Oleh: Dadang Supardan
Introduction
Most museums in Indonesia is identical to the cultural heritage of ancient buildings, like libraries with collections of thousands of titles (objects), more like “warehouses”. As revealed by Dean (1996: 5), as an open storage with obsolete display with unorganized interior, it gives the impression of dusty and spooky. Furthermore, the role of museums is more of a medium to show the sociocultural and educational changes of a certain society in a transformation process which embodies the intellectual structure development and improved living standards. Perhaps this is the “common” role and appearance. But it would seem “unusual”, if the role of educational museum is changed as the “subject” with a lot of variance. Alvin Toffler called it as “powershift” (Toffler, 1990: xvii)-discussed the changes control going on-who is going to develop it, and how? In other words, education museum is not merely a media, but as the “subject” of interactive learning and autonomous. Other unique in the perspective of “traditional-postmodern”, the presence of education museum is no longer legitimize the “hobby” of the state’s rulers or invaders (Gandhi, 1998: 67; Ashroft, 1998: 186) – the follow up on the conquest spirit and the past expansions – most of materials or artifacts of the museum that time was the spoil of war, such as the Louvre museum in Paris, the Van Abbemuseum and DAF Museum in Eindhoven, the Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal and Van Oudhen Rijks Museum in Leiden. These museum should be deconstructed to better appreciate the values of humanity that is more equal and awake. Because the humanism point of view is an inevitable premise of the humanity itself. The natural inevitability that never dies, the basic articulation of self awareness. And, the premise will always reappear, especially in times of humanitarian is being castrated or in a difficult situation due to the uncertain period of transition, such as happening in Indonesia today (Sugiharto, 2008: xvi).
It seems that the habit of collecting in this kind of way that has been going on since the 16th century, which often called as the Age of Discovery, should be change into something more human with respect to other nations, not by force or conquest of a number of artifacts was obtained. Thus the education museum could decrease the the colonial rulers “hobby”. Not a follow-up of the conquest and expansion spirit. The materials or artifacts of educational museum should not be the spoil of war.
The eclectic thought combining the values of local wisdom with postmodern should be viewed in the context of ideological values enrichment, where each position can not be separated from the interests of values in an effort to represent the past, present, and future. The values of local wisdom and postmodern is a humanist movement, which emphasizing various forms of individual and social identity, where the autonomous subject has been divided into various kinds of subject positions by emphasizing the plural and open democracy (Sarup, 2011: 203). According to the traditionalists and postmodernists, learning from past experience, during modernism era, the progress is considered “myth” if it is explained metanarratively, given that one of human characteristics is to make difference between “real” and the “ideal”. Thus creating a warm state, or which does have a single meaning – some meaning will appear fantastically or the imaginative meaning. Through its deconstructive philosophy of the things that are not thought or things that should not be thought, he proves that the process of creating text/new writtwn can be made through games – the difference (ontological difference) of words or language meaning (Derrida, 2002: 44; 1976: 143). With a real awareness refers to the present, and the ideal, it refers to a particular concept of how the world should be and the life.
The museum today is not only requiring the standard application of management, such as: collection, documentation, research, conservation, and mediation, but also requires a discipline of its own as an umbrella, which is “museology”. Museology is the science regarding the assessment of the purpose and organization of museums. Museology has now grown into “The New Museology”, which now has developed into a discipline that is interdisciplinary and broadly covers the disciplines of pure science and applied science. The pure science are antropopologi, archeology, history, numismatic and so on, concerning the management of the collection. The applied sciences include chemistry and physics techniques, concerning the maintenance and collection restoration (Vergo, 2000, Stam, 2005).
Furthermore, according to the architect of education museum, visitor is not the object, as often happens in traditional museum management. This is as the result of the community needs in the facing the development of local wisdoms and global knowledge, our identity and cultural roots that are faced with the more mondial postmodern movement. The identity and cultural roots are considered to should be avoided from the identity loss drift away by the mondial values. This requirement also indirectly encouraged the society to be aware of the local genius (Wales, 1948: 5), that should be preserved as a cultural heritage. It is the result of the fact that cultural heritage is the cultural identity of a nation. The preservation of cultural heritage and the delivery of the cultural identity, both are the basic functions of a museum. By combining the locally meaningfull curved lines villa isola with global architectutr which presents more symmetrical lines will give a live feeling in local communities in the middle of the mondial global. The architecture that relies on curved lines and circles is called Jenkins Architecture. The word Jenkins is usually associated with the word Yankee, a term for people who live or born in Northern of United States, especially the soldiers who fought for the unity in American Civil (Encarta Dictionary, 2003). Jenkins Architecture emerged during that time as the result of the spirit to be free from the influence of colonial (Dutch), while the forms present today is certainly has its own spirit (Prakoso, 17/02/2002). For example, the not symmetrical windows symmetrical, snaking overstek, tilted wall lines. Unappropriate forms at that time. “the Jenkins Architecture only process the building’s appearance, outside and inside,” the Jenkins Architecture is popular in Indonesia in the 1950s.
