Once upon a time, before our industrial revolution, humans were farmers who did not know the hours of work, lived their lives with freedom as ‘free’ humans. As a result of the industrial revolution the modern era based on economic rationale. The impacts include: the formation of a work system and the emergence of a city (urban scale), which is “separate” from the village. In the modern world work system, activity and production are based on fast, mass, effective, and efficient work.
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In the city, apartments began to emerge (due to the high cost of land) with efficient and limited space. The idea of such vertical mass housing was introduced by some modernist architects (e.g., Le Corbusier), to accommodate new needs in the modern world. Office space is also a result of such economic rationale. In it, we encounter similar office lay outs and form (basically square, with desks, office chairs, and glass window in a building skin), we pass through the finger print system. In our daily lives we are usually dictated by mass culture (e.g., television and movies), filled with advertisements that whisper impulsive sound to buy their products. At one point, humans in modern times feel alienated and saturated of their own lives. As Jafari said, “One of the key dilemmas faced by contemporary society is the question of identity. ‘the popularization of heritage’ and the rise of ‘a nostalgia boom which has crept into the shopping and leisure activities of the general public’, in the UK context for example, can explain the emergent quest for identity in contemporary society. In the general conditions of modern life, where mankind is often ‘fragmented, alienated, deconstructed, confused and torn between multiple roles and responsibilities’ nostalgia can act as an anchor to help to stabilize human beings’ wandering vessel of self and identity.”
In our alienation in the modern world, nostalgia becomes a tool to help us understand who we are, connect us to the past, which makes us know we are valuable in the present. By reflecting on nostalgia, the process of unifying our identity is complete. Because nostalgia helps us to understand our position in an alienating modern capitalistic system. We need nostalgic spaces to reflect, and contemplate. “Nostalgia is an opportunity for us to stop to ponder; it ‘enable[s] us to escape the mindless crippling rush onward of modernity’.”
In a bustling and alienating modern cities, humans need ‘tools’ to contemplate, to pause for reflection. Pondering is an activity that we really need at least once within a 24-hour period in our lives. Pondering makes reflections that actually become vitamins to deal with the difficulties of life. Pondering in the context of nostalgia can awaken our self-awareness, which will confirm who we are? And what are we for now? These feelings dialogues make our lives meaningful amid the activities in the modern city. According to Batcho, nostalgia is a process of self-exploration. Whereas according to Brown and Humpreys nostalgia is a ‘sense-making’.
Here again nostalgia is as a process of building identity, through the threading of past, present, and future narrative threads.
The sense of alienation can be caused by the loss of personal identity and our uniqueness as human beings (even though naturally, humans want to be different and unique). This is the effect of the rationalization and efficiency of the capitalist system. Our social relations with other people can be a relationship based on economic activity alone (e.g., an online businessman with customers, bank officers and customers, etc.), this condition raises de-humanization and non-personality which causes alienation. According to Marx, alienation is the symptom of problems in modern capitalist societies.
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If nostalgia can be a way of treating this sense of alienation, maybe this is the reason why places that offer nostalgic experiences are starting to appear in the city center. Hence the appearance of the Monopoly Hotel in Kemang, Tugu Kunstkring Paleis Restaurant, cafes with interior design use typical local materials (clay, cement, bamboo, etc.). In this context, the Tegel Kunci’s tile is a medium for connecting nostalgic activities. Vintage is a character who seems to want to be “locked” by Tegel Kunci’s tiles. With the vintage ambience, our imagination is stimulated to bring out a sensation that ignites a sense of nostalgia.
The concept of interior and exterior appears and continues to be a discourse in architecture, the interior is a condition that “separates” between the public and the private. In private space (e.g., in the bedroom or living room), a person will be totally himself, he abandons his ‘attribute’
in the public domain. In solitude, humans carry out dialogues that are useful for their mental health. Walter Benjamin said, “a ‘private’ individual for whom ‘the interior’ is a refuge from the public world of commerce and social engagement.” In the formation of his private environment, both are kept out. From this arise the phantasmagorias of the interior-which for the private man represent the universe. In the interior, he brings together the far away and the long ago. His living room is a box in the theatre of the world.” Even though Restaurant Ninety-Nine (which I mentioned above in the prologue) is not a private space, what I want to show is the concept of interiority in a public space which enables the process of individuation. Individuation processes can occur in the “private” public sphere.
This nostalgic experience brings us to individuation, looking for the roots of our identity in the rush of the modern world. To relieve the impact of alienation, humans need stability condition and understand their existence. Brown and Humpreys said in Javari, “[i]n a rapidly transforming world, it responds to a quest for origins, tradition, continuity and cultural roots.”
“Nostalgia helps us to take stock of our lives and past accomplishments...thus placing us in time and space in ways which permit a better understanding of ...who and where we are presently.”
In our alienated world, nostalgia can be a place to reflecting, and to contemplation, nostalgia can give meaning to life through the process of our past reconstruction. Besides also confirming identity. Erich Fromm said, “The ability to find meaning in our lives is the defining characteristic of humankind. Fromm believed that although life is inherently painful, we can make it bearable by giving it meaning, through pursuing and constructing an authentic self.” Being in a nostalgia also means that our body experiences a reflective state. Javari said, “Reflexivity, as an
‘indispensable’ part of human nature, drives individuals toward carefully observing both their own life conditions and those of others’. As ‘purposive agents’, human beings can monitor their own lives, the conditions of the context in which they live, and also the life conditions of those they compare themselves with.”
In his theory of “Human Needs”, Fromm distinguishes between the psychological needs of animals and humans. According to him there are eight human psychological needs, but there are at least three intersects with the context of this paper, namely: Rootedness, a sense of
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identity, and, a frame of orientation. In rootedness he describes human beings needing to find expertise and “feel at home” in this world. In sense of Identity, we need to remain sane by having a sense of individuality and identity in the midst of the modern world, a frame of orientation shows a way to understand our position in the world. A person can reach all three through channels such as his religion, science, personal philosophy, or anything that helps him see the world. Although nostalgia is not mentioned, it seems to help. When it comes to a cafe that offers a “taste” of nostalgic space, that is where there is enjoyment. The nostalgic space experience looks sublime. “The vintage movement really took off in the early years of the new millennium, when a fresh wave of globalisation raised feelings of detachment from the here and now to new levels. Since then, vintage has developed into a booming industry.”
Tegel Kunci company success in its marketing strategy still relies on locality and maintains a non-mass production system. The touch of the hand on each piece of its tile made it valuable.
Aside from being an art that has—or seemingly has—an aura, it is also a historically charged object, so that it creates a visually nostalgic side.