1

Trailing: A Survey of New Media Art Practice in the Philippines1

Introduction

The research I conducted called A Survey of New Media Art Practice in the Philippines is intended to find out who practice this so called ‘new media art’, how they practice it and why they practice it in the first place. By asking about their process I tried to map the place of the so called new media in the practice of Filipino artists in the present. It was conducted between October 2012 to January 2013.2

By no means this research can be a full complete survey, as in cover all and everybody who might be a new media artist. To begin with, the term new media art is not widely use in the country. Artists in the Philippines are either painters, sculptors, installation artists, some call themselves contemporary artists, some would say they are traditional artist. The closes to new media perhaps are multimedia artist, but even this category is loaded and varied in terms of definition. To find out why this is so, is beyond the scope of my research. It is however imperative that I set the scope of my own subject.

For this research, the artists I covered are those who have and are still doing works with video, sound/acoustic materials, computer, the internet and other digital media and occasional performance artists. Among my main informants were: Mel Araneta (Cavite/Bacolod), Martha Atienza (Cebu), Ringo Bunoan (Manila), Kiri Dalena (Iligan/Manila), Tad Ermitano (Manila), Liby Limoso (Iloilo), Manny Montelibano (Bacolod), Renan Ortiz (Manila), and Ross Zerrudo (Camiguin).

Intentionally I tried to find artists in different regions, not to make them as representatives of their region, but simply to find out if the so called new media (as opposed to the old media, i.e. painting, sculpture, print) is recognized and used in other parts of the archipelago. And also to find out what subjects appeal to them.

Incidentally in the course of research, I met and/or had conversations with a number of other artists, such as: Erick Calilan (sound art, Cavite), Charlie Co (artist-curator, Bacolod),3 Kawayan de Guia (various media, Baguio/Manila), Rock Drilon (painter, Iloilo/Manila),4 Paolo Garcia (sound art, Manila), Cris Garcimo (sound art, Cavite), T.M. Malones (digital film, Iloilo), Arvin Nogueras (sound 1 March 2013 version submitted to JF Manila as research report for 2012 Local Grant; this current version was written May 2013.

2 The inspiration to hold this research came from Japan Foundation’s 40th Anniversary project Japan-ASEAN New Media Exhibit, which I am co-curating for the last quarter of 2013. 3 Charlie Co does not exactly do new media artworks but his Orange Gallery hosts a film making workshop.

4 Rock Drilon does not do new media artworks as well, however, he is currently managing the Cinemateque in Iloilo, which hosts both local and non-local videos/films. Drilon also owned Mag-net Gallery. Mag-net closed in 2012. However, it was one of the longest existing artist-run-spaces that hosted exhibits, performances, artist talks, and idea incubations for a wide range and demographics of creative population, including new media artists.

2

art, Manila), Jammee Rivera (digital film, Cagayan de Oro), Jon Romero (sound art, Cavite), Oro Arts Guild (mostly painters and sculptors, Cagayan de Oro), and Tinta Arts Association (Iligan). These encounters added more context to what I gathered from the main informants.

In this context

The now ‘old media’ aka painting, sculpture and printmaking has a long history in the country, as early as when it was still ‘new media’. Philippines, specially Manila, is a gateway city. With this openess is an easier access to what is ‘new’ including (if not especially) new modes of thinking and doing, including the arts.

According to Merv Espina, a contemporary art curator, in conversation with another curator Lian Ladia, “New Media is a term that doesn’t really fit into the Philippine scienario.” Espina proposes that media and technology-based art practice could be more appropriate.5

Tad Ermitano, a practitioner of this media and technology-based art, proposes that there are several ways on how contemporary artists uses media and technology. Some uses them as base or platform of their work and projects or a means to say what they wanted to say. Perhaps, this is what Espina meant as well. Two other ways is that there are those who play with the machine or more precisely explores the intelligence of machines; while the other builds machine by hacking existing configuration or building their own by combining several. The two latter, Ermitano coined as convergent media artists. Ermitano approaches the term convergent from its mathematical definition as the property or manner of approaching a limit, such as a point, line, function, or value.6

For the purpose of this research, I chose to combine Espina’s and Ermitano’s definitions. Machine, whether analogue, digital or anatomical (human body as a machine), and technology whether mechanical or digital technology as constant to this equation. Therefore, I have set my gaze to those artists who have used machines and technology that are not ‘usually’ used in production of painting, sculpture and print.

Among the first who used machine in their work was David Medalla in the 1960s.7 Medalla’s Bubble Machine is a sculptural work that does exactly what it’s title says—make bubbles; that creates different forms and colours.

In the 1975 conceptual artist Roberto Chabet and avant garde composer Jose Maceda collaborated on the project Udlot-Udlot. Udlot-Udlot is a music/sound composition by Maceda where performers were spread around an open plaza (UP Diliman Administration Building and Oblation Plaza) while playing various ethnic instruments together with human voices. Chabet provided the space

5 Email interview of Lian Ladia with Merv Espina, used with permission from Ladia.

6 From interview with Tad Ermitano, December 2012.

7 As mentioned by Lian Ladia on Philippine presentation for Japan-ASEAN New Media Project, Tokyo, Japan, February 2013.

3

composition for this piece by arranging the group of performers.8 Another Maceda composition, Cassettes 100, a prerecorded environmental sound using ethnic music instruments and organic materials replayed on 100 cassette playbacks was performed with an installation of toilet paper bantings designed by Ofelia Gelvezon Tequi and Jose Joya and light projections by Teddy Hilado for the Cultural Center of the Philippines project which was also titled Cassettes 100: sons et lumiere.9

