serious fictions

Back to blogging

2011-06-06T17:34:00.003+01:00

It's been a long time since I've posted on this blog.

I moved to London and it was a bit of a mind fuck. I got a studio in Westferry and lived with a crazy circus lady. Then I moved out. I moved into a council flat in Bethnal Green, made friends with the local dealers and a cage fighter called Gemini Lee Dixon. I moved out. I moved in with a beautiful and crazy woman obsessed with Georges Bataille in Haggerston. I moved out. Then I moved into Pete the Bike's front room and took up gardening and listened to Glenn Gould.

I got married, moved on a boat, had boating adventures from the River Wey to Oxfordshire to London. Moved off the boat, had adventures on land.

Back on the blog, more than half the people I've linked to have disappeared. Some have become successful, others (semi) famous. People have started making money from blogging and I started hustling in real life. Well, not that sort of hustling.

Back to blogging

Shit Blogger

2010-11-06T17:32:00.000Z

Moving (the) House

2010-02-02T15:29:00.001Z

So we moved our house and we made a little time lapse video. We set off from Shepperton, had lunch in Kingston, a nap in Teddington, and took on the Thames at approximately 1730, to catch the tide. It was pitch black. We reached Brentford at 1900 hours and had a nice pint at the local pub.

We set off at 0830 on the British Waterways. Past the Hanway Flight, over the aqueduct that goes over a motorway, and lunch at Bulls Bridge. Cheeky mooring at the London Water Bus space at Little Venice around 1800.

The End of The End

2009-12-11T17:16:00.002Z

Yes it was the end of The End. But before that was the last night at Swerve--as legend has it, where liquid funk was born.

Fabio was on it, Groove and Goldie were there too. Positive vibes, the best liquid DnB, and a little glass of champagne to set off the night. Now check out some of their tunes on the BBC iplayer here.

That's a little flyer I designed for Swerve in Miami using the same photo from above. :-P

One night in Fabric

2009-11-13T17:26:00.000Z

[slideshow id=2]

Foreign Beggars at Fabric along with the Scratch Perverts. Another mad night with a pre gig party, one backstage, one after the gig and a few days later...

Check out more photos from the FB blog here.

And this wicked video too

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukZCHX5ffEI

Firenze

2009-11-11T17:24:00.000Z

Shiva Soundsystem

2009-06-08T17:28:00.000+01:00

Well what do you know... my photo was used for a the Shiva Soundsystem Outlawed in India Tour. The boys seem to be going non-stop after the succesful launch of DJ Hero, with D-Code working behind the scenes. Check out their BBCRadio 1 profiles at In New DJ's we Trust and Nerm's very own ElectroEast. Remix D-Code here.

That's me taking their photograph. img source

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drdFtnSi0vs

A Talk On Beauty

2009-06-06T17:27:00.000+01:00

image source

I received a call this morning that went something like this:

Me: Hello?

DM: Hi, is this Mr. Fernandez?

Me: It's Miss Fernandez, thanks. Who's this please?

DM: It's David Medalla.

Me (slightly in shock): Good morning, po!

What he didn't realize was that we had met before, while I was exhibiting under a different name. He had heard about a small drive a few of my friends organized for the Philippines after Typhoon Ondoy. Because of the inadequacies of the embassy in dealing with the deluge of people from the community wanting to help, small groups of private individuals got together to deal with it on their own. Our group organized a container vessel to send goods back from London to Manila. Of course, it wasn't without its problems. He had heard about this and wanted to help.

David invited us to come to his talk 'On Beauty' during the opening of the exhibition 'What Matters Most' at the Old Boys Hall in Dalston. It couldn't have been more apt.

During the talk, he described various moments of beauty, memories, experiences, and encouraged people to get on his 'throne' to do the same. During his talk, he had arranged for people all over the world to call and relate their experiences as well. People sent him photographs of things, places, people and these were passed around for all to share.

Kairos Chaos

2009-06-06T17:24:00.000+01:00

While I wouldn't call their music chaotic, Kairos 4tet makes music that is deceiving in its beautiful simplicity. People seem to agree.

Some photos of mine in the album too. I am both honoured and pleased to be a part of their music through images. Check this out for a portrait of the Waldmann himself. (tip: flick through to image 10)

Pro-Tibet Protest, Natural History Museum

2009-02-03T20:21:00.002Z

This was the night when the snow started coming down quite heavily. We were in front of the National History Museum on Cromwell Road. While the UK-Chinese Business associations dined inside this magnificent architectural wonder, we were outside in the freezing cold, kept behind cages.

An excerpt from an article called Lost in Translation from Wired magazine, written by my cousin who passed away in a rather tragic accident.

"The debate centers on seemingly minor matters: the inclusion/exclusion of variants or little-used characters. But for societies, small differences have always held a larger-than-life importance. Details, after all, are what distinguish groups from each other. That is why societies remain loyal to their beliefs and customs, at times in the face of what others might consider reason.

The Chinese characters that Unicode leaves out may be incorrect, outdated, or irrelevant. But it is difficult to dispel the concern that people's cultural heritage has been truncated or mutilated for the sake of computers' convenience. It raises a provocative question: Are we allowing our cultures to be shaped along lines set by our own inventions?"

Saturday Night at the Grapes

2008-12-22T17:17:00.004Z

I've been working on a personal project about pubs. It involves locals, families, and convincing grumpy landlords to let me bring in lights, take over the pub for a morning (or afternoon) and getting people to all get along. And getting the exposure right :-)

Some articles on pubs:

A Wicked World for Pubs that offer a Quiet Pint
Perfection in a Pub
Last Orders: Calling Time on Pubs?

Still alive

2008-12-03T18:05:00.001Z

Disiz the End

2008-07-16T18:46:00.008+01:00

Checked out the Foreign Beggars' only London gig at the Vibe bar with the boys from Rouge A Levres. OV, Metropolis and No Names absolutely killed it! Them boys from Paris had a nice welcome to the East and some serious fans were in to support. Chilled out post show, and turns out, one of the boys is big in France. Check him out.

