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Youth creativity merges culture and technology
Social media was recently enlivened by a video presenting a mix of music, visuals, dance and cultural elements from various regions across Indonesia.
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(Courtesy of Education and Culture Ministry)
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ocial media was recently enlivened by a video presenting a mix of music, visuals, dance and cultural elements from various regions across Indonesia. Titled "Wonderland Indonesia", the video, created by Alffy Rev and his teams, went viral and doesn’t take long climbed to the number one trending video on YouTube with millions of views. After the video went viral on social media, many began questioning who was this video creator?
Alffy, a 26-year-old content creator who creatively combines music with stunning visuals, is already well known by netizens, especially among YouTube users. Alffy is known for combining patriotic songs, folk songs with DJ samplers. While many young people create and upload their work to social and digital media platforms, Alffy's “Wonderland Indonesia” was selected to receive production support from the Education and Culture Ministry.
Ahmad Mahendra, the ministry’s director of film, music and new media, said there were a lot of works by young Indonesians that promoted Indonesian culture and its beautiful traditional arts uploaded on social media. However, these works often did not get much attention of the big media platforms in the country.
“Media attention in Indonesia to culture or cultural works is clearly still needed, especially to compensate for the swift entry of foreign cultures and cultural products,” Ahmad said.
Nowadays, advanced digital technology has become part of daily life and even impacts cultural works, with lots of examples of projects that combine traditional cultural arts with digital technology. The young generation takes advantage of digital technology, both in creating new pieces and in organizing collaboration between creators. These works created by young people have successfully elevated cultural values ​​considered ancient into the contemporary world with the help of technology. Digital technology has been able to translate the creative ideas of young people into beautiful pieces to be enjoyed.
Young people need support and encouragement for their work, both from the government, but also news media or broadcast media such as TV. Currently, the media is still focused on content that will go viral. Yet as well as this, decent cultural works must also be highlighted. Besides cultivating a sense of pride and appreciation, it can be a source of inspiration for other young people.
This is what makes the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology launch a new television channel called IndonesianaTV which specifically broadcasts programs about history, art, and culture. This digital television channel also follows the behavior of young media viewers. That's why it can be watched via the website, laptop, cell phone, even TV subscription IndiHome or UseeTV.
The diversity of Indonesia's rich culture clearly inspires Alffy in his videos. As foreign culture flows into the country, there are still many young people who are able to see the rich culture of Indonesia and use it as inspiration for their art.
Nana, the bassist of band D'Cinnamons, from Bandung, West Java, said traditional music was important, not only in notation, but in the musical feelings it created that inspired him to make new music.
“I hope that more media platforms will discuss and review these works so that more young people will be interested in creating art and culture. Let's wait for more content from Alffy and other young Indonesians,” he said.