In another new media expression from this same era, artists like Johnny Manahan and Shop 6 (artist group) were doing experimental installation; and Kidlat Tahimik’s video experimentations exemplified in his award winning Mababangong Bangungot, a personal epic montage of a native (katutubo) in the context of social change.10

In the 1980s to early 1990s, sculptor Agnes Arellano’s Music for Watching the Moon Rise (1983), Music for Making the Sunrise (1988) and Linga Mantra (1990) created installation pieces made of

8 Recollected information from Roberto Chabet through Ringo Bunoan, supplemented by Ramon Santos.

9 Data from Cassettes 100 program notes, typescript, unpublished, undated from the U.P. Center for Ethnomusicology; supplemented by interview with Marialita Tamanio-Yraola

10 As mentioned by Lian Ladia on Philippine presentation for Japan-ASEAN New Media Project, Tokyo, Japan, February 2013.

4

plaster, wood and with varied recorded sonic forms ranging from Eastern percussive instruments, synthesizers, aerophones and chordophones.11

Much later, between mid-1990s to the early 2000s, another sculptor Reg Yuson brought his sculptures/installation in the venue that draws the most number of audience—the mall. Properties of his metal works reinterpreted mechanism similar to music instruments in a much larger scale. And since these works are in the mall Yuson was able to engage both the works and the audience into a curious sonic experience. Also on the sonic, almost the same time as Yuson, Cavite-based artist Lirio Salvador created a series of sculptural works called Sandata (dates variable), wherein found metal objects are assembled into fractal devices fitted with circuits appropriate for electro-acoustic art.12

11 As mentioned by Vicente Eliseo T. Lava on SOUND IN PHILIPPINE VISUAL ARTS: Preliminary Study of Works Utilizing Sound as a Material in the Creation of Visual Arts in Metro Manila from the 1970s to the Present. BFA Thesis: U.P. Diliman, College of Fine Arts, 2011.

12 Ibid.

5

In more recent years, artist initiated projects came about that are focused on providing venue to exhibit new media projects. Among them were Generation Loss initiated by Merv Espina, Visual Pond initiated by Lisa Chikiamco, Rica Estrada, Tenten Mina and Cheska Tanada, Fete dela WSK initiated by Tengal Drilon,13 and Subflex initiated by Arvin Nogueras aka Caliph8. Generation Loss and Visual Pond are dedicated to presenting and supporting dialogues, screenings and exhibitions of video works, while the two latter are dedicated to catering electronic, digital and experimental acoustism.

13 As mentioned by Lian Ladia on Philippine presentation for Japan-ASEAN New Media Project, Tokyo, Japan, February 2013.

6

As a matter of praxis

In an attempt to understand the place of new media in the present practice of contemporary artists, I engaged in a conversation with them. Some for several times, some for several days, others online and others only on a set appointment. The notes that follow summarizes our conversations that revolved around three talking points: (1) their art practice, (2) their process, and (3) new media.

Mel Araneta14 considers himself a multimedia artist. He is currently based in Bacolod but occassionaly travels for residencies and performances in other parts of the Philippines and abroad. He used to work with Lirio Salvador. Araneta recognizes that Salvador was one of his mentors. In the recent years, Araneta made his own experimentation with sound including ethnic instruments, electronic circuits and other possible sound media, like water. His practice was mostly inspired by his interaction with other other artists from home and during his travels. Araneta has played with (and still playing with, from time-to-time) Lakbay Lahi a sound art organic band, Etniktronika an electronic and ethnic fussion group and artists from Exist a collective of media artists (though mostly sound) based in Cavite.

According to Araneta, he is a technician who does do-it-yourself (DIY) projects because it has a different impact on the audience, especially when he exhibits or performs with electronic stuff. Some of his works he said, he was able to device by accident, like the water project or hydrothemosis—a sonic piece that follows the principle used by car batteris. It was something he ‘discovered’ when he was in residency in Singapore. Despite his technical skill however in bending circuits and his luck in discovering sound sources, Araneta continues to study the properties of his materials as well as different techniques on how to build new thing.

When asked about his subject, Araneta claims that his sound art experimentations are usually based on the sound of nature, harsh environment, urban land/soundscape and the industrial. Reflecting on his subject, Araneta candidly quips that “the world is actually very noisy.”

Though Araneta agreed to be interview for this research, which he knows is about new media, he said that he thinks he is more a multimedia artist, because he also does paintings and crafts to be able to survive. As far as his sculptural sound machines are concerned, Araneta maintians that he wants his pieces to be accessible, something that people can touch and play with, and something that is better experience live than through video.

14 Online interview with Mel Araneta, December 2012.

7

Martha Atienza15 is a resident in transit. She is a resident of Netherlands as much as she is a resident of Cebu, or Manila or wherever she is doing residency at the moment. During the conversation though, Atienza zeroed-in on Bantayan Island as her home, where her father came from and where she spent most of her childhood.

According to Atienza, she found the “moments-in-between” interesting. Her works reveal this as she captures different aspects of daily lives on video. Screening these videos capture scenes that seems to be mundane, in a macro view these images translates into another expression. The little stories becomes big stories on its own, most of the time without the aid of narration and most specially not with scripts.

