The Traditional Javanese Drama Preservation based on Information

Technology

Sri Ngudi Wahyuni

, Mardhiya Hayati

and Arif Dwi Laksito

Department of Informatics Management, Universitas Amikom Yogyakarta

Department of Informatics, Universitas Amikom Yogyakarta

Keywords:

Javanese traditional culture, digital preservation, Search Engine Optimization, Preservation.

Abstract:

The traditional Javanese theatrical begins to dim in the modern era. The traditional Javanese theatrical preser-

vation based on information technology is done in three activities, which are preservation skill activities,

ﬁnancial supporting activities, and information technology activities based on Search Engine Optimization

(SEO). Some ﬁnancial activities have been supported by the Indonesian government and society. The exis-

tence of this traditional culture continues to grow with the local community and can be known by the public.

The process of website creation begins with several designs such as website structure, layout, features as well

as the application of SEO on some articles. Promotion of folk art through the medium of information tech-

nology is expected to revive the traditional Javanese drama as well as affect the welfare of the members of the

society. This paper aimed to seek an approach for the traditional Javanese theatrical preservation, especially

in the Yogyakarta region.

1 INTRODUCTION

Culture is a unique tradition that reﬂects the unique-

ness and identity of a country’s wealth. In Thailand,

cultural preservation activities are carried out in vari-

ous ways, one of which is by holding a puppet show

in welcoming foreign guests. This show aims to con-

serve and at the same time provide entertainment to

the people and cultural preservation. Puppet is a typ-

ical Thailand culture that has special characteristics

and each staging requires high costs. So that the pup-

pet show in Thailand is almost extinct (Ratanatada

et al., 2011).

Indonesia is a country that has a variety of tradi-

tional cultures and attractions, especially in Java is-

land. Java is one of Indonesia’s island which has

many traditional cultures and arts. One of the tradi-

tional Javanese theatrical genres is Javanese drama

(Setyawan., 2017). Each of them reﬂected the so-

cial condition of its native area, analysed by socio-

logical literary-approach and connecting with social

reality. The Javanese theatrical art is a folk-art per-

formance; costumes and make-up are always related

to scenes and storylines. In their performance usually

performs humours and jokes. The drama involving

many players usually held at ofﬁcial occasions, and

lasts overnight. As in their performance used music

combined with voice of the singers(Arakawa., 2013).

The male singer is called wiraswara and the female

singer is called waranggana(Brotoatmodjo and Wi-

bowo, 2017).

The traditional Javanese theatrical is extinct be-

cause of many factors. First, the artist is older so

they cannot be playing the theatrical. The Second,

cost of performance is very expensive because must

be rent all costume performance. Third, they have not

chanced of rehearsing for preparing a performance.

Half of the artists are freelance in the traditional Ja-

vanese group because it cannot ensure life. Because

of its many artists of traditional Javanese theatrical

is leaving the job as an artist, and looking for the

other job. This factor can be threatening the sustain-

ability of traditional Javanese theatrical. Fourth, the

young people most likely modern drama than tradi-

tional Javanese theatrical. Broadcasting has a contri-

bution in traditional Javanese especially theatrical ex-

tinction because they rarely performing the traditional

Javanese theatrical especially government broadcast-

ing(Wahyuni and Wibowo, 2018). This paper aims

are how to supporting the traditional Javanese theatri-

cal based on information technology to become sus-

tainable and as a valuable cultural heritage for Indone-

sian next generation.

Figure 1 shows the traditional Javanese drama

288

Wahyuni, S., Hayaty, M. and Laksito, A.

The Traditional Javanese Drama Preservation based on Information Technology.

DOI: 10.5220/0009868602880292

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Creative Economics, Tourism and Information Management (ICCETIM 2019) - Creativity and Innovation Developments for Global

Competitiveness and Sustainability, pages 288-292

ISBN: 978-989-758-451-0

Figure 1: The Javanese drama.

culture, it’s usually stage on Indonesia independent

day ceremony or others event like ofﬁcial welcome,

wedding party and others. This drama raises a Java

themed story, so from the clothes, music and all the

stage decorations are adjusted to the Javanese con-

cept. It is not possible at any time to play stories

that adopt from other countries, such as India, China,

Saudi Arabia and so on.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Research of the traditional Javanese theatrical preser-

vation based on information technology is has been

done to know either internal or external aspects of

Indonesia. The study in the importance of the tra-

ditional Javanese theatrical preservation based on in-

formation technology could be a good platform be-

tween both government and society. The variety of

expected outcomes related to the traditional Javanese

theatrical preservation based on information technol-

ogy needs to be measured in society, although it is

difﬁcult. Some recommendations have also been pro-

posed for further preservation based on information

technology development in education. The preserva-

tion based on information technology in society has

been contributed to culture preservation purpose. The

supported community, in addition, believes that this

traditional Javanese theatrical art is not only acted as

an entertainment but also a facilitator for their hopes

and prays. The traditional Javanese theatrical is one

importance Indonesian nation assets. It is necessary

for government role to handle the eradication of tradi-

tional Javanese theatrical culture, especially Javanese

drama. The Indonesian government has actually pro-

moted several cultural preservation programs through

local content subject programs at every level of ed-

ucation, but in practice still less than the maximum.

