PROPOSAL DEFENSE NOTES

1.0 PRESENTATION OUTLINES

 Introduction
 Problem statement
 Research objective
 Research question
 Research scope
 Significance of the research
 Literature review
 Methodology
 Gantt chart / research timeline
 Expected outcomes
 Preliminary results

2.0 INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH

Sustainable design, Malaysian Traditional Craft and Telepuk Craft

 Sustainable design can be interpreted by the design that can be sustained or never
go out of style (Mclennan, 2004) .
 Preserving every design, from old to modern, for the present and future
(Bhamra & Lofthouse, 2016)
.
 Malaysian traditional craft best described as any artistic product that has cultural or
traditional appeal and is the result of a process that relies solely or partially on
manual skills.
 Telepuk is generally a type of cloth that is decorated with gold, worn by the royals
during royal ceremonies for at least 300 years ago.

3.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT

 Traditional craft generally has been rapidly deteriorating in popularity.
 Efforts to reintroducing the telepuk craft can be seen in recent years, but there are
still issues along the way.
 So, basically there are efforts to revive the Telepuk craft, but the main issue is there
are no woodcarver to produce the Telepuk woodblock. Why?
 Because – Monetary value – Artisans thinks it is not worth or not profitable.
 Because – there is no sustainable demand of Telepuk cloth.
 All these factors leads to the bigger problem: How to sustain the craft to make it
viable in the future?

4.0 OBJECTIVE (RO)

 RO1: To examine how sustainability is perceived among artisans and associated
stakeholders in Malaysian craft.
 Second objective is to investigate the significance values of Malay traditional Telepuk
woodblock.
  Finally, to recommend the potential sustainable design strategy that can revitalize
Malay traditional woodblock.

5.0 RESEARCH QUESTION (RQ)

 First research question, what is the current level of awareness of sustainability
among craftspeople on Malaysia?
 Next, does Telepuk craft hold the potential for revival and what is the perceived value
of preserving it?
 Lastly, how Design for Sustainability principle (DFS) can be implemented in
revitalising the Telepuk craft as culturally significant craft practice?

6.0 SCOPE & RESEARCH AREA

 The research will be studied among Artisans, Woodcarvers, Designers, and
Students.
 This research is also specifically will be studied in Terengganu, Malaysia and the
reason being is because the artisan and woodcarver involves in Telepuk making is
currently live in Terengganu, namely Encik Norhaiza Nordin and Encik Azwarin
Ahmed.
 As for the students, this research will conduct among secondary school students,
specifically art students.
 Journal of Consumer Behaviour 2016.
 The use and misuse of student samples by Rohail Ashraf and Dwight Merunka.
 Ashraf and Merunka suggests that researchers should be aware of the
demographic and psychological characteristics of student groups may affect the
findings. It suggests that student samples' merits be carefully considered by
focusing on the areas of interest rather than the more general field
(Ashraf & Merunka, 2017)
.
Back to woodcarvers and artisans

 En. Norhaiza Nordin

 Is a master craftsmen, or in Malay: Adiguru kraf in woodcarving sector
 The first craftsman appointed by PADAT (Perbadanan Adat Melayu dan Warisan
Negeri Selangor) to help in woodcarving of the Telepuk woodblock thus
revitalizing the craft.
 Extinct craft of Telepuk and the effort to reintroduce by PADAT has attract the
attention of En. Norhaiza and he willingly help with the revitalisation effort.
 He his own woodcarving company namely Bakawali Sari Warisan which is locate
at Kampung Raja, Besut, Terengganu
 En. Azwarin Ahmed
 En. Norhaiza Nordin is a direct mentor of him.
 Has a background in textile design.
 Currently demonstrator for Telepuk craft at Kampung Budaya
 Freelance Telepuk producer
 He also featured in the Form 4 Bahasa Melayu textbook which explaining the
production process of the Telepuk Cloth
7.0 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH
 Is to offer a pragmatic tool to enable the viability of craft practice in the future using
design strategy aligned with sustainability principle.
 This pragmatic tool could attract the interests of the traditional craft among younger
generation.
 This also could lead to appreciation of meaningful values in the design craft.
 The tool can increase the awareness and interest among younger generation to learn
the skill and knowledge of woodcarving, and craft making thus can make them a new
era of tradition of storytelling and aesthetic expression in Malaysia heritage craft
 This research will address the issue to boost traditional craft development as
significant local commodity for downstream economy which aligns with the
Sustainable Design Goals (SDG)
 3rd SDG: Good health and well being – understanding of cultural values –
intrinsic value.
 8th SDG: Decent work and economic growth

8.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

Triple Bottom Line

 John Elkington suggests a triple bottom line of sustainability. This concept proposes
three views including Social (People), Environmental (Planet) and Economic factors
(Prosperity / Profit)
Quadruple Bottom Line

 Finding just three components from Elkington’s triple bottom line, Stuart Walker finds
it insufficient and could results in unrealistic action plan for achieving sustainability.
 Walker introduces the Quadruple bottom line as a method for understanding
sustainability as human fulfilment and an extension of TBL.
 Walker advises referencing internal values, spirituality and ethics in terms of Personal
Meaning.
Craft Revitalisation Framework

