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The geometric map of Indonesian traditional songsThis is an interactive visualization of traditional (inspired) melody of songs the archipelago of Indonesia. In this Geometric Map of Indonesian Traditional Songs, the ethnographic aspects show how each social group evolved and innovated their appreciation for the sound aesthetics, specifically in each region in the archipelago sung from generations to generations.

The richness of variations in Indonesian ethnic groups implies to the great deal of variations of the concepts of aesthetics. Each ethnicity emerges the customs and we can observe the emerging collective taste of each ethnic group by diving into the information extraction of the traditional heritages. It includes the taste of melody and things that can be categorized as beautiful sounds. The theme of the songs cover a wide range of theme, from spirituality to cradle songs, from romantic love to patriotism, while some of them are attached so deeply with their customs and traditions.

Mathematical and computational analysis has made it is possible to extract information within songs or melodic expressions - statistical physics has contributed a lot to this issue. Thus, there have been a lot of conjectures to capture the enjoyment that is signified by music. This works bring us to some hypotheses of the smallest unit of information signifying songs one another. This opens a door for other further analysis: the evolutionary models: memetics. The elementary informations used here is related to the distribution of pitches and the respective durations, the variables used as we model the melodic sequences into spiralling movement, and some other statistical parameters.

From this visualization, you can discover the "kinship" amongs songs from all over the ethnic cultures in the archipelago. Phylomemetic tree is like phylogenetic tree in biology, but it is about cultural information in stead. All mathematical variables used in analysis play the role as meme – the elementary unit of information yielding the complex cognitive aspects of human culture while the phylomemetic shows the “kinship” among all, just like the DNA sequences in biological structures. The “kinship” among collective cognitive systems from places to places is reflected in the branches and the leaves of the phylomemetic tree.

So, can you really feel the "kinship" among Indonesian ethnic groups spreading vastly throughout the archipelago?

This map is brought to you by Bandung Fe Institute, the research center for complexity in Surya University.