Illustration of the poster for the animated film Blessings of the Motherland by the Arutala Team from ITS

ITS Campus, ITS News – Along with the times, public awareness about the existence of spices in Indonesia, which has always been very rich, is now starting to fade. To regenerate understanding of this, a team of students from Visual Communication Design (DKV), Faculty of Creative Design and Digital Business (FDKBD) Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) created an animation about the spices of the archipelago, entitled Blessings of the Land of Pertiwi.

Zahirah Salma Nuha, Zahra Fithriyah Muna, and Amadeus Erlangga Duta Basundoro who are members of the Arutala Team are the masterminds of the animation work. This animation tells about Kandis, who makes Ramu Tech tools with her father.

Kandis feels concerned about his friends as the younger generation who rarely know spices in his story. Herbs are one of the cultures in Indonesia that must be preserved. “Moreover, spices are also known to increase endurance during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Zahirah Salma Nuha, one of the team members.

Zahirah Salma Nuha, when explaining an animated character named Kandis (Source from YouTube Arutala)

Kandis, the main character in this film, is an intelligent and curious girl. In making the Kandis character designs, the team, which are students of the 2019 batch, used Indonesian accents, for example, in the headbands worn by Kandis.

According to the student, who is often called Alma, the headband he wore was inspired by the typical Ambonese spice batik and combined with advanced mask technology. Interestingly, the name Kandis itself also comes from one of the spices in Indonesia, namely Kandis acid.

Not just an ordinary play story, this animation creates a sophisticated tool called Ramu Tech. The device has several exciting features, such as the body scanning feature on Ramu Tech’s eyes, the hand sanitizer feature to maintain health protocols, and a screen that displays the results of body screening and the benefits of spices.

Uniquely, Ramu Tech is inspired by the shape of the clove plant, and the device has a spice batik accent. Ramu Tech also has another keychain form to make it more efficient. “It is told in this animation, the shape of the keychain, if thrown, will become big,” said Alma.

Zahra Fitriyah Muna, when explaining about Ramu Tech Tools (Source from Youtube Arutala)

Meanwhile, on the Arutala Youtube channel, Amadeus Erlangga Duta Basundoro as the team leader, said that this work was intended to bring out various creativity and innovations. The hope is that this will bring back the glory of the archipelago’s past spices in the present and the future.

In addition, it can foster awareness and collective pride of national identity in Indonesian society. “At the same time, reinforcing the knitting of Indonesia’s diversity through inter-regional cultural interactions that have been built for thousands of years,” explained the student who is called Deus.

The animated film Blessings of the Land of the Motherland made by the Arutala Team has also won fourth place in the XIV National Student Performance Competition for Information and Communication Technology (Gemastik) held annually by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek). “Happy and grateful. In addition to winning the title, we have also succeeded in collaborating and working together even though we did not meet face to face,” concluded Alma. (ITS Public Relation/far)

Reporter: ion23/Astri Nawwar Kusumaningtyas