Art imitates real life, but what happens when there is too much restriction to create it?
In Indonesia, creative work increasingly feels like something done in the margins; discussed in closed rooms and private sessions (limited seats, pay for satisfaction and the company of ever-decreasing like-minded peers).
It is treated less a profession and more as a dismissible hobby. For a country with immense cultural and linguistic richness, the absence of institutional support for creativity is heartbreaking, though not at all surprising.
The Structural Undervaluation Of Creative Labor Has Gone On Far Too Long
Artistic minds are seen as secondary to those pursuing fields perceived as more “practical” or economically measurable. Writers, designers, editorial teams, artists, and other cultural producers are often treated as disposable rather than skilled critical employees.
Thus an ecosystem where originality is not rewarded is enforced.
The rise of AI solidifies this, but did not create it.
Reports from McKinsey and Goldman Sachs suggest that generative AI would automate writing, marketing, and media. Although it is a global issue, it hits Indonesia harder, not because the technology is more advanced here, but because institutional support for creative professions and aspiring minds is weaker.
Creative work is less protected and valued, if at all.
Creativity is not seen as worthwhile investment to appreciate, but as a costly capital to be sacrificed.
And when people are perceived as numbers and not humans, it becomes that much easier to replace them with inanimate. In many workplaces, AI is utilized not as supporting tools, but as a substitute for creativity.
AI can generate content, but it struggles with context, cultural nuance, and long-form originality.
When writers are constantly demanded to become one with it, sacrificing authenticity and personal vision for false, over-glorified “efficiency”, more content will be produced at the expense of the intellect and real connection.
This is the basic concept that upper management seems to not comprehend. And this erasure of critical thinking is not merely a creative loss or an economic ploy, it is cultural and political.
Creativity Is As Vital As A Beating Heart
Creative work plays a crucial role in shaping how societies understand themselves. We offer multitudes of perspective and historical connections onto the art we craft, regardless of the medium.
Literature, journalism, film, poetry, art are vehicles for reflection, where distinct voices can be heard in the midst of all the ruckus caused by the war criminal and the nepo baby governing our nation’s 270 million people.
In professional environments, creatives can make or break a brand. It is indeed, as vital as a beating heart.
We turn to art to shape our minds, to form our own narrative, to express our unmasked identities.
Art is political, regardless of the place it is birthed, performed, and consumed.
Thus, a country that fails to support its creatives will forever stagnate in isolation, or rather, automation.
It narrows the multitudes of cultural richness, which will, in the long run, influence the quality of democratic conversation. When everything is automated, the people will be cloned into numerics and machine-seeking robots.
Indonesia is not lacking in stories. It is lacking in the structure that allow those stories to be told with depth, independence, and freedom.
We cannot, and should not, dispose of our linguistic diversity, regional cultures, and critical abilities in the name of technological incorporation when it is nothing more than a greedy, capitalistic scheme.
Instead, we should seize our collective creative potential to advance our sociopolitical climate. Together, as a society, we can stand with creative work that is not diminished to some half-baked mediocrity.
The question, then, is not whether creative exists. It is whether it is given the space, the value, and the proper appreciation it needs to matter.
