Sandiaga Uno Appreciated the Corncob Creations Made by Itenas’ Product Design Lecturer at Apresiasi Kreasi Indonesia 2023 in Jakarta

Not only in engineering kind of works, but Institut Teknologi Nasional (Itenas) Bandung also invents in art and design. In the exhibition of the Apresiasi Kreasi Indonesia 2023 held on Friday-Sunday (June 2-4, 2023) at Lippo Mall Kemang, Jakarta, the creations from corncobs made by one of Itenas’ academic community received incredible appreciation from the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Salahudin Uno.

“I’m so delighted to wear this (item) from Matahati Kreasi which is an innovation. This is created from corncobs, but it doesn’t look like it. Marvelous,” said the minister while showing off the mini sling bag from Matahati Kreasi at that event.

Dr. Andry Masri, M.Sn. is the man behind the creative idea of utilizing the corncobs under Matahati Kreasi’s name. He is also a lecturer of Itenas’ Product Design major and the Dean of the Architecture and Design Faculty.

Since it was first created in 2019, he and Matahati Kreasi have produced many products. Starting from bags, furniture for homes and buildings, to mannequins. Of course, this is an innovation as well as an effort to preserve the environment. At the 2023 AKI exhibition in Jakarta, many people were interested and took pictures with the corncob creations on display, some even from abroad.

“The processing of corncobs into a raw material for ready-to-use products is the first invention in the world, which originated as teaching material in the Product Design major,” said Dr. Andry when explaining the work.

Specifically, he said, the processing of corncobs into a ready-to-use product uses a material exploration approach that can be viewed from a creative and pedagogical perspective. The essence of this approach is how to find the value of novelty or uniqueness offered by a material. Corncobs were chosen because of their abundant availability in Indonesia.

The Apresiasi Kreasi Indonesia (AKI) program is initiated by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) as a form of developing the creative economy through capacity building and creative economy people. Several sub-sectors are supported, namely culinary, craft, fashion, applications/games, film, and music. AKI events were held in 16 cities/districts throughout Indonesia.

Some steps must be passed by creative economy people to be able to exhibit their work at AKI. First, the submitted works will be curated by professional curators. Second, the selected creators are met with potential mentors and the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy virtually. Third, boot camp or mentoring is carried out by the sub-sector. Fourth, the works of the participants were exhibited at events in each city/district. Finally, the peak week of AKI by exhibiting works from selected participants in each city/district.

That means, works from the Institut Teknologi Nasional (Itenas) Bandung academic community have extraordinary value to society, both as works of art and as ready-to-use items. This appreciation from the Minister also strengthened Itenas’ position as one of the tertiary institutions that have a superior reputation and generates high-quality individuals.