ROBOJIM: art-based research in the preservation of jawi writing through the design of animated character toys

Jawi script was once widely used in the Malay Peninsula before being replaced by the Roman alphabet following the implementation of the National Language Act 1963/1967 (Lubis & Harun, 2020). Mastery of Jawi writing is decreasing, and it is feared that this writing will one day become extinct. One of the unique features of Jawi writing is the nature of its letters, which can merge and change shape depending on the position of the letters. This feature could also cause major confusion in learning it. The preservation of Jawi could be achieved if this Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is not trapped in its conventional, static and two-dimensional structure. This practice-as-research project uses the Islamic Aesthetics philosophy to design characters based on Jawi, which then will be transformed into robotic toys with the toyetic element and Homo Luden (the culture of play) philosophy, using 3d printing technology. The resulting Jawi transformable robotic toys ‘Robojim’, offer an interactive experience that unites cultural heritage and marketable learning material targeted at children as our future heritage keeper. This study highlights how Jawi characters can be re imagined through culturally grounded art, design, and 3d modelling and how to preserve ICH in a fun, playful way within the creative industries.