Shlomo at Glasto

2008-07-11T18:34:00.008+01:00

Shlo at Glasto (check out that crowd!)

with Martha Wainwright

Ed Harcourt

DJ Yoda

Martina Topley-Bird

Hello, hello, hello....sporadic posts, i know. Been having an amazing time all around. Lots of gigs, lots of photos, meeting incredibly talented musicians and being surrounded by music and friends. Can't ask for anything more.

Shlomo's set at Glasto was beyond anything I had even expected. I knew that we were collaborating with quite a few artists from the Portico Quartet, to Martha Wainwright, to DJ Yoda and Martina Topley-Bird. It was hectic, but fun. The sun shined on the Park Stage, the vibes were good in the backstage, and although we had a bit of technical problems, the audience was the real star of the show. While Shlomo's mic was out, the audience kept the music going by beatboxing themselves! How amazing was that?

Will post more photos of Vula's album launch in a bit. Just finished a shoot with Kyza (welcome to the Beggaz fam!) He's about to release a mix tape of his own tracks so watch out for that.

Enjoying life, English summer and all that. I hope y'all are too.

Busy As Busy Can Be

2008-06-17T02:14:00.011+01:00

Flying Lotus

DJ Kentaro

Kode9

Jose James

From the Ninja Tunes Barbecue where the better-late-than-never, super whiz of a DJ Kentaro played an amazing scratch n' mix set on three, yes three, turntables to a sold out WARP presents Brainfeeder, giving the dubheads in the Shoreditch carpark a taste of how Cali parties are done, with Flying Lotus representin', Jose James croonin' and the motherf*ckin GasLampKiller on...and from the East, the roots of dubstep, Kode9. My eardrums were bustin', the tunes were pumpin', it was a gig people are going to keep talking about...until the next one!

Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra

2008-06-17T01:23:00.009+01:00

Vula from Basement Jaxx

Shlo doing his thang

The Beatbox Choir

MC Zani, yo, beatbox UK#1

Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra

Council Estate

2008-06-03T14:06:00.002+01:00

From Tricky's new album!

If you're in London...

2008-05-29T00:20:00.005+01:00

chillin at the newly re-opened bodhi gallery, i met artist/photographer/ obscure record collector, Hibiki. he told me he had filipino classics like hajji alejandro, jose mari chan, kuh ledesma, celeste legaspi, the apo hiking society, ermar (something i forgot the whole name but the album is called 'pinagbigyan' and featured the full length back of a naked woman with two random guys at the bottom looking directly into the camera), and the best obscure find of all: a samba jazzist from manika called Bong Penera, who's rare albums can cost up to $200. Check out his Japanese online store here and do a search on any of the above artists and check out Hiriki Tokiwa himself! Serious finds!

The Press Release for the show:

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan.Hibiki Tokiwa is a Tokyo based artist, photographer, graphic designer and illustrator. His first career, whilst still attending high school, was as a writer and illustrator for underground cultural magazines. He has since gone on to design and shoot advertising for Beams, Docomo, Shiseido, to name a few. He has also designed many CD covers for the likes of Yann Tomita, Denki Groove, Yoshinori Sunahara, El-Malo, Stereo Lab.

He is a talented musician and DJ as well as a music video director.He has remixed for Tei Towa, Cornelius, Pizzicato Five and YMO.Hibiki Tokiwa is also a member of several music bands. Space Ponch (with Yuichi Kishino and the others) has released “World Shopping with Space Ponch” on MOIKAI (Jim O’Rourke’s record company). Midnight Bowlers is with Yoshinori Sunahara who was in Denki Groove.

Hibiki Tokiwa has established a career as a photographer. His photographs of girls, shot with a wide angle lens, has had a major impact in the photography scene in Japan. Many books of his images have been published: “Sloopy Girls” “Freedom of Choice” “Girl Friends” “Girl Friends2” “Girl U WANT” “Rolexibition” and more…

He has recently started to travel and shoot throughout South East Asia as well as USA and Europe.

Hibiki Tokiwa was selected as one of the “Tokyo POP 10 people” by Takashi Murakami. He has close friendships with Keigo Oyamada (Counelius), Yasuharu Konishi (ex Pizzicato Five), Tei Towa (ex Deee-Lite), DenkiGroove, Hideaki Anno (Evangelion director) and more.

He has no style. Hibiki Tokiwa is style himself.

Bodhi presents Hibiki Tokiwa’s first solo exhibition outside of Japan.

Preview night: Thursday 29th May 2008, from 6:30pm

29th May - 8th June 200811am - 6pm (Monday - Sunday)

214 Brick Lane, London E1 6SA

www.bodhi-uk.com

Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra

2008-05-16T20:05:00.004+01:00

Shlomo

‘Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra’ are the world’s only Human Beatbox Choir. Their show is a phenomenal blend of live music, all performed using only the voiceboxes of 8 incredible musicians!

This summer they will perform at the Southbank Choral Festival and headline the Park Stage at Glastonbury Festival. They are also planning to create the Guinness World Record for leading the World’s Largest Beatboxing Choir.'

That's tomorrow. And I'll be there to photograph it! Pretty excited. Last time, it was with the Mad Professor, also known as Neil, and that was wicked.

Still Life With Juice Box

2008-04-18T20:50:00.002+01:00

Still Life With Juice Box

If you're in Paris...

2008-04-12T13:46:00.003+01:00

Check out Guido Prestigiovanni's series of moving/still images. I met Guido a few years (!) ago in Palawan, one of the most beautiful places and (possibly) the last frontier in the Philippines. He had been travelling around South East Asia doing these stop motion, or what I term as a literal moving image. He was in China when the trains to Tibet started running and took a historical trip to the once isolated country, documenting it just before the floodgates opened.

He has since exhibited these works in Shanghai, Singapore, and elsewhere. So if you are in Paris, check out his exhibit up til the 22nd of April before it heads out to Brazil. A video screening also happens on the night of the 17th.

