The Search of Meaning of Today's Alun-Alun Malang (Through Pierce's Semiotic Reading)

Alun-Alun traditional has a special characteristic which makes it as the identity of a city. Such special characteristic include aspects related to the location and architectural elements, and all of these aspects have meaning and content of philosophical value. The existence of the Alun-Alun today has gone far from the initial concept of Alun-Alun traditional, even some of the main Alun-Alun in the city of Java has been tragically removed and replaced with less meaningful public space. Looking at the quality of the current Alun-Alun Malang, where change has taken place, it is questionable whether the traditional concept of the Alun-Alun is still maintained This study seeks to explore the meaning of the Alun-Alun in the realm of Semiotics. Pierces semiotics is one of the scientific branches of semiotics to unravel hidden meanings. Pierce as one of the leaders of semiotics using 3 different methods to assess the meaning of a sign is an icon, index and symbol. Searches conducted through the semiotic meanings may provide information of the Alun-Alun Malang quality. The elements of traditional Alun-Alun in some aspects still maintained, but there is also started to be removed. New meanings that appear are closely related to the dominance of the currently ruling power that is realized with symbols in the main Alun-Alun of Malang. The term ruling power here is not always associated with the government, but also commercial sponsorship in the construction of the Alun-Alun Malang. The phenomenon marks the shift in Alun-Alun traditional concepts.