Invitation: DMF October 3

Artifact Reassembly at DMF2002
Invitation to join us on opening day
October 3, 2002 11:30AM (GMT+0800)
Corredor Gallery, College of Fine Arts
University of the Philippines, Diliman

On-Line: Webcam and
Live Streaming Video thru http://digitalmedia.upd.edu.ph/
(Requires RealPlayer - downloadable thru http://www.real.com/)
DMF runs until October 10, 2002

On-Line programme:
October 3 Exhibition Opening
October 14 "Resurrection"
October 16 Burial of Time Capsules

For more information contact: Fatima Lasay <[email protected]>
College of Fine Arts, Bartlett Hall, E. Jacinto Str., University of the
Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101 Philippines, telefax (632) 434-6981 and
(632) 434-8222


Digital Media Festival, now on its third year, celebrates through "pag-uugnay",
connecting, the fields of archaeology, anthropology and new media art. The
highlights of DMF2002 are the new media installations that will be constructed
by students in the digital art elective and workshop courses through
collaboration with the Archaeological Studies Program and Filipino visual
artists known for their interdisciplinary work in the fields of archaeology and
anthropology of art and religion.

DMF has invited Noell El Farol to interact with the students investigating the
relationship between archaeology and artistic practice through an overview of
his works and an open discussion on the study of archaeology through
cooperation with the Archaeological Studies Program. Farol will direct a
centerpiece installation that explores "archaeological recordings" based on his
research and work in "Hukay" (digging or pit). The installation work will be
constructed through students' interpretation of site and situation specific to
the compounds of the College surrounding the gallery space. A reassembly will
be conducted into the gallery.

Students in the digital media art workshop "Writing as Visual Form" will be
directed by Roberto B. Feleo to construct a peripheral installation,
complementing the centerpiece with Farol. Through discussions of several of his
sculptural and installation works and their socio-historical commentary, Feleo
clarifies relationships between anthropology of art, religion and contemporary
artistic practice. Through Feleo's guidance, students explore writing systems
as cognitive artifacts and their projections into contemporary culture through
a project entitled "Time Capsules."

The new media installation works directed by Farol and Feleo serve to transform
the Corredor Gallery space and adjacent areas into cognate ritual spaces for
connecting, the DMF theme "pag-uugnay", the past with the future. The
theme, "Iugnay" (to connect), is in cadence with the vision to connect with
fields traditionally seen as outside the arts, where young student artists are
seen as creative partners of the technological forces that will push the
country towards progress. DMF looks at art as research and development,
anticipating a shift from a culture of political nationalism to creative
research, as young creative minds are acknowledged important forces in the
larger nationwide technological development plan that can transform the way
people think about the arts. Technological development is not only about
machines - it's also about creativity, an enlarged understanding of cultures,
and communicating.

As new media technologies become important mediums and processes in artistic
work, there is a need to perceive and wield them with a clarified understanding
of how ideologies are carried by media and technological waves. Theories
evolved from different disciplines now migrate into each other with increasing
speed and acceptance as technology provides the interfaces for
interdisciplinarity.

Through the collaborative efforts of three artists, the basic tenets of
traditional artistic methodology are taken into a critical dialogue with
contemporary developments. The projects interactively developed for the Digital
Media Festival present examples of ways by which students are encouraged to
develop artistic concepts in view of the interdisciplinary and collaborative
nature of installation art, recognizing the need to network with people and
study materials in fields often seen as outside of the arts.

In "Site and Situation", digital and electronic media are used alongside the
analog in the effort to order and describe past events and to explain the
meanings of those events from within and outside of the matrix of
archaeological material. Significantly, authenticity is articulated in the
methodologies of interpreting excavated site and situation into a given
interior space. In the archaeological concern of studying the past, forward-
thinking developments are invigorated in documentation and recording
technologies and techniques, especially for interpreting meaning of artifacts
and reassembly work for broader access and future use.

In "Time Capsules", the process of offering and disembodying the self is
symbolically enacted in an entombment of the material remains of personal
activity and appearances as they are reflected in technological means of visual
representation. At the prime of their lives, students commit themselves to the
future in the symbolic burial of their time capsules.