Atienza does not really calls herself a new media artist. According to her “artist is good enough. It is always difficult (to label oneself).” She added that in the earlier period of her practice, she spent so much time figuring it out instead of doing work. Usually her question is whether what she is doing is film or video art; whether she is able to capture something interesting or they are just exotic; whether she has the ‘right’ to show Filipinos even she is just half (mestiza) or she just uses the country to harvest images. In the long run she realized that she is as much Pinoy as the next Petra; that she has the right to interpret and represent the Philippines and the Filipinos because Bantayan is her home; and that showing her work to her subject brings out the most interesting of reactions.

Atienza finds her approach in the art a bit different from a lot of artists. She comes home in Bantayan, shot videos of fisherfolks, live with them, get to know them. She shares that when she started doing the project, long before there was even a grant, others thought what she was doing is community art. Somehow she felt that some people think that it being community art took away the contemporary coolness. What made her pursue the project is beyond these subtle criticism.

Atienza’s motivation is her interest in the people. She built a personal link with them. At the end of it all for Atienza, what she does is not simply a film or video art. To quote her, Atienza said “So it is interesting to play with what is art now and what you do with it, what is it about how is it relevant. But you shouldn’t start with things like that. I do work that interests me, involve myself…Definitely, I think people forget that we are people of the sea. I think it will be good representation. When I see 15 Interview with Martha Atienza, January 2013.

8

them specially on the boat, when I think of the Philippines and Filipinos, they are really beautiful people of the sea. It is something we forget and they forget also.”

In engaging her subject as audience, Atienza realized the power of the visual and that one can never under estimate an audience. Atienza claims that “One cannot say that the audience is ready or not for contemporary art. Art equalize. There are some points that you cannot even explain. It is definitely an art project. Without using any words really. For people who are not from that area, they can still understand it, it is a universal work. It is a reflection.”

Ringo Bunoan16 has been known in the art circle since the early 1990s as a concept-driven artist. Like her mentor, Roberto Chabet, Bunoan’s art is not defined by any medium nor form. Her work is the idea, the philosophy, the reaction or the action that formed the work.

Among her earlier work titled White Noise (1997) is an installation of two pillows mounted on the wall. Below a CD player with headphones playback excerpts of conversation, ambient sounds of passing cars and cutleries and silence.

Bunoan say that her process begins with the material. According to her material is both the actual physical object, the space or context of the work. Further, Bunoan works with what is around her, which includes everyday materials, readymades and given situations. She said “I don’t necessarily feel the need to create new things, rather I like to generate new thoughts and information about what is already there.”

For Bunoan, media and technology are means, a tool and also a metaphor to record the moment, highlight process and emphasize the ephemereal nature of art. She recognizes that technology is always changing and that it is always in a state of imperfection. Bunoan added that “Beyond the world of objects, I think art is primarily an open-ended gesture, a proposition or an experience. We can ‘frame’ a work, but viewers will always have their own individual ‘reading’ or response to the work.”

16 Online interview with Ringo Bunoan and two personal meetings between December 2012 to February 2013.

9

True to her word, Bunoan’s most recent work titled In Advanced of Things We Cannot See (2013) is a void, visually an empty room, of reflection. This work best demonstrates Bunoan’s brand of art being ephemeral, esoteric, and how it directly engages the audience. In this work, the audience is challenged to “behold” art by using their other senses as they are presented an empty white room with a lingering smell of incense. As olfactory faculties takes over in perceiving this work and that instead of looking audience are encouraged to search Bunoan.

In the issue of labelling, Bunoan does not consider herself as a new media practitioner because as she said earlier her work is not defined or dependent on a particular medium, dogma or style. Further she adds that “I am more interested in charting complexities, however idiosyncratic, rather than consistency and definitive ‘official’ statements.”

Kiri Dalena17 in an artist based in Manila, Southern Luzon and most recently in her family’s origin Iligan. Kiri is known for her activism and cause-work where she also draws inspiration for her art. Her works are mostly video-based that are depicting common images related to whatever cause or issue she is currently exploring.

According to Dalena technology for her is a tool. What tool to use is chosen based on what is best to produce the work. She gave production of her work Erased Slogans (2012) as an example. For this work, she could have printed the images and erased them manually. However, this process will take more time and resources. She chose to use photoshop since it is more practical and more economical. Aside from economics, Dalena considers the space as a parameter for chosing the medium. Like in her recent work titled Washed out (2012) a multi-channel video installation with drift wood that were collected from the site of her subject. The work is about the devastating typhoon in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in December of 2011, having large projections of water in

17 Interview with Kiri Dalena, December 2012.

10

multi-channel accompanied by sound of rushing water in surround, enlivens the magnanimity of the disaster.

Technology or media being secondary to her priorities is brought by Dalena’s deeper engagement in the subject. According to her, she does not necessarily plan to make an artwork. When she is engage on something (an issue or a cause), she tends to get very deep in it. She does not see them as subject for art even. Only when an opportunity to screen or exhibit does she translate her experience into materials. She said: “I definitely start with the subject. A lot of times, I am doing a lot of things…Issue follows. I maybe already deep into the subject and then eventually I come up with a work. That is my process. I work on things that I feel strongly about. It comes in when in the middle of what I am doing then a possibility to make an (art) work or show comes up. So why think of something else when I am already here…Sometimes, though not deliberate, what comes out of the work is the human spirit…like the documentary about the orphans (Tungkung Langit, 2013) I thought it will be a sad film, but in the process it actually became hopeful and beautiful. That was the strength. Those children were always smiling. This is the strenght that lies behind the smile of Filipinos who have gone through so much pain, so much beyond their control. They still can find something to smile about, they can still fall in love with their environment.”

