The Vernacular of Disaster: The Rhetoric and Memory of Volcanic Eruption at Museum Gunung Merapi, Indonesia

Abstract

This study analyzes the vernacular rhetoric of disaster in a volcanic eruption museum. Using the Mount Merapi Museum (Museum Gunung Merapi or MGM) in Indonesia, the research investigates how the site has become a public memorial for volcanic disasters through archival work, textual analysis, and in-the-field methods. The findings show that MGM materializes a “vernacular rhetoric of disaster” through the socio-cultural aspect. It emphasizes the juxtaposition of mythological stories, scientific descriptions, and everyday discourses produced by the disasters, centering on the philosophy of eling or the act of remembering in Javanese society. Finally, the paper offers observational frameworks to understand the museum. Those are the situational setting of the museum's location culturally and socially, the building design, and the connection of everyday life to the surrounding contexts. This framework is helpful to be applied in another setting.