Impasse de la Boule Rouge

7 bis rue Geoffroy Marie - 75009 Paris, France

galerie@sycomoreart.com | www.sycomoreart.com

Tel : +33 1 4770 2512

Music Through Uncoventional Means

2008-04-10T15:49:00.007+01:00

Some photos from the Shlomo vs Polar Bear gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Shlo is doing a series of performances called Music Through Uncoventional Means. He is the artist in residence at the South Bank Center. It was an amazing gig and being around so much talent and photographing them brought me back to when I first got a camera.

After all the art theory and attempting to 'recontextualize' and justify the existence of random images, just being able to take photos while being surrounded by great music and amazing people makes me happy. Check out Shlomo vs DJ Yoda:

Next up on the 17th is a lesson in dub with the Mad Professor. Hope to see you there!

Bad Blogger

2008-04-01T19:33:00.000+01:00

Prepare for a short barrage of posts as overcompensation for my having been disconnected from the virtual world (real world issues, oh, you know... them.)

Oh, do keep up

2008-03-10T16:41:00.005Z

Narrow St. vs Allgood Street

Science Party vs Dented Records

Off Brick Lane vs. Off Bethnal Green Road

Settling into Brick Lane, after moving from the circus, to Hackney, to Dented Records in my first six months in London.

Doce Pares

2008-02-14T17:06:00.007Z

So I'm back to training. It's been seven years since I last trained Arnis with a team. I'm happy I found one in London. Doce Pares is different from Modern Arnis (the style that I have trained with) but is easy enough to pick up because its similarities. The guys from the team are all very friendly and it's amazing to see people from different nationalities and different forms of martial arts practicing what is essentially a Filipino Martial Art. Makes one proud.

Sparring at Mile End a few Sundays ago

I continued training on my own while in England, but only practiced the basic stick patterns that I remembered. Not practicing the more complex forms everyday makes it difficult to remember, so what I find interesting now is how body memory plays a strong part in this process of remembering. For example, going through the block and counterstrike forms, I forget how it begins (and perhaps also because I am learning a new style), but somewhere halfway, my body begins to remember and I feel that I had done it before.

Interesting writing on its history here, and some more info here.

A Foggy Christmas Eve in the Docklands

2007-12-27T12:46:00.001Z

After working at the pub, we walked with the fog along the river. No boats, no cars, no trains, only the sound of little lapping waves. We walked in search of a drink and the only place we could get one had an ex American cop from Chicago in spandex on top of the bar singing American Pie giving out shots of Black Sambuca.

Hope you had a good one as well. Oh, and thank you for the mistletoe.

‘Dada kicks you in the behind and you like it!’

2007-11-19T00:05:00.000Z

image from Artchive

Notes from RoseLee Goldberg’s Performance Art: from Futurism to the Present

‘Dada is “yes, yes” in Rumanian, “rocking horse” and “hobby horse” in French.’ ‘For Germans,’ Ball said, 'it is a sign of foolish naivete, joy in procreation and preoccupation with the baby carriage.’(p.62)

‘Simultaneity is a concept referring to the occurrence of different events at the same time, it turns the sequence of a=b=c=d into an a-b-c-d, and attempts to transform the problem of the ear into the problem of the face. Simultaneity is against what has become, and for what is becoming. While, I, for example, become successively aware that I boxed an old woman on the ear yesterday and washed my hands an hour ago, the screeching of a tram brake and the crash of a brick falling of the roof next door reach my ear simultaneously and my (outward or inward) eye rouses itself to seize, in the simultaneity of these events, a swift meaning of life.’ -Huelsenback p.66

vomit in the mainstream

2007-11-06T01:19:00.000Z

Feed Back 11.11.07

2007-11-05T11:53:00.000Z

Fragment Head presents:

“Feed Back”

“Its not a gig, but a happening”

Live Music, DJ action and Live Performance

Video: A random toy camera purchased at a supermarket in Manila for 50p contained
images of the American military: its land, sea, and air forces.
Re-photographed with a microscope camera, animated, and mixed with sampled
sound. By Mayumi Masaya

Live music :
“Audio master” Big beat, electronica, electro and mayhem

“The Bruised Beauties” cool 4 piece from south London
Influences: The Libertines, The Kooks, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Rolling Stones…
Anything beginning with ‘The’.

“Fragment head” poetic phat beats for the soul in your feet
Sounds Like: David Byrne and William Burroughs, caught in Pharmacy at midnight,
Mixing the chemicals.

Burlesque Action: Miss Fountain’ will be introducing her alter ego’s, such as risqué ‘Dusty Springclean’,
a naughty little act, mopping up wet spots and dusting you down.

Disk Jockey action from

Feed Back’s Ian T, Fat boy Tim and Nick Slim

Shooting Experience v.1 31/10/2007

2007-11-04T03:37:00.001Z

"Have you ever considered the thought that, fundamentally, or perhaps even ethically, there might be something wrong with hedonism?"

Waiting for Butoh

2007-10-22T16:59:00.000+01:00

'The life of vision is one of endless wanderlust, and in its carnal form the eye is nothing but desire.'

- Norman Bryson

Images were taken at the Butoh performance by Katsura Kan, Lee Adams and Gabriella Daris at Shunt last week.

Playthings Exhibition @ Stroud House Gallery

2007-10-05T17:32:00.000+01:00

a guest views the Serious Fictions installation @ Stroud House Gallery

Thanks to everyone who came to the private view of the Playthings exhibit at the Stroud House Gallery. This was my first group show outside of London and was pleasantly surprised by the crowd that it drew, from locals to different artists, to someone a friend met in Cannes, to a barrister I met at the chambers at Kat Jack's exhibit opening the other day.