Like her personality, Dalena’s work are subtle but with conviction. Her works are not only reflections of her cause but a piece of her self. Dalena confides that she does things as strongly, sincerely and purely as possible. So when questioned or faced with an opposing opinion, she is confident to stand by her work.

Tad Ermitano is a seasoned artists who could be recognized as one of the earliest to practiced new media art. Ermitano’s art philosophy could be summarized as ‘art is a form of truth.” Having come from both science and philosophy training this statement could not be taken lightly. As any other scientific hypothesis, Ermitano views art as a complex onthology of mathematical truths. Put in to actual case Ermitano claims that he works mostly with machines and later computers. He build circuits that interacts with and challenges the intelligence of machines. In reflecting about his influence Ermitano recalls that his earliest confluence was with experimental film technicians of

11

Mowelfund like Louie Quirino, whom he fondly recalls as the one who uses the camera ‘the wrong way.’ He added that Quirino is one of those whom he run into who is conscious of the label video art. Further on his practice, Ermitano claims that in doing video works his interest lies on the structure of the image, instead of how to manipulate an image so one can express a familiar narrative—like his love for his girlfriend. In the Twinning Machine (2012) for example, Ermitano said that he felt like he is playing with the computer rather than with the images. “The machine is my playmate and the intelligence of the computer; its interactiveness. Not just pick the images edit them to a ‘poem.’ I like building structures that sort of like compose poems in their own. It is an outward state thing. I feel that I am consciously making beauty or original moment,” Ermitano adds.

The extent or scope of analyzing his medium does not end with using computers to create, Ermitano also positions himself, as a hacker or one who adapts an existing truth to create his own, in a bigger cosmos of thinkers and doers. Since his Twinning Machine is made out of the machine and programs that makes it function, Ermitano draws the line that the extent of ownership of the work does not cover the program. What Ermitano did was device the program and re-release it in the open source market, so anyone who want to cut and paste the program and use it can do so. He said he feels that it will be unfair if he takes something from an open source then close it up. Presumably hence the code is just part of the artwork. His work is complex that way. Ermitano added that his work, “is not like a painting that if you paint it, that’s it. Or like there’s the painting then there’s the legend about the painting. It is something that is sort of the center and there’s the peripheral manifestations.” Emphasizing the philosophy of art being a form of truth, Ermitano added that “It is not good to patent 2+2=4. It is true. It is not stepping on anybody’s propety. It is just looking at the same truth.”

When pushed about this issue of universality, I asked as to when his art now becomes Pinoy. Ermitano’s response was, “Often the way I think about Filipinoness of art is to attack the question, to negate that question….emblem mongering. You get a tinalak fabric and a gong and then, oy Pinoy to. But then it is a hudge fudge of artifacts of different tribal cultures and then you say it is ours. There’s a very complex equation involving state and culture. I don’t want to go there, I don’t want to try and be a Filipino…(what I do is)…I look for stuff and say I like the gong-ness of this.” He illustrated his case by elaborating on how he came to make his work Hulikotekan (2002), a single channel montage of brass gongs. Ermitano relates that he came to work with gongs not because it is Pinoy or Asian per se. His fascination in this work is how the ancestors, those who first used and made gongs, ‘chase’ what they were chasing (in ethnomusicology, this will be spirits). He said that, “I am thinking if there is a certain something that our ancestors were chasing with the technology at their command then it happened to be brass. I think it is possible to capture it with some other technology they just happen to look like the gong our ancestors used.”

12

Liby Limoso18 is a local of Iloilo. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines and Master of Fine Arts from University of Pennsylvania. While he was completing education elsewhere, Limoso kept coming back to Iloilo to make new works. He executed his BFA thesis in his hometown—making an installation on water using stretched canvas spread on the Iloilo river, which he called River Highway (200_). He presented the thesis as video documentation and recreated a portion in Marikina River. But as he relates, the work is almost performative as he is compelled to laydown the canvas every morning and roll them up to avoid being looping as the river changes current direction in the late afternoon. Aside from the documentation, he re-staged the same work on Marikina River. This enabled another set of audience to experience the work, and the artist to experience creating a new work, as he dealt with different challenges vis-à-vis new location and new environment. For his MFA, Limoso brought with him to North America the Suguidanon Epic. It is an oral tradition of the Panay Bukidnon or Sulod that talked about their hero Humadapnon and other characters of the seven layers of the world. With this, whatever little material he brought along with him from home, Limoso was able to produce two animations and one video performance. The first piece titled Nagbuhis (2009) is a stop motion animation featuring paper cut-outs. The other work titled Tibang-Tibang (2010) is also stop motion animation but this time featuring drawings. Both videos relates little stories from the Epic. Also in2009, Limoso video recorded himself chanting parts of Suguidanon, while on the headset replays a traditional chanter. First scene was a long shot that locates the performer at the Washington DC Mall. The video eventually zooms in to the mouth of the performer until the chanting is completed.

