Title: Quantitative analysis of the puppet shapes in Ngayogyakarta Wayang Kulit

Authors: Gea Oswah Fatah Parikesit

Addresses: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, Jalan Grafika 2, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract: In order to better understand and safeguard Wayang Kulit, the UNESCO-listed art of shadow theatre originated from Indonesia, a comprehensive research is necessary. In this paper we demonstrate that quantitative digital image analysis is very useful to investigate the puppet shapes in Ngayogyakarta Wayang Kulit. We found that various pairs of physical variables can be used to analyse the puppet shapes: the puppet level of details, the puppet surface area, the puppet perimeter length and the puppet height. Our results demonstrate that we can classify the different types of puppet characters using the puppet shapes. Moreover, we can also identify which ratio of variables is kept generally constant. Our method can be generally extended to other types of puppet theatres.

Keywords: Wayang Kulit; puppet shapes; quantitative image analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJART.2017.092449

International Journal of Arts and Technology, 2017 Vol.10 No.4, pp.241 - 255

Received: 20 Jul 2016
Accepted: 09 Apr 2017
Published online: 21 Jun 2018 *

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