Many many thanks to all the people who've helped with the exhibit: Fragment Head, aka Nick Slim, for the projector, Richard Reyes for helping me set up and sorting lots of things out, and especially Lyn Cluer Coleman who organized the entire exhibition.

i want to be back here

2007-10-01T15:35:00.000+01:00

Boo

2007-09-24T11:29:00.000+01:00

Lindsay Kwabana

Ran off with the circus for a few days but had to come back. An exhibit calls:

Playthings
opens this Wednesday, the 26th of September
Stroud House Gallery
Station Road · Stroud · Glos · GL5 3AP

Private view on Saturday the 29th from 6.30-8.30pm. Serious Fictions will be installed in one room. Exhibit runs for a month. Ah well... here's a clip from the performance last Friday:

Jaz and Mayumi for APC

2007-09-12T19:55:00.000+01:00

It's Jazzy and Mayumi, Manong BenCab's daughters, for APC, or the Shop at Maison Bertaux!

spilled

2007-09-12T18:08:00.000+01:00

Magnolia Slimm & Olos

2007-09-09T13:45:00.000+01:00

Slimm and Olos

Just another day at the circus

2007-09-07T15:17:00.000+01:00

Jane from Viva Aerial

Showgirl on Stilts

2007-09-06T16:12:00.000+01:00

Nom de Plume in da studio

2007-09-06T13:53:00.001+01:00

Westferry Studios

2007-09-05T22:40:00.000+01:00

from the boat ride to the city center from Canary Wharf (4quid return on Oyster!)

Tomorrow's my first shoot at the studio, Nom de Plume in the house and some of Helena's circus performers in the afternoon. I'll be uploading some photos during the shoot through my mobile phone and trying to do a progress update on the blog as well. Just an attempt to keep things interesting. I'll post some shots, you check out their tunes, and then we'll see how it goes. Let's hope I stay organized and focused enough to update!!

Also, do check out Zen's stuff. He is a Linux genius, this one (even if I am a mac, no hating on the pc's!) He said something really great today, and that was to focus more on what I really do. Try and shoot things and get some work and even though I'm a tiny fish in a massive pond, there is work out there and you can get it. Don't succumb to doing things like bar or restaurant work because you'll wear yourself out. Just do what you do best, I guess. Of course, practice does make perfect and that is exactly what the studio is for.

Playing with some sticks

2007-09-01T14:32:00.000+01:00

One of the other reasons why I really wanted the studio was so I could practice my arnis. I was training this morning when my nutter of a flatmate asked me if I wanted to perform with her tomorrow at Ascot. I was like, 'Uhh, doing what?' She was like, 'Oh just play around with your sticks.'

She brings out her own gear and I look at them and go, 'Oh, like, fire sticks and shit?' She goes, 'Its 120 pounds an hour.' I was like, 'OK!'

And then I ask her what I have to wear. She tells me I have to be in a catsuit so that I won't burn anything and asks me what color I want. Of course I said black. She pulls out a black pvc catsuit, and Des, (hip hop artist from Nom de Plume who I'm shooting on Sunday) was nearly cracking up. I put it on and tried it out with the sticks. Well, I may as well put my name on it. :-) Let's hope I don't burn it first.

Well, here's to all those years training, getting beaten up by the guys, sparring in disgustingly sweaty gear, and getting kalyo on my hands!

The Cat Has Landed

2007-08-27T00:21:00.001+01:00

For the past six weeks I have felt like how a cat must feel if it was thrown up in the air a long way up, waiting and waiting and wondering when it would finally land on its feet. The cat has finally landed in the big smoke. I've just found a flat after camping at Jazzy's for a bit. Since I can't live in a darkroom and photographers hardly have any need for them nowadays, I'm living in a studio instead.

The first thing I saw in my new flatmate's room was this shirt:

rough translation: Long live the Filipino!

Well if this wasn't a sign... we also had dance rehearsals happening that afternoon. There were robots, yes, robots, dancing in my new home by the river.

Finally, this photographer has a studio.

Damn, Rizal writes well

2007-08-22T21:01:00.000+01:00

Indígena de clase rica
1875
Francisco van Camp

‘there in our country are our first memories [recuerdos] of childhood, a hapy ode, known only in childhood, from whose traces spring forth the flower of innocence and happiness; because there slumbers a whole past and a future to be hoped; because in her forests and in her meadows, on every tree on a blade, on every flower you see engraves [grabado] the memory if a being you love, as her breath in perfumed breeze, her song in the murmur of the fountains, her smile in the rainbow of the sky, or her sighs in the confused moans of the night wind.’

-Jose Rizal, taken from the essay Nationalism, Imagery, and the Filipino Intelligentia in the Ninetheenth Century by Vicente L. Rafael

Thanks again to pu-pu platter for the essays. Been finally catching up a bit with my reading. :-)

Where, oh, where did the summer go?

2007-08-21T16:11:00.000+01:00

Premier Cru

2007-08-19T11:34:00.000+01:00

My last night at the hotel was a fitting end. It was a dinner for some members of the Wine Society (also known as the Liberal Geriatric Society) and I would be pouring the wine. We started off with champagne from Reims, and on the second glass, some people were already quite drunk. There were several bottles left so would have been a shame to let the open ones go to waste. Sneaky drinks in the orangery. There was so much alcohol I didn't know how they could all handle it! After the white for the apps and crab salad, there was a red for the duck, and then followed by yet more champagne (a different one again.) It was a strange feeling to have a sore wrist from pouring bottles the whole night.

Thanks to the Wine Society for not finishing their bottles and leaving me some to bring home. Made a nice meal last night, altho nothing as rich as Nash and Clinton's Filipino extravaganza of pigeon adobo and ox-tail kare-kare. The fine wine and fantastic champagne topped up a nice pad thai and a lemon prawn entree. Funny, after we opened the first bottle it didn't occur to me to take any photos....

Check on

2007-08-15T13:06:00.001+01:00

Still working at the hotel and have begun working at the restaurant. Loving the high stress and fast pace. Some would say it's like something you see on telly, but as I don't watch telly, all I can say is that the experience is a lot of shouting, a lot of tension, a lot of fun, and a lot of football and trash talk in the background.

"Check on..!"
"Assiette! Assiette! Guinea Fowl! Trifle!"
"Yes chef!!"
"Service...!"
"Go!"

I'm loving it.

Someone cut the rubbers that tied the lobster claws and one of the lobsters clawed the other one and refused to let go. We had to kill it to save what we were going to serve. Looks a bit brutal but I'm sure it tasted absolutely fantastic. The restaurant has a couple of Rosetta stars to its name, and let me just say that the food looks absolutely stunning. No time to take proper photos, but just take my word for it.