According to Limoso, the meat of his work is in the connection of his subject to the rest of “us”. By this he meant that epics are connected with the “now” (time sphere), “here” (space sphere) and with “us who are living in the now” (actor sphere) who may or may not be practicing traditional epic oration. Though from specific ethnic tradition, the more he explores the subject, for both the river and Suguidanon, the more he realizes the universality of its essence, the philosophy it contains, even the characters that forms their respective “stories.” He often uses our fascination with gold as an example. Limoso enumerated the number of situation where a gold implement is

18 Several interviews online and on telephone between November 2012 to January 2013, and personal interview on May 2013.

13

used by an epic character for important mission (i.e. golden pubic hair of the cave witch, golden armour that can fly, golden boats to sail to the great seas, etc). He sees this in the same way that present metropolitan cities appraise gold (whether commercial or cultural, i.e. display at the Metropolitan Museum and Ayala Museum).

Manny Montelibano19 is an artist based in Bacolod. He is most known for doing video installation, especially for the series of video screening for End Frame. Montelibano claims that video is a special (though much available) medium, not too many galleries support video art, especially in the past. However, he too recognizes that using video is the most comfortable or compatible medium for his choice of subject. His interest is in human psychology in the everyday. He adds that his fascination is a result of time—constant and consistent and almost inevitable exposure to media (TV). It is where he farms ideas because he sees that there are just too many things he can do with them. This is best illustrated in his work Sorry for the Inconvenience (2011). According to him the title was inspired by the road signs that he sees around during repairs (bearing the phrase: sorry for the inconvenience). He clipped images of powerful people, celebrities, that are showing off their power. He said that he intentionally did an installation where the audience experience these people showing-off their power, causing them (the viewers) inconvenience. To further aggrevate the pun, he intentionally placed the audience within the installation by making a floor to ceiling multi-channel projection.

For Montelibano, subject is the main meat of his work. He collects subjects from occurance and events that he lives, especially those that keeps repeating. Montelibano adds that “If I want to shoot something I experience them for a long time even before I shoot. I try to get inspired in the process of what it is. Then I make it a video, either single channel or multi-channel. Even then, many things come in, the more I go deeper within the subject and its surrounding the more I get inspired.” He said this process can best be related in his making of Biya (2010). According to him, processing of

19 Online interview with Manny Montelibano, January 2013 and personal interview, May 2013.

14

this work started when his uncle who owns a game fowl farm died and his father partially helped in managing it. With constant exposure to this enterprise, Montelibano developed curiousity over raising game fowls, derby, and everything that surrounds it. He already knew what goes on in a coliseum before he begun to shoot, which later formed part of his installation.

Renan Ortiz,20 is another new breed artist-activists who find new expression to participate in socio-political debates. Ortiz is the President of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines. His first degree was in political science. Fine arts came later as his second degree. According to Ortiz, he is not an artist of any label. He said, “I am just an artist. My works are political in themes and topics. However since college I have a thing for media. How the word media, mediates between people and reality. How it pixels, tarpaulins and lights relate to people.”

Though his interest is in motion films and he usually incorporates video to his works, Ortiz professes that he is more certain about his cause for doing/making art than the form or medium he uses. He said that what he is looking for in the the art (his and others) is how the work witted-out those that already exist. He said, “I like to see works, that makes me go ‘Hmmm why didn’t I think of that?! It is one of those works that I wish I was the one who first thought of. It is not just the ‘aha’, the challenge really is how to deliver a message. Something familiar but unfamiliar. Like, we spend so much to eat less, but in the regions they are labouring to produce food.” In this case he is particularly referring to the work Exercise of Utility/Exercise of Futility (2013) wherein a video of farmers are juxtaposed with a fat man doing an exercise routine. The two videos played on analogue television hangs a balance on a platform on a kaldero (a pot used for cooking rice). His process therefore involves a lot of research, so as to find out what else can be said and how else it can be delivered. He reads a lot, watch a lot, and try to learn a lot, including recently how to edit his own videos.

He differentiates his own practice to social realist artists by saying that his is sarcastic. Ortiz adds, “We have different language but same temperament.” True to his word, Ortiz does not dwell on

20 Interview with Renan Ortiz, January 2013.

15

familiar issues associated with activists. He does not create art to emphasize his Pinoy-ness. He sticks to the motivation because according to him the challenge is how to tell a story with a fresh eye. And the language he chose is more on the pun boardering the sarcastic.

Ross Zerrudo,21 is a native of Central Visayas who have been a resident of Camiguin Island in Mindanao for at least 15 years. Zerrudo has dedicated herself into a organic lifestyle which resonates strongly in her video works. According to Zerrudo, what motivates her in making art are her principles, which is -- “By the end of the day, what is the reason for your living and dying? Reason for being. I am an artist in the context of change. What makes us powerful is because we have the eyes to see. We have a very special way of seeing things. And the hands to do it. Man alone is a powerful media, he creates things. The responsibility for me, for being born in this country, which by the way I call a complete workshop, my first agenda in doing this community-based art projects is that I am born in this very beautiful country. Where else would you want to be born? What does with it is the responsibility to take care of it.”

Among those interviewed, Zerrudo has the most interesting response when asked if she sees herself as a new media artist. Zerrudo was excited to hear this because she said it made her felt young. Obviously she had an impression that new media is exclusively practiced by those who are younger. This is interesting because it reveals that despite her 20 years of making video art, Zerrudo only see herself as an artist with no other adjectives. Video became medium of her work because it is simply convenient. She added that, “When I’m doing production I need 40 people. You need to bring a location. It is too expensive. When I put it on a video, you go to a location, you capture a picture, then you have it already. And that you can bring anywhere you go. You can put it anywhere. In the most economical way. In the best aesthetics, because you can edit it, re-edit, expand it, layer it, intergrate it with different arts like music, poetry, movement, animation, etc. It is just amazing what you can do with video work. It is like a womb of all these textures, genres, it is so encompassing.