 The goal of Craft Revitalisation Framework developed by Shahrul Anwar was to

pinpoint crucial variables and their relationships to develop a Malay traditional
woodcarving craft revitalization approach.
 This framework functions as recommendations for craft stakeholders that should put
into practice for an impending craft revival strategy.
 One of many strategies in this framework is promotion.
 Mohamed Yusof SA stressed that the followed up from documentation of the
traditional craft is promotion as promotion if crucial to raise public awareness towards
traditional craft meaning.
GNH Happiness Index or Gross National Happiness Index of Bhutan

 Employs a comprehensive methodology to assess the population of Bhutan’s

happiness and wellbeing.
 It serves as a measurement tool for determining how to boost happiness.
 It consists of nine domains, which are supported by 33 indicators as well.
  The GNH Index in Bhutan is a living example of an instrument to measure the
happiness value of the country or a institution which can be referred for this research
to measure the intrinsic value of traditional craft.
Craft and Culture

 What does it mean by Malaysian handicraft product?

 Act 222: Malaysian Handicraft Development Corporation 1979 states that:
 "Handicraft Product" means any artistic product that has cultural or traditional appeal
and is the result of a process that relies solely or partially on manual skills and
includes any batik product; and "batik product" means any article, however
manufactured, which has a batik design on or in any part of it.
 Malaysian craft are divided into five categories – textile, forestry, earth, metal and
miscellaneous craft.
 Handicraft industry provides locals employment – profit earnings as well as
showcasing their cultural and traditions.
 Despite all the positives of economic globalization, it poses a serious threat to cultural
heritage.
 Traditional arts and craft have been degrading – some are practically disappeared –
resulting from the modernisation & lack of knowledge of the significance of the
traditional craft.
 Telepuk is one of the traditional craft that has been considered vanished.
Telepuk Craft

 Telepuk is generally a type of cloth that is decorated with gold, worn by the royals
during royal ceremonies for at least 300 years ago.
 Telepuk traditional craft possess significant cultural and artistic value.
 But this traditional craft has been considered vanished due to change of role of
royalty and the lack of available materials after World War II.
 Other factors includes decreasing in popularity because the market isn’t profitable
and there aren’t enough people interested in becoming apprentices.
 The production and expensive materials also leads to extinction of the craft.
 In Malaysia, there are no longer have any active Telepuk textile producers.

9.0 METHODOLOGY
Objective 1: Examining how sustainability is perceived among artisans and associated
stakeholders.

 The instrument chosen is semi-structured interviews with respondents from two

groups of stakeholders in the craft industry which are Producers and Supporters.
 Interview results will be analysed by using interpretive textual analysis with Atlas Ti
Software.
 Producers are explained earlier which includes artisans, craftspeople, design maker
and SME owners.
 Supporters are including academia, locals, designers, students, government agents
and gallery curator.

Objective 2: Investigates the significance values to Malay traditional Telepuk craft.

 This objective will be gathering the data from a case study as primary data collection.
  This phase is significant to answer RQ2: What is the value of preserving the future
viability of craft practice in Malaysia?

Objective 3: Recommending potential sustainable design strategy that can revitalize Malay
traditional Telepuk craft.

 The findings from data collection from phase 1 and 2 will be used to develop the
framework which is the expected outcome from this research.
 Researcher will map out the main research findings and conclusions.
 The main findings will be used to build the framework which will be visualized through
the creative design process.
 This framework is expected to offer help of the future viability of traditional Telepuk
craft practice.
 The recommendation of creative design-craft artwork will be created to demonstrate
examples based on the developed framework.
 Finally,the results will be validated through follow up session with experts and key
respondents among the stakeholders and potential buyers.

10.0 RESEARCH TIMELINE

 This is the research timeline. This research may took 2 years to finish and is
expected to finished in early 2024.

11.0 PRELIMINARY DATA

 Researcher have conducted a few interviews last year (2022).
 Two of the interviewees are Puan Intan Salina Idrus, Curator at Perbadanan Adat
Melayu dan Warisan Negeri Selangor (PADAT) and;
 Encik Azwarin Ahmed, a craft demonstrator at Kampung Budaya Negeri Terengganu.
 From the interview with Puan Intan Salina, researcher could understand deeper
about Telepuk craft and her team and herself from PADAT on their efforts in
reintroduction of Telepuk craft.
 From the interview with the craft demonstrator, Encik Azwarin, he expressed that for
him, he is satisfied enough if the public recognize the Telepuk craft.

12.0 PRELIMINARY RESULTS

 From the primary data collected by the researcher can be overviewed by grouping
them into two groups, which are issues in Telepuk craft and the strategies that either
some of them are suggestions and some of them are ongoing efforts.
In the issue side,

 Telepuk is losing popularity among Malay society, lack of finished goods (Telepuk
cloth) and expensive to produce.
 These are also came from the factor of unavailability of raw materials – gold leaves
and calendared cloth (kain gerus).
 These issues are interconnected to each other.
From the primary data, strategies that are suggested and some of them being carried out
are,
  Commercialisation and promotion
 Commercialisation is production process that is a finished goods are for sale.
 Promotion of the Telepuk craft includes documentary, demonstration and creating
workshops.
After analysing from these issues and strategies, researcher found there’s a gap between
them, where researcher find it suitable to implement a revitalisation framework into the gap
before deploying the strategies to ensure the Telepuk craft is truly viable in the future.