The Practice of Everyday Life

2007-08-09T19:49:00.000+01:00

walking to the beach, fresh fish from the market

the apple tree, me

joe & mary , bournemouth train station

"..flickering moments, briefly illuminated, and then absorbed back into the semi-stillness of the dark."

-from Different Times by James Lingwood in The Epic and The Everyday

Elevator to the Gallows

2007-08-09T09:34:00.000+01:00

I want this film. I'm in a french new wave, birth of the cool mode. Watch the trailer here.

In todays headline news...

2007-08-05T10:00:00.000+01:00

Read article here.

Read the testimonials on the Allegations of Waste, Fraud, and Abuse at the New U.S. Embassy in Iraq here.

Our President's response?

"Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Philippines president, has ordered a team to go to the Middle East to investigate."

Get some fuckin' balls.

'It's like putting a flag on the moon...'

2007-08-02T22:12:00.001+01:00

Click here.

What is Mixed Reality?

2007-07-31T12:49:00.001+01:00

Last Friday, I logged onto Can You See Me Now? a mixed reality game from the Brighton based artists Blast Theory. The city of Preston was the host, and a virtual Preston with varied 3d views, was uploaded on the site and where online players can see the positions of the street players.

This was part of my research on Uncle Roy All Around You, another mixed reality game by the same group. According to this paper, CYSMN is

'a game of chase between online and street players. The public access a shared 3D model of a city over the Internet. Performers, ysing handheld computers, chased them through this model by running through the actual city streets. They communicated with one another using walkie-talkies and their talk was streamed out to the online players who could tune into their experience of the city and so understand how apparently simple actions in the virtual world (e.g. crossing a line on a map) could affect a runner on the streets (e.g. requiring them to dodge the traffic while crossing a busy road).

While I was here:

In real life (IRL), I was here:

And IRL, I actually had to be here (I was bit late for work):

(see more photos below)

It took a while for the game to load, and I had to restart my browser in Rosetta mode to be able to access the virtual city. While waiting for my turn to enter the game, it became exciting to hear the streamed voices of the actual players on the street, stating their locations, talking about the weather, or getting out of breath. I was dropped in a random location and at first, wasn't quite sure what to do. I attempted to interact with other online players, and tried out the different views available (from bird's eye to a street view.) After running aimlessly for a little bit, and then running towards the red guys (the street players), it became quite fun as I could see their line of sight and know whether or not they were getting close to my virtual location. I played for over 17mins, as my phone started ringing and after virtual running, I had to run IRL, to get into a car to go to the castle in the forest. It was a great experience as I had this overlap of perception in virtual reality and IRL as I ran down the streets and tried to imagine what it was like to be running around Preston, on that nice and sunny day, a rarity of good weather this time in the summer. It was quite thrilling and my adrenalin rush lasted the rest of the day.

IPerG (source)

Pervasive games are new game experiences that are tightly interwoven with our everyday lives through the items, devices and people that surround us and the places we inhabit. They integrate computer gaming with emerging mobile and ubiquitous technology, in order to create game experiences that combine virtual and physical game elements.

My part-time job

2007-07-30T01:09:00.001+01:00

This is where I work during the weekends in the summer, and during uni breaks (like easter). It's an unspecified four red star hotel somewhere in the forest where we do silver service. It's actually an old castle in protected hunting grounds since the 1000's (!)

the Grand Hall

the Alhambra Room

All photos were taken with my new Samsung 3.2MP phone camera.

Bye Bye, Bournemouth

2007-07-28T00:49:00.001+01:00

I wonder what will become of us. At last, we're leaving town. For a few years, something had brought and kept us together. It wasn't as extroardinary as we thought it would be. You could say that great expectations initially dampened the mood. As we went on, the reality of all these worlds, all these little microcosms of people and places, all these little circles, started becoming concentric, overlapping one another, yet still whole on their own. On this little seaside town we had our own shared little world. Everyone had somehow accepted a shared fate at the moment. The banality of our everyday life in a very gray country: shit weather, shitter transport, crappy clubs, the lack of a proper kebab place or fish and chip shop, the expensive alcohol, and small town folk. This was what we shared. And in our little world, we were the ornaments of the city, its cultural imports.

Many nights were spent wandering around, from one unknown address to another. 'Follow the people with the funny hats!' they say. When you spot them and one of the girls falls flat on her face, you know you were heading towards the right direction. My bag is heavy, a trip to the Golden Supermarket sorted the beverage. There are the sounds, of the deep methodic bass, of the slow rising volume of voices, of talk, of laughter. Of the police. You see people walking back. You see the lights, red and blue, and perhaps 2, no, 4 police vans. Four police vans! And then two more pass you as you walk towards the house. You see more people walking back. Someone says, '36 Waterloo Road.'

And so we move on.

(This emotion no longer wrenches my gut. What it feels like right now would sound like a deep but muffled thud.)

The Adventure of a Photographer

2007-07-25T20:53:00.000+01:00

(..or Why Mayumi Masaya has stopped taking 'real' photos)

Vik Muniz

An excerpt from Italo Calvino's The Adventure of a Photographer:

"…Because once you’ve begun," he would preach, "there is no reason why you should stop. The line between the reality that is photographed because it seems beautiful to us and the reality that seems beautiful because it has been photographed is very narrow. If you take a picture of Pierluca because he’s building a sand castle, there is no reason not to take his picture while he’s crying because the castle has collapsed, and then while the nurse consoles him by helping him find a sea shell in the sand. The minute you start saying something, ‘Ah, how beautiful! We must photograph it!’ you are already close to the view of the person who thinks that everything that is not photographed is lost, as if it had never existed, and that therefore, in order really to live, you must photograph as much as you can, and to photograph as much as you can you must either live in the most photographable way possible, or else consider photographable every moment of your life. The first course leads to stupidity; the second to madness."

"You’re the one who’s mad and stupid," his friends would say to him, "and a pain in the ass, into the bargain."

