This studies center around Javanese batik — recognized by UNESCO as a masterpiece of human heritage in 2009 — and the cultural diversity represented in its diverse patterns, symbolizing Indonesia’s historically complex religious views, cultures, and ethnic identities. While batik has a global reputation, it’s also under attack. Today, simplified formats are designed and applied commercially, and patterns are used without reference either to meaning, or mode of production, jeopardizing batik’s cultural identity. Therefore, drawing from ethnographic and experiment methods, it investigates alternative materials and more minimalist forms of batik, in an effort to consider batik’s future role and the forms it might take.