"", explains Gustaff H. Iskandar, director of Common Room. But why Bandung?

""Bandung is emerging as a fast-changing place where people are reinventing themselves,"" Gustaff said. ""Always something new"". The key, he said, is working out how to get quality creative products to the consumer.

Common Room is a multipurpose space, used for exhibitions, screenings, workshops, lectures, discussions, concerts and even music festivals

The corridor contained an installation of dwarf-sized white plaster robots, with photocopies in black and white with a slash of red like dripping blood on the wall. A goth-looking guy was seated at one of the tables in the cafe-like room, just hanging out. He turned out to be Eric, creator of DeathRockstar, a popular music webzine.

Monitors displayed video artworks and there was a cafe where sachets of 3-in-1 (cream, coffee, sugar) are provided.

The sweetness and the caffeine, the rain on the roof. The artists. The feeling of community almost made me wish this was my community.

The philosophy central to the Common Room -- and to all of the creative enterprises I was privileged to discover in Bandung -- is that artists should be able to make a living from their work.

This may not seem radical but consider the die-hard myth of the suffering artist, the supposed nobility of starving in an attic. In fact, the importance of cultivating an atmosphere of optimism and economic viability can hardly be overemphasized.

Across Indonesia, musicians, architects and designers are treading new territory, trading passive acceptance of their difficult path as artists for money in the bank and careers. Many still see artists as an elitist group with little relevance to the community but this is changing. ""Most artists are only willing to talk about art. They don't want to do the research and make art a tool, the same as technology,"" says Gustaff at the Common Room. ""That's why we are not only working with artists but also with scientists and other groups like fashion, media and design"".

It's a new world, and a world full of possibility. ""Everything has changed in the internet era,"" Gustaff said, ""I feel somehow this creative thing is hidden away, so only certain people can see it. You have to push the right button and then doors will open. If you know, then you will start to appreciate the work.""

Common Room is about embracing unity in diversity. The idea is that artists can work together to re-make their sector. ""The possibilities are everywhere, but you really have to do a lot of work to recognize the potential,"" Gustaff said.

Well, I must admit I didn't have to work too hard to see the potential of the creative industries in Bandung. Never have I seen artists so well-equipped for the future.

Common Room:
www.commonroom.info
Urbane:
www.urbane.co.od
MonikCeltic:
www.monikceltic.com
British Council:
www.britishcouncil.org
Airplane systm:
www.airplanesystm.com

To support the local creative industry movement visit
KICK Fest, a clothing and distro fiesta featuring more than 50
clothing labels from five cities across the country.
Plaza Pameran, the Department of Industry
Jl. Gatot Subroto
Nov. 6-10, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

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