Figuring it out: Various creative Indonesian products go on display at the creative products exhibition in Jakarta in June. “Creative industries” is the buzzword for this year, as the sector’s economic value gains recognition.
Here it is, the country's buzzword for the year: Creative industries.
Batik, handicrafts, fashion, film, music, architecture and other related sectors that have been around forever have suddenly found a new collective label.
The orchestrated movement that has sprung up to support the sector, so long taken for granted, is a new phenomenon. A recent exhibition on the creative industries has shown that even the government is finally getting clued in to its potential.
"I have been in the business of batik for more than a decade. But it was not until recently that it really picked up," said Wuri Padmodisastro, owner of workshop Padma Batik, at the exhibition.
On the other side of the exhibition halls from the batik, hundreds of teenagers were taking part in a casting session for a chance to be an extra in an upcoming Indonesian movie.
"It's a bit unexpected to join in a casting session in an exhibition like this," said 21-year old Zulkarnain Said, while waiting for his turn to act. "I thought this was just an expo like *annual arts and crafts exhibition* Inacraft."
This shows how wide the net is cast when talking about the sector, which came under the spotlight when 2009 was declared "Indonesia Creative Year".
Currently, the so-called creative industries contribute around 6 percent of the country's gross domestic product and are growing at an average annual rate of 15 percent. The Trade Ministry, which has completed its study on the economic value of the sector, is currently developing the strategic development plan for 2025.
Indonesia aims to have reached by then a 13 percent growth rate in exports from the creative industries.
The term "creative industries" encompasses all those fields that have their origin in individual creativity and that have potential for generating income and employment through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.
Currently, according to Tuti Sunario from the Culture and Tourism Ministry, Indonesia is among the 10 top exporters of creative products, along with China, Hong Kong, India, Turkey, Thailand, Mexico, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.
According to the Creative Economy Report 2008 by John Howkins, on average in developing countries, the creative industries contributed 29 percent to total exports in 1999 and 41 percent in 2005.
In 1999, they contributed 7.3 percent to the global economy, Tuti added.
But why is an industry based on art and creativity being discussed mostly in terms of facts and figures?
"It's important to translate the creative industries into something that the government can understand, which is through numbers and figures," said Yudhi Soerjoatmodjo from the British Council.
"Without solid research on what *their worth* is, there will remain an endless debate over the importance of art and creativity in a country's economy."
Yet despite the figures and the wealth of attention currently being directed toward the sector, there is still a mismatch among stakeholders about what the sector is and what to do with it.
"When officials from the Trade Ministry are talking about the creative industries and trying to take it to the global level through joining international expos, what they still have in mind is mostly crafts," said product designer Harry Maulana.
And so most subsectors that come under the umbrella "creative industries" are still working on their own. As they always have been.
In some places, such as the UK, the clustering and redevelopment of the creative industries has even led to the urban regeneration of cities that have lost their appeal for hard manufacturing. Stoke-on-Trent is one such case, although its level of success remains hotly debated.
"Located in the English Midlands between Birmingham and Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent is a city of around a quarter of a million people. Nicknames such as Ceramicopolis, Ceramic City and, more popularly, The Potteries, leave little doubt as to what goes on in Stoke-on-Trent," Mark Jayne wrote in a 2004 review of the city's development.
"While the industrial revolution stimulated a broad local industrial economic base, including significant mining, steel and engineering activity, it was the dominant ceramics industry that imposed a distinctive landscape and a seemingly indelible identity onto the region."
In Indonesia, cities such as Bandung, Pekalongan or Jepara suggest a similar cluster of creative industries. While Pekalongan and Jepara rely mostly on craftsmanship, Bandung uniquely showcases a wide array of creative industries, from architecture to fashion, from performing arts to online game-making.
In Bandung, at least, the rise of the creative industries has led to some visible changes in policy making, such as the involvement of the creative community in making decisions on urban changes.
Once the industry gets the recognition it deserves - including and especially the attention of policy makers - then people can get back to the cultural and art debate, Yudhi said.
Intellectual property rights, he said, remains the key of developing the industry.
"However, it is only one of the business models," he added. "In the end, the concept of property rights will keep on evolving."
Yudhi pointed out that information technology will prompt the evolution of property rights highly debated in the art and creative sector and that everyone, including corporations acting as distributors of creative products such as music, will have to adapt to the changes.
Another key element in the industry's development is entrepreneurship, Yudhi said.
"That's why we are promoting creative entrepreneurship because there are millions of creative people and artists, but they would not meet their market if it weren't for the entrepreneurs."
Meanwhile, a group of urbanists and sociologists have a different take on what a "creative community" is.
During a workshop at the Tarumanagara University's School of Planning, researchers tried to map out the existing creative communities in Jakarta's Rawa Belong, Cipadu and Rawa Jati area, where most people make a living from informal trading activities.
These communities have long relied on the clustering of agriculture and textiles and have slowly grown into more than just traders, embarking on making derivative products such as herbal teas from their gardens or quilts from textile scraps.
Working with students from Goldsmiths College at the University of London in the UK, workshop participants found that the creative value of the community lies in their agility in coping with the market.
In a way, the informal and complex network that these communities rely on serves as a bridge between the formal governance of creative urban life and those who are marginalized, Goldsmiths professor Abdou Maliq Simone said.
Amid all the buzzing around the creative industries, these aspects of creativity are rarely mentioned, let alone supported.
It is perhaps the sector's invisible and intangible value that has still not been properly recognized. Consequently, its potential has not been translated into real economic value that the government and the wider public will give more attention to.
Yet, as sociologist Paulus Wirutomo highlighted, the added value of creativity goes beyond its economic value.
"It is more important to nurture creativity that can contribute something to the development of the social system," Paulus said. "It is easy to find creative people, but it is more difficult to find those who actually go beyond individual benefit and contribute something to a community as a whole."
What is included in the creative industries?
Advertising
Architecture
Art and antiques
Crafts
Design
Fashion design
Film and video
Interactive leisure software
Music
Performing arts
Publishing
Software and computer
services
Television and radio
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