21 Interview with Ross Zerrudo, December 2012.

16

Then you grow it.” She added that for her, video is a type of womb where images can grow and become something else.

Her process is purely spontaneous. She does not rehearse nor set-up a scene. Though most of her work are collaborative. She either collaborates with other artists (of other forms), or with her community (usually the people of Camiguin). What she does is that she gives them a brief of her idea or her emotion and let the collaborating ‘artists’ do their thing.

Presentation is still the end goal of her work. And like her process, Zerrudo kept the poesis of presentation. She said, “I would like to present my work with a performance because I want people to eat on my plate. So it is a human being interacting with another human being. Feeding each other. Realizing we are really of the same connection. We are not really different from each other. Very personal. It is an act of kindness when you make people feel and feel them also. You become vulnerable. Sharing yourself to a community or what they call audience. It is not being a spectacle of spectators, but being part of the spectacle all together. I enjoy watching myself perform, as much as I enjoy people watching people who watch me. It is so Pinoy.”

Like mentioned earlier, these conversations are by no means representative of the regions where they came from. It however gave a sampling of what is there, that when placed in a chart could forms a complex and even contrasting constellation of ideas and opinion.

Motivation, fascination, inspiration

As a curator and an arts manager, I have always taken the position that Filipino artists (and if I maybe too bold this time to claim, as well as other Southeast Asians) are natural storytellers. A person looks at art and asks: “What does it say?” Or “What does it mean?” A work is almost always about something or someone. This is perhaps inherent among our people as both oral traditions (chants, music, literature), kinetic forms (dance, matial arts) and visual forms (weaving, pottery, metallurgy) are dominated by narrations, that ranges from introduction of characters, symbolism, occasion or events to full-length epics.

17

Interviews of the artists revealed that these contemporary artists are story tellers as well. More than what stories they tell. What interested me more is how they all explore how else a story could be told.

Atienza, Dalena, Limoso and Zerrudo tell stories the way we usually define ‘stories’. It is about something, someone, somewhere. All of them try to focus their lenses to capture an aspect of the human spirit, the human psychology, or simply put a way of life.

Atienza brings us the people in a context of a community, their life and their livelihood. Her work serves as catalyst for the audience and her subject while in the process of production and when they are already viewing the finished work. When viewing her videos, audience who do not belong in the subject community are confronted by the ‘other’. A social dimensions that maybe a whole lot different from the context where they are coming from or too similar, regardless though this ‘othering’ becomes a point of relations. While in production, the subject community may feel curiousity over the interest of this artist in their supposed daily affairs. When viewing the finished work, they are forced to look at themselves in a mirror that could elicit pride in what they do, or a confusion as to whether they are actually who they see on the projection. These reflections are of course defined by how the audience see Atienza. In her unique position, Atienza is an insider because Bantayan in fact is her home. But she could also be seen by some as an outsider because of her being mestiza. This same idiosyncracy of belonging or unbelonging could also happen to her when screening the work in Europe, because she is foreign as much as she is a local.

Dalena brings the viewers a closer look at events. Almost as close as she was when she was producing the work. As a matter of process, and as Dalena professed, she involves herself with her subject. Like Atienza, Dalena lives with her subject and experience their daily lives. They are however different because Dalena, as compared to her subject comes from somewhere else. I am not to weigh which work has a heavier connection to the subject or which is more authentic. The bone of contention here is how Dalena’s process affects her audience, the subject and herself. I have not only heard but also seen it for myself that Dalena’s forged relation with her subject transcend the boundaries of artist-subject/informant. I have seen how her subject for Tungkung Langit (the girl who survived the flood by hugging a drifting log along Cagayan River) treats her as a confidant or a guardian. They have become friends in so many levels. As for the viewers who are detached from the issue where the video was rooted (flooding in Mindanao), Dalena brings a subtle horror. Without shoving the spoon up the audience throat, the artist encourages the audience to see beyond survival.

Limoso tells the story of people as reflected in the local mythology or epic. His approach is very anthropological in which he tries to engage his subject (Suguidanon), actors of his subject (Sulod people or Panay-Bukidnon), context and circumstances of the tradition (oral tradition, recited), vis-a-vis his own origin and context (Fine Arts). This thus explains why he translates oral ethnic tradition, which is usually assigned to the past, into media art projects that is usually associated to the contemporary. His technique continues to provide distance between the audience and the work, as the audience is assigned to watch and/or listen while the “story” is happening. In this case, the role of technology (digital media, film, animation, performative art) is crucial as it serves as the link between the then and the now. In later works, Limoso already explores interactivity to further

18

lessen the distance between the story and the story teller. His most recent work Suguidanon Genealogy (2011) is a tarpaulin tent installation. Inside the tent is the “lay-out” of the seven levels of the Suguidanon world, a genealogy of characters, and a map of Panay Island where the Suguidanon characters might have gone. In this work, the audience is already inside the work and the decision to tell the story is left to the audience, as the work offers only the characters and the setting.