The postmodern museum known as community or eco museum has its own characteristic of museum mangement. The characteristic of the eco museum is primarily seen not in collection arrangement, but in the way of decision making. In a traditional museum, the determination of what should be collected and whether and how to display it is not by the professionals, while in the community museum the authority was taken over by the users who are also the owner, the community itself. Such museum management is intended to determine the community’s cultural identity, to be managed by the community and then presented to the community in their position as the owner and the visitor. All of them are implemented in an integrated museum. Another difference that can be recognized is about understanding the collection. In the community museum, the collection can be a borrowed item which is diplayed temporary in the museum. Once the event held by the museum in displaying the item, such as exhibitions, the items are done, it should be returned to the owners, in this case the community. In other words, the community museum can be established even though it does not have its own collection.
Why Combining the Values of Local Wisdom and Postmodern?
The term “local wisdom” is basically the same as the Local Genius – a term first introduced by Quaritch H.G. Wales in his work titled Culture Change in Greater India “(1948: 5). Wales suggested tha Local Genius is “… the sum of the cultural characteristics roomates the vast majority of people have in cammon as a result of their experience in early life”. Furthermore, Haryati Soebadio suggesteed that the term is synonymous with cultural identity, and is defined as an identity or cultural personality of a nation, which resulted in the nation to be better able to absorb and process the external cultural influences, to be processed in accordance with the character and personal needs (Soebadio, 1986: 18-19). In more detail Mundardjito (1986: 40-41) outlines the nature of the local genius into five principles, namely: (1) able to withstand from foreign cultures, (2) has the ability to accommodate the foreign cultures’ elements, (3) have the ability integrate the elements of foreign cultures into the native culture, (4) has the ability to control, and (5) able to give direction for the culture the development.
The Local wisdom of the West Java people is very much attached to traditional values of Sundanese people in particular. For example, in Sunda almost all “Carita” pantun (the rhyme story) generally known to the public tell the story of the king’s son of Prabu Siliwangi of Padjadjaran kingdom who explore or have adventure in order to expand the sovereign territory of Padjadjaran kingdom. Prabu Siliwangi himself is not much told after his children are going for exploration. Howeverm there are four “Carita” pantun which is sacred by the society, the Lutung Kasarung, Ciung Wanara, Munding Laya, and Nyai Sumur Bandung (Ayat Rohaedi, in Introduction Sumadjo Jakob, 2003: ix-x).
The study of the local wisdom values importance is based on the two main opinion, the functionalism theory of anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski and tge opinion of the humanist existentialist psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. Malinowski’s theory of functionalism argues that “all the cultural activities it is actually intended to satisfy some human beings’ instinct realted to associated the whole life“. While Erich Fromm’s opinion about the need of “feeling belonging” as an integral part of the formation of the nation’s existence, Erich Fromm (1955: 25) in his work The Sane society explaining that the understanding of human psyche must be based on an analysis of human needs derived from the existence conditions, which include: (1) the need for connection or frame of devotion, (2) the need for transcendence, (3) the need for rooting, (4) the need for identity, (5) the orientation frame needs. Overall the needs can be expressed in two fundamental concepts of humanity, which are “to have” and “to be”. As human, they are being, live and evolved into a personal because they have something. Thus “have” is part of the human “existence”, which Fromm called as the “existential having”.
