Cultural Transformation and Aesthetic Innovation: Trenggalek’s Heritage in Contemporary Batik Motif Design

Abstract

The development of batik in the modern era shows a significant transformation, from a traditional heritage to a medium for aesthetic expression and cultural identity. Batik now serves not only as a symbol of tradition, but also as a means of design innovation that can to adapt to global fashion trends. This research focuses on the exploration of Trenggalek’s local culture as a source of inspiration in the creation of contemporary batik motifs. By combining a visual communication approach and the shape grammar method, the design process is carried out through the Panca Siti Ngawi Sani stages, which include exploration, reflection, idea processing, visualization, and finalization. This research produces contemporary batik motif designs that represent Trenggalek's cultural heritage, focusing on traditional dance cultural objects and natural symbols. Each motif theme is combined with classical batik motif elements that have relevant philosophies and are arranged with a contemporary visual style composition and a combination of traditional techniques, namely canting tulis (hand-drawn canting) with contemporary brush and splash techniques and banana stem stamps to create harmony between tradition and aesthetic innovation. The results of this study indicate that the process of cultural transformation through contemporary batik motif designs can be an effective approach in strengthening local identity while increasing the existence of batik in a global context. Conceptually, this research contributes to the development of a creative approach based on local culture and emphasizes the position of batik as a medium of visual communication between cultures, and is relevant to current developments.