Zerrudo like Atienza tell stories of a people or a community. She tells different stories of Camiguin. And like Dalena, Zerrudo’s work brings viewers to look closer to an event. She captures events of human and nature in their most beautiful condition because she worries that it might go away or not happen again. But unlike the two other artists, Zerrudo’s framework is more spiritual. She dwells on spirituality of human. Spirituality in a sense that she constantly frames her existence as a child birthed by nature and that nature is an organic force that requires reciprocal responsibility from her children. In this almost ‘new age framework’, Zerrudo does two types of video works that captures ‘mother nature and her children’ in their grandest, most magnificent state. The first type of video work she does are animation that relates the eco-system of Camiguin. The clay forms that are used for the animation were done by her ‘students’ or young people who attended her workshops. Sounds were spontaneous composition of a Mindanaon musician, Waway Saway, who has been collaborating with Zerrudo for a long time. Videos also contain Zerrudo’s poetry in chant or spoken that encourages viewers to take care of this beauty that they are witnessing. In the end, the Zerrudo puts this all together like vignettes of people’s take on an issue that is important to all of them. Another type of her video work is more personal. Zerrudo’s Ovarian Chants are visualization of her poetry. Zerrudo performs her poetry about inevitable aspects of life (like dreams, anxieties, freedom, etc), Saway interacts with his sound, and are combined with various video clips of environment, of people and written texts. In the end, audience are presented videos that are sensorial as much as they are sensual. It is through this work that the artist let ‘others enter’ her personal space, and share her own spirit.

Araneta and Ermitano tells stories of machines and systems. Araneta uses spontaneous approach to exploring complexities and potential of machines and ethnic expressions. Araneta’s motivation is obviously to create. And his inspiration is his environment. In all the circuit bending that Araneta does, the artist is obviously ‘trying to find-out’ what the output will be (if he adds or subtracts something) and if the output resembles something that is recognizable within the scope of his environs, then Araneta presents this as a completed work. This approach to working gave Araneta a very varied portfolio of materials. It allows the artist to change suit, to tell as much stories, as his resources affords him.

Ermitano on the otherhand approaches the machines and digital system with scientific discipline. He explores a variety of materials and systems, he hypothesize about the capabilities of his materials, he experiment on systems until he comes up with something that is his.

Ermitano’s works are stories of “matters of fact.” Among his most narrative work is perhaps Local Unit (2006), a video work about human organ trade—people selling/buying organ to replace broken ones placed in year 2072. The story was told from an invisible third person’s point of view,

19

distant from the characters but within close proximity. The video work offers no apologies for the existence of this trade, void of moralist judgment that usually accompanies this issue. Watching the video closer, one would see how Ermitano see the human as a machine and the machines an extension of his human. And as machine world has it, when a part is broken, you change it, it undergoes repair and parts replacement. This same approach can also be seen in his robotic gongs. The technology that enabled the gongs to be played by machines might be a matter of curiousity, but as a subject, gong is a brass idiophone—and it is just that; anybody and/or anything who can hit it can produce sound. The music part is a program or is programmed—whether by culture and tradition for human players; or a system for his robot players. His delivery of the message being matter-of-factly cannot be equated though with over simplification of affairs. On the contrary, by doing so, Ermitano was able to give the audience more space in exploring the onthology of the subject if one desires to ‘go-deeper’ in the matter.

Bunoan, Montelibano and Ortiz tell recognizable stories using layered devices. Bunoan tells stories by proposing possible thinking points and other ways on how the body thinks/perceives. Montelibano defines his audience by the organization of installation. Ortiz finds sarcasm, pun and wit as a device in the telling.

Bunoan’s stories are reflexive and introspective. More than telling, Bunoan actually encourages audience to ask questions, to question, and make their own telling. As Bunoan relates, her works are geared towards generating thoughts. The act of putting together objects that exists within daily affairs. Point of interest in Bunoan’s work however, is that her ‘new media’ does not limit the audience to machines or systems made by man, she sees man and its body as a sensorial machine or system that is capable of creating varied response. Beyond the artwork, Bunoan’s work becomes more interesting if one peeks into her process. For example for the work In Advance of Thing We Cannot See, the artist exhibits the artist’s strong grasp in art history background and how her travel experience manifest in her works. Bunoan’s In Avance was a project conceptualized as part of a tribute to Marcel Duchamp’s legacy (hence the title; in relation to Duchamp’s In Advance of a Broken Art) of anti-retinal approach in experiencing art. This work is also a rememberance of one of her travels in Thailand, were she met a backpacker in search of a Buddist guru, with this traveller was the scent of an incense from nag champa flowers, which obviously appealed to the artist who brought home the habit of lighting this variety of incense, and further brought it to her work.

Montelibano’s stories are stories of affairs. Affairs in this case is defined as public relationship (i.e. relationship of celebrities in general to general public for Sorry, and relationship of individual to a public event which is cockfighting or Biya). For Sorry, the videos used are clips that have been seen on television. When shown in its original context, the celebrities might be addressing specific people but it being in mass media, it was a given that general public is an audience. The work can be viewed at the same time by several people, hence the work is not talking specifically to an individual, but to a group. For Biya, the videos were projected on small machines, audience had to peek in to see what is happening, in this case therefore, the work is talking directly to the individual rather than a group.