The study of the postmodern values begins with Dick Hebdige opinion in Hiding in the Light (2012), the prefix post in the “postmodernism” have various meaning such as ‘the continuation of’, ‘reaction to’, ‘critique to’ , ‘revolution against’, ‘deconstruction of’, ‘split with’, ‘disconnection from’, or ‘the intersection of the previous, which is modernism. Postmodernism is a cultural movement in general, which is characterized by opposition to totalitarianism and universalism with tendency towards diversity, towards abundant and overlapping range of images or styles, which result to fragmentation of contradictions, and the erosion of cultural meaning (Sarup, 2011: 203 ; Piliang, 2004: 20). Furthermore, in term of perspective, postmodern emerged from a reaction toward the modern inability to achieve dreams. The world of industrialism, capitalism, modern individualime have negative impact on people’s lives that lower its popularity and ultimately encouraging the birth of postmodern, which begin with the deconstruction movement. Deconstruction rejected the structuralist theory in literature which says that all societies and cultures have the same structure so that literature product can be understood universally. Deconstruction is more on the meaning that emerges from each individual who reads the creative literature (text) products (Derrida, 2002: 44-45). This is the importance of the study of “style”.
‘Style’ is an important term in postmodern discourse. The style Approach in postmodern discourse conducted with the rejection of the bigger discourse, and postmodern as the sub-culture of such big discourse, one of which is the Memphis movement, which was initiated by Ettore Sottsass in the city of Milan in the 60’s decade. The movement was re-introducing the languages of art and design. And in the decade of the 70s, the styles of this Memphis movement developed by groups of sub-culture in the West. There are three concepts supposing the force on the sub-cultures, which are (1) Style as a form of sign practice. Style is used in reasing the clothing of a particular sub-culture group as a specific semiotic meaning. For example in the post-modern architecture, the reusing of classical elements in building decoration combined with modern structures can be used in the reading style of postmodern buildings, (2) Style as a resistance, for example, the use of clothing or style of music sub-culture is a form of counter-culture against the mainstream culture , (3) style as bricolage. In this case the style that took a little footage from one place and put it in another place to create a new meaning.
In addition, this paper is also based on the point of view of colonized nation – consciously I favored it – particularly regarding the definition of “the museum research” with the dynamics of colonialism and imperialism. The museum research in the context of the language livelihood of the colonized is infact considered as disgusting, tend to bring bad memories, inviting silence and provoke a “tacit” smile in colonial suspicion point. It was so much as to hurt the feelings of colonized people reagarding what and who colonized people really are. Even worse, the Western researchers assume to know everything about the colonized only from a brief encounter with some of the colonized people. Worse, the West claim the ownership means knowing imagery colonized people in the nation, and at the same time dismiss the people who create and develop his ideas, even to admit that it was his.
The imperialist point of view is perpetuated through infiltration of knowledge: uniting the colonized nations, classifying and representing with all sorts of the West ways, and returned it to the colonized through the West’s point of view. Edward Said called this process as the West discource about the Other, supported by institutions, academic apreciation, vocabulary, imagery, doctrines, and colonial bureaucracies and colonial styles (Said, 1978: 2). According to him this process is caused by a simultanous mutual exchange between scholarly construction and imaginative construction of ideas about East or Orient. Scolarly Construction, according to Said, is supported by a corporate institution which issued a statement about the East fouled by various opinions and teachings to determine and control (Said, 1978: 3: Said, 1986: 15). In taking these measures, the knowledge hunt in the version of official schooling and informal construction finally full of anecdotes about the election of each other in museum research activities. Especially in Indonesia. This paper identified significant research as a contest between the interests of the West and the East that provide resistance. In this case the differentiation is labeled as a face in the identity of colonized nations. When writing about the museum studies with a scientific approach, it is difficult to discuss the research methodology and colonized nation at the same time, and without the imperialism analysis, because the understanding of knowledge exploration has already implemented and rooted in the layers of colonialism and imperialism in practice, (Smith, 1999: xvii; Gandhi, 1998: 67-68; Ashroft, 1998: 186-187 :).
Through its pluralistic role in the postmodern discourse, styles is a form of syncretism, ie the absorption of various stylistic elements from various artists, cultures, periods, or different ideologies, even the contradictory which will emerge a new style. Postmodern has penetrated into various fields, including the architecture, such as the postmodernism. As with other fields, postmodernism in architecture aslo reject the major discourses, such as playing with ornaments, eclecticism of building styles from various historical periods which tend to be irregular and conflicting. The use of color in postmodern architecture is refusing the primary colors and tend to use pastel colors, turquoise, or conflicting colors like black and white and gray gradation. However, postmodern is not merely combining various styles of the past, it is rather the society and culture in it which referred to the spirit of the era (contemporary), identifies the local culture (Hauenschild, 1988: 5-6).
