Philosophy And Concepts Of ‘Light’ In Bamboo Shoot Malay Songket Motifs Into Contemporary Lighting Design

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Date
2015-06
Authors
Zakaria, Safial Aqbar
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Abstract
This research focuses on the in-depth meaning and philosophy of light of the songket motifs together with traditions and historical associations. The Malay songket has a unique regional style, which owes its origin and composition to its varied cultural, philosophical and religious backgrounds to help on a development of a creative process in contemporary lighting design. Through songket this research scrutinised the rituals and customs which encompass the philosophy and meanings of light from the Malay interpretation and understandings in terms of culture, spirituality, physical attributes and emotion. The first objective is to analyse the philosophy and meaning of light to the Malays, through an in-depth study of the symbols and motifs of songket. Secondly, this study has interpreted traditional Malay light application and understanding in contemporary context. From the two objectives mentioned above, the third objectives has been established where concepts of contemporary lighting design can be elaborated based on the findings which related to the theoretical interests derived from the songket motifs and transformations into contemporary lighting design practices. The results of this research are qualitative. The research methodology used in this research involved collecting qualitative data. The qualitative approach is used to confirm and corroborate findings within a single study on the interpretation of light in Malay culture and to answer the research questions. There are supported by structured interviews, observation and visual data from various backgrounds. The motifs of songket can be seen as the „light‟ that symbolically represents the Supreme Creator of man, beast and nature. The meaning of light in Malay culture have been understood not only in the scientific and physical senses, but understood more deeply within the culture. The results have shown that the Malay has translated this appreciation of God‟s (Allah) beautiful creation into songket through the sense of weaver, who then transmitted this message to their mind and heart. This research showed its relationship with the Malay, who created the cultural art and heritage, by adding „soul‟ in their design, taking the aspects of culture, belief and divinity, all of which open our minds to existence and relates it with light. By scrutinising the philosophy of the Malay art, this research discovered that light and lighting should not be understood only in the normal sense of being merely a design or physical entities, but it needs to be appreciated and expressed through emotions, mind and physical. The changes that took place remain a heritage, preserved and developed, while adopting new changes and technology that enhance creativity in creative process in contemporary lighting design.
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Building Construction
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