Dari Rekaman Arsip ke Ruang Digital: Memori, Identitas, dan Transformasi Dokumentasi Karawitan Surakarta

Abstract

Surakarta karawitan documentation does more than preserve sound; it also shapes how memory, identity, and institutional relations can be traced across time. This study examines the transformation of Surakarta karawitan documentation from historical archives to digital space through a qualitative documentary approach. The main corpus comprises 25 documents: 20 historical recordings purposively selected from the Indonesian Music Archive at Cornell University Library, representing the Konservatori Karawitan Surakarta in 1952, Kraton Surakarta in 1965, and Mangkunegaran Palace and masters' residences in 1975; and five contemporary media documents published between 2018 and 2024 concerning Bedhaya Ketawang and Tingalan Dalem Jumenengan. Outside the main corpus, four 1952 catalogue entries whose audio is missing are treated as supplementary evidence of archival loss. Data was processed through document preparation, metadata extraction, thematic coding using an extraction matrix, temporal-spatial comparison, source triangulation, and interpretive synthesis. The findings show a shift from educational-institutional recording to palace-centred documentation, to distributed recording across palace and master-based spaces, and finally to digitally circulated documentation. Bedhaya Ketawang demonstrates the clearest documentary continuity, while missing audio shows that cultural memory is shaped by both preservation and loss. The novelty of the study lies in reading preservation, loss, institutional identity, ritual continuity, master-based transmission, and digital recontextualization simultaneously within one Surakarta karawitan documentary corpus. The study proposes a distributed living cultural archive as an analytical model, while emphasizing that digital access requires strong contextual metadata.