Development of Craft Art Based on Batak Visual Culture Through Digital Modelling to Support Lake Toba Tourism

Batak craft art has long existed as a part of the community’s visual culture, connected to traditional cultural rituals. To support Lake Toba tourism, there is a need for craft products that embody local cultural characteristics, developed through conservation mechanisms involving digital modeling. This article examines the potential for developing Batak craft art with the aim of preserving traditional visual culture within Lake Toba's tourism platform. A descriptive-qualitative method was employed within the framework of artistic creativity and cultural sociology. Data were collected from various sources, analyzed, and interpreted interactively through data reduction, data display, verification, and conclusion drawing. The research results indicate that the development of craft art for Lake Toba tourism conserves the traditional visual features of crafts, though it distances from the social and cultural aura of traditional rituals. The rich variety of Batak visual culture, in terms of types and forms, becomes more diverse through digital modeling exploration in its conservation process.