Abstract
After many unsuccessful national plans, steps towards systemic thinking and new leadership to improve the Indonesian comic ecosystem have emerged. The research investigates comic artists’ leadership capability in improving the ecosystem by understanding it as a systemic problem. Artists are regarded as creative agents capable of designing (“designers”) their own ecosystems in addition to excelling in their material culture. The research shifts away from government reliance and put artists who were previously unrecognized to lead the effort. It reveals artists’ inventive skills and to become theoretical prototypes of artist leadership interacting with the system’s inhabitants. The effort is driven through systemic design methodology, operating through participatory design in social innovation to empower all inhabitants as “designers” in defining and achieving goals and devising enabling systems. By applying multimethod research, the first step is a holistic diagnosis analyses the Indonesian comic complexities. The result is a Giga map, which allows comic artists to focus groups on identifying system challenges in the next step. Focus groups then offer a mental model as a reference point to inform the artist-led co-design process. Co-design convenes system inhabitants as “designers,” providing diverse skills, insights, and ways of thinking. The output is a white paper outlining recommended actions. The research is limited in size and scope and acknowledges the risks of unforeseen disruption caused by power shifts and government (dis)empowerment. In conclusion, this new understanding presents political and ethical power shifts, the intriguing possibility of artist-led system transformation, and creative methodologies.
Presenters
Gideon HutapeaStudent, Doctoral, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Victoria, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
INDONESIAN COMIC, ECOSYSTEM, SYSTEMIC DESIGN, ARTIST-LED, PARTICIPATORY