20

For Ortiz to tell about stories of social agression, inequality and injustice is already expected, given his social activism. What is interesting about his work though is the manner by how he chose to tell his stories. Like what the artist said, he prefers using sarcasm, wit and pun to manifest his present cause. Aside from Exercise of Utility/Exercise of Futility, the artist’s brand of storytelling is best exemplified in his work Lusob and Murmur. In Lusob, Ortiz used game animation type of video. For the whole run, an invisible ‘player’ goes in a maze, which is supposedly the President’s palace and shoot members of the security force who gets in his way. Since the work is retrofitted video game, instead of mutiny and anarchy, the artist offers thrill without whitewashing the issue at hand. Murmur on the other hand, is an installation of headsets hanging from a ceiling panel of audio spliters. Since the audience had to attach themselves to a headset, delivery of canned poetry was very quiet, engaging the audience on the personal level. This goes beyond the stereotyped activism of marching on the street and screaming their hearts content.

Without any attempt to pit one approach against the other, I recognize that the spectrum of approach in story telling using and about new media is a manifestation of a dynamic of creative consciousness. Furthermore, it is exciting to recognize that beyond their personal subjective motivations, fascinations and inspirations, their practice revolves around the human—human as a subject, machine as an extension of human, human as doer, human as an event.

In the first place

New media art in the Philippines exists. Whether artists want to be labelled or not, their practice cannot disregard the fact that artists find analogue and digital machines and technology a suited medium for some of their works.

In my short survey, aside from reviewing the practice of some artists, I realized three things: first, sound in new media art in the Philippines is a lingering force; second, new media artists are less individualistic; and third video art has a very strong potential to be the widest practice among available new media.

By saying that sound is a lingering force, I meant it in two levels, first, that sound is a constant element in new media works; and second, that sound artists have their tribe.

In the works that have been mentioned earlier on this essay, all except perhaps, Bunoan’s olfactory piece, has sound element. Filipino artists recognize environment, human, machines, to have sound that would complete their work. They play with the variety of sounds available by interlocking them, taking them as pure sound, or presenting them in the background of silence, music or noise.

Working with sound art in the past months, I recognized that almost artists of certain reputation and consistency of practice actually know each other. The grouping for sound artists is more distinct. Sound artists are actually friends and collaborators. It was not surprising and worth mentioning that whatever the genre of sound art they are producing, at one point they have worked or played together.

21

Secondly, I find that new media artists have a stronger tendency for collaboration and/or community production. They are less individualistic in their art production. Whether out of necessity, because production requires more than one person (as compared to painters who usually works alone to make studies and/or brush canvas), but more because they want their work to be inclusive. Aside from the process of creating, the inclusiveness quality of this new media, could be a vehicle to taking the apprehension away from the ‘new.’ Participation of more people, or community brings familiarity and comfort to ‘new-ness’ of the media.

Third video art has a very strong potential to be of widest practice among available new media. Video art appeals to artists because like what Zerrudo said there are too many things that you can do with it. A work may never be finished because the artist can keep on changing it to take new form or become a version of an earlier work. Not having enough resources to make art is a common complain among Filipino artists. It being economical, adds to its appeal. It is personal but inclusive. He who holds the camera can demand the audience to look at the image of his/her preference. Yet, as the artist does this, he shares a part of his person, and by ‘consuming’ the image, the audience converse with the artist. To experience video works is accessible. Whether the video is presented to an individual or a group, the audience can form his own opinion. Liking or not what they see is not the issue. It is the familiarity of media that makes it accessible. The medium is easily digestible. Inevitably, video works can be liken to television programs (though conceptually, philosophically and technically different), audience sitdown and watch.

Drawing from these, I am tempted to propose that maybe (just maybe) the reason why most informant artists in this reseach refuse or could not care less about labels is because they are not into finding out what they are doing. They are more focused on why and how they are doing what. I am even more tempted to claim, that new media art may not be so advance (technology-wise) and not so widely practiced in the country because the old media is still able to respond to the why and how of Filipino artists. In the spirit of being an academic, these are temptations though that I am willing to resists until a more indepth research has been done about this. In the first place, finding out that new media has a place in Philippine creative community is enough for me, at least in the meantime.

Reference:

Lava, Vicente Eliseo T. IV (2011) SOUND IN PHILIPPINE VISUAL ARTS: Preliminary Study of Works Utilizing Sound as a Material in the Creation of Visual Arts in Metro Manila from the 1970s to the Present. BFA Thesis: U.P. Diliman, College of Fine Arts.

Acknowledgements: Merv Espina, Lian Ladia, UP Center for Ethnomusicology

Photo list:

22

Araneta DIY project (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Araneta Water Bending machine (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Atienza Gilubong (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Atienza Gilubong (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Bunoan In Advance of this We cannot See (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Bunoan Pillow Talk (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Dalena Erased (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Dalena Washed Out (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Ermitano Hulikotekan (Screen grab with artist’s permission)

Ermitano Local Unit (Screen grab with artist’s permission)

Liby Limoso Nagbuhis (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Liby Limoso Tent (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Maceda Cassettes 100 (Photo courtesy of UPCE)

Maceda Udlot-udlot (Photo courtesy of UPCE)

Montelibano Biya (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Montelibano Sorry for the Inconvenience (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Ortiz Lusob (Screen grab with artist’s permission)

Ortiz Murmur (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Salvador Sandata (Photo from the author)

Salvador Sandata (Photo from the author)

Yuson Presence (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Yuson Hearsay (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Zerrudo Doors (Screen grab with artist’s permission)

Zerrudo Mangroves (Screen grab with artist’s permission)

23