There are many Indonesian cultures that are slowly fading away with modernity. Puppet is one example. For Muarifah (2016 History Education) and friends, this is a problem. He wants to help preserve puppets in order to remain known to young people.
Together with Nuri Saptaningtyas (History Education 2016) and Shaff Gofar Malik (Fine Arts Education 2017), Muarifah created Webway which is an acronym for Webtoon Puppet. "We took the webway because of our anxiety about the preservation of wayang which is not very popular with the younger generation, such as not understanding the language, shows that are too late, and so on," said Muarifah on Tuesday (8/27/2019).
Furthermore, Muarifah explained that wayang is important to be introduced to young people, because in it there are noble values that can be applied in life. "With a touch of technology, through Webtoon, puppets will be more easily understood by teenagers," said Muarifah.
When asked about the creative process of making Webway, Muarifah explained that she and her friends collaborated with local culture with modern tools. "We use gawai in channeling the noble values of digital puppet comics. In addition, we are mixing the wayang stories that we raise with the addition of our version of modern stories - of course without eliminating the grips in the puppets, "she said.
For the process of cultivation, they share the task. Nuri Saptaningtyas is in charge of the licensing administration and drafting of the Webway media manuscript. Mu'arifah has the duty to be responsible for the needs of research methods, such as making control of interviews, observations, instruments, etc. While Shaff Gofar Malik served as the person in charge of making Webway media.
Webway has been proven effective in introducing puppets to young people. "Webway testing has been carried out in a limited manner at SMA Negeri 6 Yogyakarta. The test was carried out on July 17, 2019 with 7 students. The result is an increase in understanding the noble wayang values that can be taken by students, "said Muarifah. In this test, the method used is a quantitative experiment with before-after (O1 X O2). (Muhammad Abdul Hadi / JK)