Based on the current problem, we have a new idea to

apply the education system to preserve Javanese cul-

ture in Yogyakarta.

The traditional Javanese theatrical delivering

many values messages and norms contained in every

performance. It also serves as a media development

between government and society. As a monitoring

tool of abuse by certain parties and can also be used as

a critic of the state in the voice of injustice that occurs

in the community depicted in the form of stories and

jokes, and last as educational value, so the contents

of the story contains advice and must be left bad atti-

tude samples. The theme of story traditional Javanese

theatrical is mixed, usually taken from the legend or

Java story. The traditional Javanese theatrical is one

importance Indonesian nation assets. It is necessary

for government role to handle the eradication of tradi-

tional Javanese theatrical culture, especially Javanese

drama. The Indonesian government has actually pro-

moted several cultural preservation programs through

local content subject programs at every level of edu-

cation, but in practice still less. One of the tools used

for promoting traditional Javanese theatrical is Infor-

mation technology.

Information technology development is one chal-

lenged for traditional Javanese theatrical preservation

and promotion; it can be done for culture data digital-

ization. The preservation based on information tech-

nology is modern and effective way than traditional

ways(Halbert et al., 2017). But it is need more budget

and must be rearranging budgets and raising funds for

digital image conversion.

3 METHODOLOGY

The target of this preservation is to have new artists

for playing the traditional Javanese theatrical and pro-

mote the traditional Javanese theatrical by the web-

site based on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The

preservation of traditional Javanese theatrical done in

some mechanisms. The preservation methodology

based 3 on information technology in this program-

ming domain consists of Recruitment activities, Fi-

nancial supporting activities, and supporting technol-

ogy. The methodology for doing this program has

been conducted in the diagram that is shown in Figure

Figure 2: Methodology of preservation.

The Figure 2 shows that there are some approach-

The Traditional Javanese Drama Preservation based on Information Technology

289

ing methods. In the preservation skill activities is

making the traditional Javanese theatrical preserva-

tion enable to exiting in Indonesia especially Yo-

gyakarta region. The ﬁnancing activities are giv-

ing ﬁnancial for buying some costume and prepara-

tion for traditional Javanese theatrical performance.

The promotion activities purpose is blowing up tra-

ditional Javanese theatrical by information technol-

ogy. The promotion impact is enhancing traditional

Javanese theatrical artist income and introduce to

abroad about cultural heritage especially traditional

Javanese drama. While promotion activities are more

like observation, data analysis and prototyping in the

issues of technology.

4 RESULT

In this program was taking the Javanese traditional

theatrical preservation supporting based on informa-

tion technology take courses on preservation skill ac-

tivities, ﬁnancing activities, and promotion activities.

The activity including in one year, namely:

4.1 Recruitment New Artist

Recruitment is one process choose a qualiﬁed per-

son for the job and intended to replace old play-

ers. The aims of new artist recruitment are, regener-

ation Javanese traditional theatrical artists, introduce

Javanese traditional theatrical to the young genera-

tion and save Javanese traditional theatrical culture

from extinction. All components and society must be

joined in this activity. The Javanese traditional the-

atrical culture recruitment as follows:

a. Vision and mission recruitment campaign to all

society

b. Recruitments event date socialization, in this step,

must be developed posters and announcement for

society

c. Data collection all member potential new artists.

Stage one registration done in places have been

provided in all areas

d. Mapping the age of the registrant aims to adjust

the role and character

e. Meet up all new artist’s candidate, this step for all

activity’s coordination

4.2 Mentoring

After recruitment new artist, the second steps in

methodology is mentoring. Expert mentor in this step

form Yogyakarta cultural service department. They

must practice tree time in a week. The purpose of

mentoring is having success in staging. Mentoring

activities step an introduction as follows:

a. The story ideas on Javanese drama dominate by

Hindi story, Chinese story, and others. The artist

must be adjusting all the performing stages.

b. Script reading exercises

c. Vocal and intonation exercises

Therefore, the exercise to strengthen this vocal

and must be intensive. occupied. This exercise

can in the form of vowel pronunciations a, i, u, o,

e. The vowels should be clear and hard because

the theatrical performances do not use the loud-

speaker.

d. Gestures

The exercise gestures for supports the expression

of dialogue, such as hands pointed, raised both

palms as an expression of resignation, paced as

an expression of panic and so on.

Figure 3: The gestures mentoring.

