According to several sources, in Indonesia trisula is often found on statues or relics on the walls of Prambanan Temple, Sukuh Temple, and Penataran Temple. Moreover, in other regions such as South Sumatra, several kinds of trisula were found attached as a spearhead.

The unique shape of the trisula attracted the attention of an ITB Visual Art lecturer, Dr. Harry Nuriman, to be made into a guitar version. To accommodate this, together with other lecturers from the Humanities Research Group from the Faculty of Arts and Design (FAD) ITB, Harry tries to transform the unique shape of the trisula into a guitar musical instrument. The reason why trisula was chosen is because it has many symbolic values and reflects local wisdom to be represented into a visual language and artistic performance.

“My research began with interviews with selected informants who represent five different profile groups, they are stringed instrument, professional guitar player, academician, and an ordinary person to encompass the sample criteria based on its objective. This was done to determine the material, strengthen the design, and translate the philosophical ideas from trisula into an electric guitar,” he said as quoted from Rekacipta ITB Rubric 25th April 2023 edition.

Read the complete article: To Transform a Weapon into an Instrument 

Then from the interview results, said Harry, the guitar body is modeled after Majapahit trisula because its wide shape made it easy to store electrical components inside it. Then from another informant, the guitar is designed to have a straight shape resembling the hilt of a spear and headless to avoid neck drive or a condition where headstock is heavier than the body.

After the guitar had been crafted, tests were carried out on selected informants to look for suggestions which were divided into three categories, technical aspect which concern sound output and user comfort, affective aspect which concern emotional feeling, and cognitive aspect which concern the understanding of a user about the trisula’s philosophy after playing the guitar.

From the interview and testing processes, the electric guitar was declared to have good functionality and interesting visuals. This trisula guitar also fulfills the affective and cognitive aspects which made the user to feel some emotions such as joy, love, and respect and can also act as a reminder of the existing trisula shapes. Even so, this guitar is still considered to have several disadvantages in the audial aspect which is less than optimal when no effect is used.

Furthermore, production cost still needs to be determined so that its TRLs can reach 100% and improvements from the audio aspect are required. Moreover, testing with a wider sample and a study on the effect of the performer’s popularity fluctuation when using a traditional cultural artifact-shaped instrument also need to be carried out.

By introducing this trisula-shaped guitar concept that can function as a way to preserve cultural heritage through modern musical instrument, the team believes that if there are more developments to implement traditional wisdom and Indonesian culture into pop and modern cultural products both on a household scale and on a creative industry scale, traditional wisdom and local culture can succeed in the international stage.

Penulis: Fajris Zahrotun Nihayah (Physics, 2020)
Foto: Rekacipta ITB
Translator: Favian Aldilla R (Civil Engineering, 2019)