New, Humanistic and Deconstruction Museology
The museum today not only require standards management, such as: collection, documentation, research, conservation, and mediation, but also require a discipline of its own as an umbrella, the New Museology (Watson, 2007: 45), a new theory to accommodate and anticipate current and future developments. The term New Museology is translated from Nouvelle Museologique and have been known in France and the UK in 1970 – 1990’s. The term is used to describe new phenomena in museum activities to prioritize the interests of the community (people centered) (Alivizatou, 2008: 49). New Museology is the science regarding the studies of the purpose and organization of museums. New Museology covers all theoretical aspects and activities of the museum. Museology examines the role of museums in society with regard to the collection and preservation of knowledge for the benefit of the present and future evaluation, through research that carried out systematically, which results presented to the public. In turn, the New Museology is the basic function of a museum, which are research, conservation or preservation, and communication is a mediation with the community.
The problem is that there some sort of “struggle” among the museum professionals in Indonesia. The differences are caused by different approaches they do, such as some of them are emphasizing on the “New Museology” theory, while some others are prioritizing the praxis, the “Museography”, in contrast the museulogy that is more centralized in exhibition management, exhibition techniques, and things that are practical (Magetsari, 2009). According to Vergo (2000: 1.3) museology is a social science that studies the museum as a whole, the history and development of its emerging, the philosophy embodied in the vision and mission, the role of education, social, and political, as well as the wisdom it has. Further Magetsari (2008) added that museology as prima philosophia is a reference to discuss collection management, exhibitions, administration to the form and function of the museum and the history of its development. The most fundamental difference between the Old and the New Museology is that Old Museology (Traditional Museum) focused on methodology, such as the collection method, care and exhibition, while the New Museology (Modern Museum) more focused on the purpose or meaning (Vergo, 2000: 3).
In addition, according to Stam in Corsane (2005: 54) the difference lies in the role of information as the top priority in the vision and mission of Museum (information centered), in addition to its association with the social, economic and political surroundings (societal environment). Meanwhile, according to Van Mensch, the difference lies in the ‘authorship’ that emerges clearly in the New Museology, replacing the unnamed identification in the Old Museology (Watson 2007: 49). Meanwhile, according to Handler in Watson (2007: 49) New/Modern Museum is like a ‘social arena’ because the activity is more than just museum visitors watching collection or scientist doing research, as it is common in traditional museum. Various activities could be provided by museum, research, conservation, administration, production of various programs, events, restaurant menus, merchandise, and so on. Hauenschild added that the New Museum is a dynamic museum that continues to grow with diminishing institutional form, involved in keeping up with the surrounding environment (ecological perspective), theme-oriented, not object-oriented (Hauenschild 1988: 9-12 ). Huyssen in Watson (2007: 389, 390) further assert: Museum is no longer simply the guardian of treasures and artifacts from the past discreetly exhibited for select group of experts but has moved closer to the world of the spectacle of the popular fairs and mass entertainment.
On top of all that, the main difference between the New Museology and Old Museology, according to the study of Hooper-Greenhill (2000), Marstine (2006), Watson (2007) and Magetsari (2008), is the museum’s growing role on education and its benefits for the community (educational and social roles). Starting from such a paradigm, the National Museum of Education is developing a new paradigm which is the antithesis of the previous paradigm. The new paradigm could be the implementation of the New Museology now being major project to revitalize the many museums. The Antithesis is an application of museulogy concepts and theories different than the previous and the conclusion was as follows (with mention of the position of the Museum Nasional Pendidikan at first): First, located in the cool and comfortable mountains (resort) and not in the city (downtown); Second, occupied a heritage classical building (Villa Isola) which usually is the museum landmark, which combines the traditional architecture values with postmodern architecture; Third, managed by private management corporation, not a state institution. Fourth, is an eclectic collection based on the theme and not an encyclopaedic collection that relies on a massive amount. Fifth, interpret more the cultural heritage in the form of stories (collective memory) or events than objects (intangible heritage) and not always rely on material cultural heritage (tangible heritage) or in other words not object oriented but information oriented. Sixth, rather artifacts and memorabilia collection, most of the collection consists of material with cultural ambiance of the past and the present. Seventh, use label or caption to explain the collection on display, as well as the tour guides, making it more interactive becauset it can be accessed as visible and audible (Hooper-Greenhill, 2000: 7). Eighth, the musealization of movement and non mevement collection. Ninth, the museum is no longer just a muse-um (the place to study muse) but evolved into a-muse-ment (theme park) by combining elements of education and learning and entertainment or leisure. Tenth, in the final stage (the ultimate goal), which is currently being developed, will be a living museum and not a ‘dead’ museum by organizing various programs and exhibitions (Marstine, 2006: 6).
