iWareBatik
Batik is a textile-making tradition in Indonesia that was inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009. The iWareBatik website and the corresponding mobile app, available for iOS and Android devices, serve to help international and Indonesian Batik stakeholders to identify the variety of Batik textiles, the philosophical values behind the motif, its place of origin, and useful information about local producers. Since Batik defines the culture of each region in Indonesia, iWareBatik also features information about Indonesian tourism related to Batik in the 34 provinces across Indonesia.
The project was realized with the support of the Indonesian LPDP scholarship, Sobat Budaya Cultural Association, USI eLab, and the UNESCO Chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites at USI.
As stated by Puspita Ayu Permatasari, a Ph.D. candidate at the USI Faculty of Communication, Culture, and Society, “iWareBatik stands for interactive software of Batik. It can also be interpreted as ‘I am aware of Batik’ or ‘I wear Batik’. iWareBatik aims at reigniting people’s passion for learning and understanding the Indonesian Batik tradition, as intangible cultural heritage. It serves to better communicate the exceptional socio-cultural values of Batik in tourism and fashion contexts through new forms of digital media.”
According to Prof. Lorenzo Cantoni, chair-holder of USI’s UNESCO Chair, “this project is fully in line with the mission and the values of the UNESCO Chair: leveraging on a wise use of digital information and communication technologies in order to promote responsible and sustainable cultural/heritage tourism. In order to do so, it uses two main ingredients: on the one side, high quality information about Batik, its history, and related culture, on the other side, the capacity of presenting it through compelling narratives, which are accessible also to travelers and locals who are not experts in this textile heritage”.
About iWareBatik: www.iwarebatik.org
Recent News about the project
iWareBatik Hackathon
In cooperation with 33 Indonesian universities nationwide involving 156 Indonesian bachelor students, International iWareBatik Ideas Hackathon Event 2021 was held on 15 and 29 October 2021. At this event, the students presented an interactive 5-minute English pitch...
iWareBatik – Website launched on 17.08.2020!
As a contribution to the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, occurring August 17, the UNESCO Chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites at USI Università della Svizzera italiana...