"For the person who wants to capture everything that passes before his eyes," Antonino would explain, even if nobody was listening to him any more, "the only coherent way to act is to snap at least one picture a minute, from the instant he opens his eyes in the morning to when he goes to sleep. This is the only way that the rolls of exposed film will represent a faithful diary of our days, with nothing left out. If I were to start taking pictures, I’d see this thing through, even if it meant losing my mind. But the rest of you still insist on making a choice. What sort of choice? A choice in the idyllic sense, apologetic, consolatory, at peace with nature, the fatherland, the family. Your choice isn’t only photographic; it is a choice of life, which leads you to exclude dramatic conflicts, the knots of contradiction, the great tensions of will, passion, aversion. So you think you are saving yourselves from madness, but you are falling into mediocrity, into hebetude."

If you're in Los Angeles...

2007-07-20T12:25:00.001+01:00

Let's go Stateside for the mo to support and promote the work of talented young artist Louie Cordero.

Giant Robot is proud to present the art of Louie Cordero at GR2. Since studying painting at the University of the Philippines, the 29-year-old artist has self-published Nardong Tae comics; participated in solo and group shows in Asia, North America, and Australia; and received prestigious honors including the Thirteen Artists Art Award at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. His work varies, ranging from large intricate paintings that reflect the influence of freewheeling, hand-painted folk signage as well as the psychedelic composition of Robert Williams to linework paying tribute to the hyper-detailed, hyperactive, grotesque visions of Basil Wolverton.

Cordero's first solo show in Los Angeles is titled Delubyo (Deluge). Four 4-by-4-foot paintings on canvas as well as smaller pieces on canvas and paper will depict, among other topics, "dead humans mutated into weird zombies like landscapes." The themes of his work are dark but always colorful and energetic, executed with an expert yet playful touch.

For more info go to Giant Robot.

Postmodern Generator

2007-07-19T21:05:00.000+01:00

The Book of Bunny Suicides

source

Having trouble with your dissertations? Here's a(n old) link via Richard Dawkins to the Postmodern Generator, a "literally infinite source of randomly generated, syntactically correct nonsense, distinguishable from the real thing only in being more fun to read."

I got (aptly enough) Reinventing Surrealism: Debordist image, neosemiotic discourse and socialism. What did you get?

Bit late, but..

2007-07-16T02:36:00.000+01:00

source

RIP John Szarkowski 1925-2007.

Read obituaries by the Guardian and the New York Times.

If you're in London...

2007-07-15T11:41:00.000+01:00

You can also check out their works on their respective websites:

Akira Rachi
Cecilia Ostebo
Helena Johnsson
Edgars Gluhovs

Unfortunately, a certain Wolfgang Ramisch doesn't have a website which is truly a shame. Then again, a computer screen won't be able to show the slight nuances in the tone of his beautifully hand printed photographs, all shot with a 5x4 camera.

Hope to see you there!

Chelpa Ferro

2007-07-09T20:18:00.000+01:00

Mezkalito installation

*see addeundum

Unlike some other people, I am not fortunate enough to be in Brazil at the moment (yeah so I'm jealous of the good waves and the hotties.) So, Brazil comes to London instead, at least art wise. Had the opportunity to see Chelpa Ferro's installation at Mezkalito Gallery, as well as their performance at the SPACE Courtyard (an empty hangar-type location just up the road.) Check out the RCA website created specifically for the show. The press release gives a succinct description of the group:

SPACE performance

Brazilian sound art collective, Chelpa Ferro, fuse art and music, the traditional and the high-tech, the local and the global. This new commission presents the first UK performance by this dynamic experimental group. For one night at SPACE Courtyard, Chelpa Ferro will bring their innovative sound sampling to London's East End. Chelpa Ferro make 'sound machines' from everyday materials and objects, blending their cacophonic qualities with conventioal musical instruments to produce a unique sonic experience with roots in traditional Brazilian rhythm. The commission combines the distinctive noises produced by found objects scavenged from London homes, with recordings from the streets and beaches of the group's native Rio de Janeiro, to create an intense and original composition. Chelpa Ferro see their performances and installations as evolving experiments athat develop beyond their authors into machines with a life of their own. Their works are radical sensory experiences that invoke the Tropicalsimo movement of 1960's Brazil and the histories of musical avant-gardes.

Jorge and Sergio

They were absolutely amazing. Louie said they were 'far out, mehn, hanep! Wala tayo niyan...' I said, 'Meron men, Elemento.' They did remind me a bit of the Philippines' sound art pioneers. There are major differences of course, such as the use of instruments. While Chelpa Ferro uses domestic and recorded sound, Lirio Salvador of Elemento, creates his own instruments with scrap metals, resulting in a sculptural sonic device. I saw them in Baguio once, I think it must have been the middle of the day and they were playing in this park. They made so much noise and reverb and such interesting sounds from unique instruments that they really blew me away. Chelpa Ferro did the same, but with a different intensity. Can you just imagine what it would sound like if avant-electro does Brazil?! All these domestic 'instruments' like hoovers and washing machines and hairdryers are combined with sampled sound recordings of places in Rio...all wired up to these laptops and performed in this cavernous venue with natural acoustics. Then after an incredible sonic assault they start getting down on the samba? It was pretty wild. It was fucking great.

Over Vietnamese the following night I mentioned this to Jorge and Sergio and asked if they knew of a group called Matmos. Sergio said they were playing the following night in the South Bank with Japanese electro whiz Cornelius. It was such a shame as neither of us could make the gig. Then again.... there's always Brazil. I will make it there one day, antay lang kayo.

For Jorge and Sergio, if you ever get to read this, it was great meeting you and perhaps I shall see you again in Rio.

*I just realized I had an exhibition with Lirio Salvador a few years back in Penguin in Malate. It was Alfredo Aquilizan, Diokno Pasilan, Lirio Salvador, and myself. It was organized by Freddie, right after he got back from the Venice Biennale.

Abangan...

2007-07-07T22:18:00.000+01:00

Mobile phone technology, what would one do without? Been in a bit of a rush lately, in between places. I've so much to write about, like the Chelpa Ferro performance, as part the end of year show of the curating program at the Royal College of Art, a nice visit from Louie Talan, ace bassist of Razorback, Pinikpikan, Spy, and countless other superb Filipino bands. Random encounters at the Foundry, at maraming pang iba.