The ten synthesis concluded form the results of studies in the field might be developed in the future in accordance with the nature of science which is constantly evolving, especially the use of the dialectical method that will always bring a new antithesis of the synthesis that has been the thesis. The entire synthesis is a “deconstruction of cultural package”, as conveyed by Donald Preziosi in the theory of Modern Museum, that the museum is a dominant “cultural landscape” in reconstructing the past to the present, as added by Marstine (2006: 1-5, 17).
New museum theory is about decolonizing, giving those represented control of their own cultural heritage. It’s about real cross-cultural exchange. (It) is not monolithic; it embraces many viewpoints. Culture is not static or frozen but continues maintain its identity by creating new objects, each with its own personality.
In brief this is ideal and has a double benefit, when the museum occupies an ancient building (cultural heritage) that need to be preserved. First, indirectly, it contribute in taking care of and preserve the landmark building; Second, it could be a shortcut in imaging or positioning museum as an institution responsible for the preservation of the national heritage. However, the shortcomings, among others, are many parts of the building or structure are damage (deterioration), thus requiring bigger maintenance costs (maintenance) than new building. Secondly, there is no freedom to manage the flow (prosemic) and the decor of the room, because everything has to be adapted to the shape of the building and the existing space, not based on the needs and standards of displaying. Unlike the case of Ullen Sentalu which since the begining it occupies an empty location and developed but with regard to the meaning of Javanese philosophy proxemic, both in terms of location, architectural style, flow and display management.
The application of various architectural style at the Museum Nasional Pendidikan (MNP/The National Museum of Education) which consists of a main building and several supporting buildings are not only composed of elements from vernacular and retro (nostalgic) of the Isola area, but also inserting the topology, topography, morphology and feature of Bandung which has a variety of historical buildings such as the Asia-Africa Conference Building, Gedung Sate, colonial architecture and the unique Bandung’s town planning, therefore the architecture of the Museum Nasional Pendidikan as a whole is a combination of various styles and era that can be categorized as classical and postmodern architecture.
New architectural approach which was developed by using the elements or the name of a well-known building is the process of using Mnemonic ideal for museums. Museums are institutions of preserving memory that every layout, space arrangement, and architecture style should be able to be a Mnemonic to remind something that will allow visitors to understand the collection displayed and enjoy the visit.
The word mnemonic means ‘assisting or intended to assist memory’. Aside from being a reminder factor (mnemonic), the architecture should also be able to create the feel of the museum (atmosphere) through the ambiance in buildings’ style (typology), shape of the room, the places’ names (toponyms) and the region layouts (morphology). The use of names (toponyms) such as Kembang Tanjung, Sindang Heula, Kampung Kembang, Babalean and the building exterior and interior (typology) designed to incorporate some elements of the original form is the application of the mnemonic concept to remind visitors of the place or atmosphere that had been known.
Additionally, the painting collection at the Museum Nasional Pendidikan is not the kind of paintings on display to appreciate the artist, but rather the content of the paintings are used as a communication medium of the intangible become tangible, as proposed Lowenthal (1985: 191): reaffirming memory and history in tangible form Conceptual and Imaginary Narrative Painting or Conceptual Painting in short is a form of painting based on the ideas obtained through writing, narrative, or direct experience in seeing an event which is then expressed in the form of paintings. Thus the process is ‘imaginative reconstruction’ with a perfect sequence (Lowenthal, 1985: 4). Meanwhile, Contextual Painting is mostly rely on what is seen without any complicated interpretation. Conceptual Painting is like a snapshot or motion picture that relies on team work to express the intangible happening of past events that have not been documented or current events that can only be seen by certain group. Dean (1996: 6) adds: Interpretation is the act or process of explaining or classifying, translating or presenting a personal understanding about the subject or object (Dean, 1996: 6).
