Artifact Reassembly at DMF2002

Digital Media Festival, now on its third year, celebrates through "pag-uugnay", connecting, the fields of archaeology, anthropology and new media art. DMF opens October 3 at the Corredor Gallery of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. Event will be streamed live via http://digitalmedia.upd.edu.ph/

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

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/>
Kanonmedia.com <http://www.kanonmedia.com/>
Arte OnLine <http://www.arteonline.arq.br/>
NewMediaFest <http://www.newmediafest.org/>
A Virtual Memorial
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