Abangan, mga kaibigan, kailangan ko lang makahanap ng panahon para makapagsulat ng maayos. Sa ngayon, kailangang magtrabaho, men... kapos na 'ko sa breads! Ika nga ni Louie, 'It's biry ekspensib yur country!'

Over and Out

2007-07-02T17:18:00.000+01:00

My first London exhibition went well. Salamat ng marami sa lahat ng tao na dumating. The exhibition was on for only three days, gallery rent being one of the main considerations. It was a good first exhibit away from home, and one can really feel how it is to be a Filipino artist in the UK. Some things to consider:

I got an email from the Philippine Embassy saying they would like to do our press release for the exhibit which was actually very kind of them. Bad form tho, as not a single one showed up to all three days of the show. Apparently during the opening night, someone had a despedida. There isn't a lot of support in the arts from the the Philippine government, especially outside the country. They are aware of other artists, but don't seem too concerned about how they are doing. Pero pag may sumikat or malapit ng sumikat, puede ng dumalo at magpaphoto-op. May mga tao na gustong sumuporta sa mga Pinoy na artist din dito, kaso lang mahirap seryosohin pag sinabing dadalhin daw nila dito si Regine Velasquez para mag-perform.

Inevitably, one may feel rather insignificant when having an exhibition down the road from Damien Hirst.

Ariz and Louie outside the gallery

The part they forget to mention about having an exhibition is having to be in the gallery the whole day, listening to the only cd you brought, reading a borrowed book. Or if you're lucky you have friends who hang out with you. Tambay Hoxton.

You will get the most random people coming in, and if your work deals with the American military, you will have to get into a conversation about the war with someone else. And if that person happens to be either a) someone who has experience of war, or knows someone who has or is b) an educated passerby who can converse in art theory and picks at every single detail of your work, you better be ready for it.

It was good fun.

If you're in London...

2007-06-27T22:08:00.001+01:00

Untitled (Rocket Launcher)
2007
from the series Serious Fictions

Certain Histories
Lui Medina and Mayumi Masaya
La Viande
3 Charlotte Road
London
EC2A 3DH

Private view 29 June at 6pm.

Certain Histories is an exploration of two different periods of Philippine colonization and a reflection of our identities and experiences as post-colonial Filipinos living the UK. The top floor will consist of Medina’s works, an investigation of Roman Catholicism informed by the idea of the flesh and the body as found in Christian doctrine. Medina is interested in the bi-polarities of the sacred and the profane and the interconnectedness of sexuality and religion. She was born in 1981 and graduated from the UP College of Fine Arts in 2003 with a BFA in Painting. She has been exhibiting her works at various art galleries in Manila and other countries in Southeast Asia. She has represented the country at the 2002 ASEAN Art Camp in Myanmar and the NOKIA Art Awards Asia-Pacific. She is now pursuing an MFA in Painting at the Slade School of Art.

Serious Fictions is the name of a video piece found at the bottom of the gallery. Appropriated images of the American military found within a yellow toy camera are re-presented as a study of iconography. The camera was purchased from a Manila supermarket for 50p. The contents were rephotographed onto 4x5 film using a Wile Leitz macroscopic system. They were digitized, animated, and re-edited using sampled sound. The site of the simulated slideshow, and its projection within a darkened room allows us to experience the images as found inside the camera. The room itself becomes a camera lucida, images from the outside world is projected inside the gallery. The toy camera is used as a sculptural object that questions issues of mass production and the propagation of certain mythologies. Mayumi Masaya is known as the photographer RJ Fernandez. She graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University with a BSc in Communication Technology. She worked as a successful commercial photographer in the Philippines before finishing her studies in contemporary fine art photography at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth. She has exhibited her work throughout the Philippines.

Certain Histories is an engagement with our identity as post-colonial Filipino artists. It refers to a continually unfolding process of historical negotiation that contributes towards determining a better understanding of the identity of the Filipino nation.

*If you're going, the closest tube station is Old Street. It's a five minute walk from the White Cube.

Bernd Becher 1931-2007

2007-06-27T21:41:00.000+01:00

source

The father of the Düsseldorf 'school' of Photography passes away. Click here for a Tate paper on the Bechers. He has directly contributed and influenced how we see contemporary photography now, as typified by his students, and photography giants Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, and Andreas Gursky.

English Summer

2007-06-25T12:30:00.000+01:00

outside Akira's window

Monkey Swallows Universe- Sheffield Shanty

the world is our playground and we will always be home...

2007-06-20T21:59:00.000+01:00

source

Getting itchy feet. I wouldn't recommend for anyone to live in Bournemouth (unless of course you were born here, you really can't help where you're from.) One of my tutors once said that the reason why we are so good at what we do (being in the academe, in the arts, whatnot) is because we have nothing else to do. It's a good place to study for sure. It's a work hard party double hard place. Intense on both ends of the spectrum (for me anyway.) The lack of decent clubs led to the rise of smaller club nights. You get pretty good live acts coming down, tho mostly dj's, and they come once in a while. Recently, more progressive nights started coming on and the scene started coming together.

Nothing cultural around this area unless you call charity shops cultural. I heard that the Antiques Roadshow was here last week. You've got the beach. It is truly one of the most disappointing beaches I have ever seen. Even Zambales, with its gravel like sand, seems much better than a slew of tiny beach huts filled with the members of the Liberal Geriatric Society. Here you can concentrate on theory, read poetry in the garden, feel the melancholia of the gray skies and listen to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra live. Everyday is like Sunday.

And then there's summer. I am missing Summer Solstice at Stonehenge once again. It is our grad show opening tomorrow, and as I am in charge of sorting out some technical aspects of the projected works, I am being a responsible student and staying home.

I can't wait to get out of here.

B+?!!

2007-06-18T20:13:00.000+01:00

My Lakbayan grade is B!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out atLakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

I want an A!

all i have...

2007-06-13T18:20:00.001+01:00

screen capture from The Man Who Fell To Earth

...in the fridge is a bottle of bubbly (no, not champagne, but aussie bubbly..,) and feta cheese. some pitta, some hoummus. strawberries and fennel in the garden, berries for the bubbly and fennel for the...hoummus.

this is a strange kind of broke.