The Conceptual Ideas are then interpreted imaginative and narrative ways to show the aesthetic values and communicative aspects. An example is the ceremony of Seserahan, is a ceremony of the delivery of groom accompanied by a number of his treasure. Through conceptual painting, all the glamour and beauty of Sundanese traditional rites and their philosophical principle will be disclosed to the general public. Some ceremonies, such as Sisingaan, have various types in West Java and its galmorous can not be represented by museum collection which is merely objects. To show it up is also not possible to realy on a single source that is spoken or written by the perpetrator or witness of the history, but it involed a team work consisting of academics who conduct field and literature research, historian and culture experts, language and symbols interpreters, the artists who are experts in realism and surrealism painting to jointly unveil further information behind a cultural object or piece of the story of the resource. Dean (1996: 26-27) further explain:
People have three principal means of gathering information through: Words, Sensations and Images. A large percentage … is visual (and) people process incoming images in six basic ways : pattern seeking and recognition, mentally rotating objects in space, identifying dynamic structures, orthographic imagination, x-ray visualization, visual reasoning.
Such interpretive paintings could not be classified as visual aids, such as labels, captions, or a poster to explain the objects on display, but rather as a form of visualization like a diorama (three-dimensional) in two-dimensional to express the Cultural Heritage in the form of an event. It is also not a painting exhibition of a certain artist, so the presentation never mentions the name of the artist. What is on display is historical portraiture painting, similar to paintings of American presidents at the National Museum in Washington DC or the events recording at the National Portrait Gallery in London, which have various meanings and can be interpreted and translated by historians and curators, as revealed by Lowenthal (1985: 212): historical narrative is not a portrait of what happened but a story about what happened
Similarly, the display would never put a label or description of the painting, but narrative tour (guided tour) will provide a more descriptive, narrative, and interactive information than text label or caption. Cultural meanings that are conveyed verbally often more ‘original’ than the non-verbal one that may be distorted by writing interpretation (Fletcher, 1989: 33). The uniqueness of such a conceptual painting according to the ICOM dictionary is called the working collection that should be done by a museum worker of the culture material that the museums have, whether tangible or intangible (ICOM, 2006: Article 2: 8).
This form of conceptual painting, in addition to other breakthroughs by Peter Vergo, is categorized as the application of the New Nuseology concepts and theories:
“Beyond the captions, the information panels, the accompanying catalogue, the press handout … woven from the wishes and ambitions, the intellectual or political or social or educational aspirations and preconception of the museum director, the curator, the scholar, the designer, the sponsor… their methods and techniques of conservation… are the subject matter of the New Museology” (Vergo, 1989: 3) .
Examples of conceptual painting and musealization process of the cultural heritage based on local wisdom values of Sundanese people that we wanted are the strands of smooth rhyme verse (pantun) such as Lutung Kasarung, Ciung Wanara, Munding Laya, and Nyai Sumur Bandung (Rohaedi Verse, in the Preface to Jakob Sumadjo , 2003: ix-x).
The next question that arises is “is the terms of humanism that was so long lost in the past still relevant?” Discussing humanism now adays sounds as though it is anachronistic, outdated, and outmoded. Within the framework of the current postmodern idea, humanism is considered as part of the mega project of modernization, which although initially it has the ambition to blow the big wave of humanity, yet in the development process it end up with a severe de-humanization, in global scale. That is why people send attack from various sides to it. The strange thing is, if we look closer, that various attacks on humanism are generally contain implicit assumptions which is “humanistic” as well. Therefore, as the general basic assumption, humanism is an inevitable premise of humanity itself, the natural inevitability that never dies, the basic articulation of self-esteem (Sugiharto, 2008: xvi). Moreover, the premise will always reappear, especially in moments when humanity is in castrated and in a less certain situation, like Indonesia today.