In "The Written Image: Magic and Empowerment", language is investigated in
their binary forms as material and memory and critically assessed in the
context of their historical development and use in pre-colonial Philippines.
The methodology provides a critical framework in the perception and invention
of the new network of electronic signs and symbols in local, translocal and
global communications.

Just as human cognition are inferred from lithic industries, human evolution
became linked with cultural and technological evolution in what is seen as a
biocultural feedback system. In a highly mediated culture, artists now need to
be aware of what accounts for stability and patterns of change in society. In
the process of artifact reassembly, contemporaneity may be established between
separate deposits. In the collaborative efforts of three artists from various
specializations and their students for the conceptualization and construction
of new media installation work, past and future are transgressed, with a fine
sensitivity to geographic location and national and personal identity.
Reassembly becomes a recalibration of the artist's orientation of participating
in the life and evolution of society.

–
DMF2002 receives assistance from the Office of the Chancellor, University of
the Philippines in Diliman. Live streaming video coverage and technical support
is provided by the University of the Philippines, Computer Center and DilNet.
DMF is coordinated by Fatima Lasay, assistant professor of digital media at the
Studio Arts Department of the UP College of Fine Arts. The new media
installations will be presented in the Corredor Gallery of the College on
October 3 until October 10, 2002. The Corredor Gallery, as representative of
the oldest school of fine arts in the Philippines, is a major art venue in the
country.

DMF is also supported by:
UP College of Fine Arts <http://www.upd.edu.ph/~cfa/>
UP Computer Center and DilNet
UP Archaeological Studies Program <http://www.upd.edu.ph/~asp/>

Thanks also to:
Office of the Campus Architect
College of Veterinary Medicine Animal Hospital
UP Diliman Information Office

And to our event/project/media partners:
fineArt forum <http://www.fineartforum/>
Leonardo Electronic Almanac <http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/>
Kanonmedia.com <http://www.kanonmedia.com/>
Arte OnLine <http://www.arteonline.arq.br/>
NewMediaFest <http://www.newmediafest.org/>
A Virtual Memorial <www.a-virtual-memorial.org/>
Banner Art Collective <http://www.bannerart.org/>
Multimedia Art Asia Pacific <http://www.maap.org.au/>
Digiteer <http://digitalmedia.upd.edu.ph/digiteer/>

Participating Students:
SFA192X: Gerard BAJA, Anna CABARDO, Niko Dela CRUZ, John GENERAL, Michael
LAMPAYAN, Olivia LOPEZ, Luisa MEDINA, Deodato PAIREZ, Jerusalem PIMENTEL,
Alfred PO, Joseph RAZ, Ruth SANTIAGO, Cherry TOLENTINO FA100: Eleanor ALFANTE,
Carlito AMALLA, Maysa ARABIT, Ry Sedrick BOLODO, Joey CLARONINO, Katrina De
DIOS, Amiel LAPUEBLA, Catherine LASAM, Winchell SALUDARES, Camilla TABAGAN,
Grace TENORIO, Gem TUANO, Paulo VINLUAN, Carlo AHILLION VC36: John ACEVEDO,
Mark ALVARADO, Rikki BARANDA, Criselda CAC, Nats CHUA, Sabrina De LEON, Roel
EMNACE, Merwin De MESA, Eric FLORES, Gimo LANOT, Marielle NADAL, Lizzamae
OROLA, Zoltan PABON, Remnin PATINO, Vincent SAMSON, Michael SAGCAL, Francis
SANBUENAVENTURA, Rogelio SANTOS, Lea SEGARRA, Don Juan TORRES, Alfred TRAJECO,
Sheryl VALENCIA, Archie YUMUL

Credits: Noell El Farol, Roberto B. Feleo, Victor Paz, Cesar Bravo, Rodino Uy,
Nisar Keshvani, Alexandra Reil, Regina Celia Pinto, Kim Machan, Brandon Barr,
Agricola de Cologne, Virginia B. Dandan, Reynaldo Concepcion, Leonardo Rosete,
Leo Abaya, Ruben DF Defeo