Figure 3 show that mentoring process in conser-

vation skill activities, this program done tree time

in a week for the younger. This session will be

coaching about personality and managing conﬁ-

dence when they will perform in stage.

e. e. Pressure and learning expression is the pronun-

ciation of speech/dialogue by tone/accent, read-

ing/speaking dialog with ups and downs Voice and

high altitude of a word.

f. f. Emotional of dialogue

g. g. Practice the expression of feeling sad, angry,

hateful, confused, nervous. Because in the theatri-

cal, the artist must be able to control and master

the emotions. It supporting the character, includes

the behaviour, expression, pronunciation of dia-

logue, breathing and intention.

h. h. Stage motion is practicing limping because

of the legs is sick, staggering because of drunk,

walking sneaking for fear of getting caught, and

others. Exercise should be done in earnest to ﬁt

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the script. Stage work should be learned repeat-

edly so that to ﬁt the script.

i. i. Finally, is last practice before perform combine

with gamelan music. Gamelan is the Javanese tra-

ditional music to accompany Javanese drama. The

music player is older and they used Javanese cos-

tume (like surjan, blangkon, etc)

Figure 4: The Javanese music theatrical (gamelan).

Figure 4. show on a Javanese musical instrument

is called gamelan. This instrument is played when

performing drama and all music players are also

dressed in Javanese customs. This gamelan mu-

sic instrument is different from musical instru-

ments in general. Only certain people who have

learned Javanese musical instruments can play it.

So many players who are old and old.

4.3 Capital

At this stage, they received capital for used purchas-

ing costume, purchasing of equipment stage, opera-

tional cost every exercise, rent a stage, purchasing

snack and stage consumption, burning cost and pro-

motional costs. The purpose of given capital is having

their own costumes and performances. They did not

rent when going to staging and minimize spending on

the stage.

4.4 Staging

The last step in preservation methodology is Ja-

vanese traditional theatrical staging. The Staging

aims are presenting entertainment for the community

with norm message. Rent a stage, setting the stage

(lighting, sound system etc.) The multimedia stage

for supporting story on stage, announcement to the

public about that stage and documentation. Docu-

mentation is very important because it will be upload-

ing to web base on SEO.

4.5 Supporting Technology

Information Technology supporting in this activi-

ties are website base on Search Engine Optimization

(SEO). SEO is to change a website to improve the

ranking of websites on popular search engines like

Google, Bing, and Yahoo with popular keyword(Egri

and Bayrak, 2014). Because many new visitors ﬁnd

websites and brands in popular search engines. Place-

ment in search results for public search has become

a critical advertising method for many business peo-

ple(Jerath et al., 2014). To optimize the placement

of websites in popular search engines, it is necessary

to understand the evaluation criteria used by search.

SEO is one of technique to make website on top po-

sition with targeted keywords in search engine like

Google, Bing, and Yahoo. SEO is a websites promo-

tion process on search engines, that allows to search

for documents/content based on the most suitable

keywords and optimizing the placement of websites

in popular search engines, it is necessary to under-

stand the evaluation criteria used by search(Krrabaj

et al., 2017) (Zhang and Cabage, 2013). Steps of web-

site search engines can be seen in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Structure of Information Technology support.

The Figure 5 shows that structure of website de-

velopment. The content of menu in this website is:

a. The home menu, it contains all contain informa-

tion that will be displayed when the website was

ﬁrst accessed.

b. Proﬁle menu, it contains information about Ja-

vanese area

c. Javanese Theatrical Category, this content is

about all Javanese Theatrical culture like Javanese

drama and others.

d. Equipment menu for displaying information on

supporting tools in both the art show.

e. Activities menu content two of submenus that are

a schedule of Stage and agenda. The agenda con-

tains information about the agenda of art events

f. Contact person is information contact when peo-

ple will ask this community staging in another

area.

The content ﬁlling consists of news arti-

cles/information and text articles, videos and pictures

The Traditional Javanese Drama Preservation based on Information Technology

291

or sounds. Video and voice only can access the third

person who has served the data stores. The website

layout design to create in two devices there are in a

web browser and mobile browser.

Figure 6: The web pages on PC and smartphone display.

The Figure 6 show that web pages on personal

computer (PC) and smartphone display, after insert of

SEO plugin. It develops within 1 month of searching

in google used the keyword Javanese drama. This me-

dia is used to load the show schedule and the schedule

of activities for all art groups that will be performing.

This web-based media is managed by arts groups in

the area and is used as a promotional media so that

traditional art is not extinct and can be enjoyed by

generations to come. Later this application will be

used as a medium of communication and promotion

by relevant ofﬁcials for cultural preservation.

In the effort to preservation the traditional Ja-

vanese theatrical based on information technology

expected according to society interested ﬁelds, this

program implemented in the form of mentoring and

coaching. The younger very interest in this program

and for intensive ﬁnancial facilitating, mentoring and

promoting based on information technology. The fu-

ture work of this program is making this program to

be main business. The preservation approach is al-

ways done to get the target of the society in recruit-

ment new artists and book the traditional Javanese

theatrical show. Some studies in the approaching

method of preservation on this program could be im-

plemented in the next program or even improved be-

cause this program method isn’t closed possibility in

changing.

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