If we look back at the early age of humanism, it is immediately apparent that the current situation of Indonesia is similar with Europe in the Middle Ages that has led to the birth of the early humanism. In 14th century Europe had various religious discourse expressions that were very cynical towards the concepts of doctrine and morals, under the basic fear of sins, trials and punishment of God. Theological discourse had become very detailed and holy, while the praxis treatment toward human and human values was hard and nasty (remember the tragedies of Mbah Priok or Tanjung Priok on 18 April 2010, the tragedy of Ahmadyah in Cikeusik Pandeglang -Banten on 6 February 2011, or the Sampang-Madura tragedy on 13 December 2011 and 26 August 2012; compare those tragedy with the similarity of inquisition practices on the Catholic Church at that time). The Prelates were so alert and so full of rage in cleaning the religion teaching from any deviation, while the abuse and ill-treatment of dissidents seems normal. A scholar named Petrarca was describing theologians as being busy “watching the trees, but ignoring the beauty of the whole forest.” Thus, the passionate spirit of religilion often acutely anesthetized that people easily forget the intrinsic value of life, humanity, and even the basic nature of the religion itself, in the extent scale (Sugiharto, 2008: xvi-xvii). This is an absurd irony of that moment, which ultimately stimulates the literary people (common pepole, the non-religious hierarchy) to begin thinking for themselves, and risking to use their personal freedom to take a critical and independent attitude, by looking that the past is sometimes more beautiful than the present.
Humanism as the humanitarian movement has undergone a long process of meaning interpretation and reduction. Therefore, the meaning of the word is traced through the etymological and historical perspective. Etymologically, the term humanism is closely related to the classical Latin word, humus, which means ground or earth. From that word come the word homo, which means human beings (creatures of the earth) and humanus, which further demonstrating the nature of “grounded” and “humane”. The similar terms is the Latin word of “humanis“, which means simplicity and humility (modesty). The opponents of the meaning of the term, at first, is the other creatures that are not human (animals and plants), including all the existing order, the aliens and the gods or dues/divius, divines (Davies, 125 -126)
Postmodern Architecture
Some of postmodern architecture characteristics by Charles Jencks (1997: 6-132) and Broadbent (1980: 73-74) are: (1) ‘Disharmonious-Harmony’. Jencks considers that in this postmodern architecture there is a blend of beauty and composition, between the disharmonious and the not beautiful, the symmetric and asymmetric, (2) ‘Pluralism’, a combination of several types of architecture that still reflects the local architecture, the modern resistance; (3) ‘Urbane Urbanism’, created a residential that match with the environment, (4) ‘Anthropomorphism’, ornaments according to the forms of the human structure, (5) ‘Anamnesis’, the symbols that can lead to past memories; (6) ‘Divergent signification’, a form with an image or a different meaning from that shown, symbolism of place and a desire to bring new meaning; (7) ‘Double Coding’, merging the two kinds of styles; (8) ‘Multivalence’, blending of various styles; (9) ‘tradition reinterpretation’, repeating the old tradition; (10) ‘new Rethorical Figures’, updating the old ordinance with a new figure; (11) ‘return To the Absent Centre’, (12) ‘Semiotics‘ as the foundation of communicating meaning. Jencks has the terms of signified (the concept of space, social and religious values, functions, architectural idea, activity) and signifiers (shape, space, content, color, rhythm, texture).
According to the museum itself, such situation make the museum as a sort of encyclopedia serving a variety of knowledge from which people can obtain it. The knowledge presented is knowledge about the collection itself, which is expressed through the curators knowledge, according to their field. Thus it can be said that the curator and the museum have the full authority and legitimacy in selecting, presenting, as well as giving a description of the collection on display. In it they convey knowledge about the collection, doesn not matter it will be understood or attract the visitors interest.
As a result, museum is a large organization that has the absolute authority and status toward the visitors, thus requiring a professional collection management and can no longer be handled as before it became a museum. Demands for the museum management professionalism resulted in a new field of science, the museology, New Museology. Museology has evolved into an interdisciplinary science and broadly covers the field of pure science disciplines and applied sciences disciplines. Additionally the specificity of New Museology provide opportunities for marginalized communities, the communities outside the cultural community mentioned in the seminar. The pure science disciplines include antropology, archeology, history, numismatic and so on, related the to collection management. The applied sciences include chemistry and physics, which relate to the collection maintenance and restoration.
Postmodern architecture also has a symbolic principle, in this case is semiotics. Some experts have their own theory about semiotics. I’m not going to discuss the theory suggested one by one. I will directly discuss the theory of a linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure. He is more concerned on the sign itself. For Saussure, sign is a physical object with meaning, or, according to him a sign consist of marker (signs for Pierce) and signifier (interpretan for Pierce). Marker is the image of a sign as our perception; markers are referred to mental concepts. Mental concept is generallu similar in all members of the same culture that uses the same language. Saussure explains that sign is unseperable from marker and signifier. Social consensus is needed to interpret signs (Fiske, 1990: 62-66). Saussure also interpret the linguistic basis of contradictory dichotomy, such as parole and langue. Parole is the use of individually selecting certain elements that endeared in someone’s dictionary. Langue is a code system that is known and agreed by all parties. Roland Barthes further implies that Saussure’s theory is divided into two meanings, denotation and connotation. Denotation leads to a common perception of the sign’s clarity. House has a denotation menaing as a shelter. Connotation is a subjective interpretation of which are influenced by the subjectivity of the interpreter and the object. Connotations describe the interaction that took place when the sign meets the feelings or emotions in its cultural values. House has connotation meaning as a building, lifestyle, address, identity, personality, structure, and history.
Semiotics in architecture forms a close relationship between the geography, history, and local culture, as well as the surrounding social community by using the color, form, space, content/volume, even building’s sufaces. Form of architecture, as well as the form of other fields, is generally can be said as having denotation meaning at first and then followed by connotations meaning. Other that ‘house’, ‘window’ also has denotation and connotation meaning. Denotation meaning is clear, while the connotations, for example, is describing the majesty of the building that can be seen from the proportions or shape. Thus, Charles Jencks called postmodern with the slogan of ‘Form Follow Meaning‘ as the resistance of the modernism in the semiotics method.
In the architecture development, semiotics is widely used since the postmodern era, the era in which architects began to realize the gap between the elite environment makers, in this case the architect, with the ordinary people who inhabit the environment. During that time semitics was used in the reformation of architectural meaning on the building function role (Forms Follow Function) which was excessive regardless the socio-cultural conditions around the building. Jencks uses semiotics as a foundation to communicate meaning. According to Jencks, space concept, social value, function, architectural ideas, and activities, are the signifier, while the shape, space, content, color, rhythm, and texture are the markers.
Through semiotics, for Jencks, postmodern architecture are not an absolute form like modern architecture, but more on the patterns of similarity and even the differences among the elements. Jencks also emphasized that the code used to understand abstraks forms is not standard, because the form is always arranged together to create context/flow, so that the architecture can be ‘read’, the post-modern architecture in the scope of semiotics explores the mismatch of styles, shapes, and textures, aligning the oppsoite elements. For example, the application of straight revivalsm style which the building responds to the context and the more relative in style. This supports the assertion of local charateristics (USA) in the forms of buildings and against other forms of modern buildings.
Postmodern can be understood as a philosophy, thinking pattern, thinking subject, the basic thought, idea, and theory. Each deploying its own understanding and the postmodern challenge, and therefore it is not surprising that there is a saying that the postmodern means “after modern” (modern is over); “after the modern” (modern still continues but no longer popular and dominant); or interpret as `modern continuation ‘(modern still continues, but with adjustments/adaptations with developments and updates that occur in the present). In the world of architecture, postmodernism refers to a process or activity and can be considered as a style, the postmodern style. In fact, the architecture works result come in three versions/sub-style which are Full Modern, Neo Modern, and Deconstruction. Given that each user and follower of the sub-style/version likely does not care about each other, they named each of their style as full modern, neo-modern, and deconstruction. It should be noted that this many versions of the postmodern notion and has indeed confusingn, especially to determine which is the right one.
The main ideas used by the postmodern architects are different to the characteristics of Modern. There are three main differences, which are: (a) does not follow the Form Follows Function. Postmodern architecture defines architecture as a language, and therefore does not facilitate, but rather communicate architecture, in different ways; (b) Function (not as an activity or what is done by the man on architecture). In postmodernism architecture, function is the architecture role and ability to influence and serve human, as a creature who think, work, have feelings and emotions, creatures who have dreams and ambitions, have nostalgia and memory. Here, human is whole personal being; (c) Form and Space. Within postmodernism, form and space are the basic components that do not have to relate to one another cause (cause and effect), form and space are two independent components, alone and free, so it can be connected or not. The fact is form is substantially, fundamentally different of space. The main feature of the form is exist and real, visible, palpable, whereas space has a certain characteristic and invisible, unreal. It is the architecture task to make these characteristic happen. According to the postmodern visual characteristic, Hotel Novotel in Surabaya could be one of the example.
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