David Bowie- The Man Who Sold the Earth

"Born in 1928, Nicolas Roeg became a moviegoer in the '30's, long before cinema was granted the status of an art form. There was no great emphasis on scholarly appreciation or critical analysis of the moving image. Film schools had yet to be invented. People went to the movies without knowing the business inside out, like today. The first film Roeg saw was Laurel and Hardy in Toyland.

'The thing that struck me most of all about cinema was that I believed it, said Roeg. I didn't think of it as drama. It wasn't like pantomime or going to the theatre.

....

There are no rules in life, are there? says Roeg. And if there are, you should learn them, but not necessarily obey them all the time. You must make your choices. That's how you maintain your innocence. It's the only thing I'd be arrogant about. I'd like to retain my innocence in some way. When I first encountered cinema it was with a sense of wonder.'"

excerpt from Seeing is Believing by Nicholas Royle in Time Out's 1000 Films to Change Your Life.

If you're in Manila...

2007-06-10T23:14:00.001+01:00

Wish I were there!!!!

KKK

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIDLAT, KAWAYAN, AND KABUNYAN DE GUIA

SILVERLENS GALLERY

June 12 - June 30, 2007

RECEPTION JUNE 12, 6-9 PM

KKK — as in Key, Keen, Karma. As in Kaleidoscope, Kudos, Kodak. Or maybe Kaibigan, Kinship, or Kapatid? KKK as in the Kapatiran spirit of 1898. KKK as in Brothers Kidlat, Kawayan, Kabunyan de Guia. Three brothers; six eyes; one family. With parents from two ends of the world: the German stain-glass artist Katrin de Guia and Filipino filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik, KKK forms the three branches of the same trunk.

silverlens gallery invites everyone to celebrate Independence Day 2007 by visiting the exhibit KKK: Photographs by Kidalat, Kawayan and Kabunyan de Guia. The exhibit will open on June 12 at 6pm and features the different photographic stylings of the three brothers. Most parents don’t allow their children to touch expensive things such as cameras but for the de Guia boys, their Tatay let them play with his camera equipment. These became the toys and tools that let them discover their own images, which eventually led them to find their individual ways of seeing the world. The exhibit will run until June 30.

As a part of the Gallery Talks for the exhibit, Tommy Hafalla will be giving a talk “Photo Documentary meets Tradition” on June 16, from 3-5pm while Kidlat Tahimik will be screening his film “Why is Yellow the Middle of the Rainbow?” on June 23, from 3-6pm. silverlens gallery is located at 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Warehouse 2, Yupangco Building. Gallery hours are 10 to 7pm, Mondays to Fridays and 1 to 6pm on Saturdays. For more information, call 8160044 or email manage@silverlensphoto.com.

Free Falling

2007-06-07T19:20:00.000+01:00

Watch Boards of Canada's Dayvan Coyboy here.

The longest recorded free fall has become a music video. Now if Joseph Kittinger actually had a surfboard waiting for him after that jump, with really good waves as well..... wa na talaga ako masabi. Panalo ka, ser.

A sheltered life

2007-06-05T09:51:00.000+01:00

A group of Israeli soldiers during the six-day war
Photograph: Vittoriano Rastelli/Corbis
source: The Guardian

It started out with a song called 'Six Days', a DJ Shadow sampled Colonel Bagshot original with a music video directed by Wong Kar Wai and DP'd by the visual poet, Chris Doyle. I became slightly obsessed with the song and later on, so did the rest of the flat. It was at the same time last summer that I was living in London, and was asked to do a shoot for an olive oil group called Zaytoun . (the arabic word for olive)

Zaytoun is a non-profit group that faciliates the import of Palestinian made olive oil and other produce by Palestinian farmers. The olives are handpicked from olive trees as old as Jesus Christ. It is wholly organic. They also produce something called Za'atar. which is a wild herb mix that you can sprinkle onto the olive oil to make a simple and delicious dip.

The Zaytoun group organizes visits to Palestine. This is taken from their website:

This work offers solidarity with the farming communities who are most at risk from settler and army violence in the West Bank. Both settler harassment and the military closure of their olive groves and routes to and from the fields makes it impossible for some farming families to bring their crop home. The role of international volunteers in these cases is to observe, note what’s happening and where invited by the Palestinians, to negotiate safe passage for the farmers and their crops.

Atif is one of the organizers of the group and he asked me to come with them to Palestine to document the harvest. He said that it would be a great experience for me and that the farmers would get along with me because of my guitar playing skills (natch!) He then showed me a video of the last time he was there. The song to the video was 'Six Days.' I told him I loved the song, and asked if he had seen the video. He told me the song was about the Six Day War. I watched the video, saw the people,and became educated by their protests and situation. Later on, they began running and I heard some shots being fired.

'Did anyone die?'

'Of course. Only one, tho,' he said, matter of factly. 'Yes, people do face death here everyday. It is a common thing. People are used to the guns, to the violence, to the death. That is their life here.'

'Uh... and you want me to go?'

Apparently it doesn't happen all the time. But they never know when it will happen so he couldn't assure my safety. He tried to convince me to go. I told him I'd think it over. This wasn't the first time this happened. Years back, (referred by Lille) I was asked by the Probe Team to come with them to Basilan, Jolo, and General Santos in the southern and most troubled part of the Philippines. We would be getting up at 5am, getting on choppers, then getting picked up by ex -bandits in speedboats and taken to a private island. I would also have to wear a veil and be covered from head to toe. I remember being briefed about not showing as much as a wrist. How was I supposed to do my job as a photographer, underneath a veil? I went for a long swim and weighed out my options.I really wanted to go but at the same time I didn't want to risk my life for USAID. I said no.

I'm not a photojournalist, and I don't think I was built to be one nor do I have the mindset for it. But I will make it to Palestine. One day. There are other ways by which I can help, and at the moment, I feel that risking my life isn't one of them.

Six Days- DJ Shadow

Find Zaytoun products here and read the review here.

enjoying every bit

2007-06-02T21:52:00.000+01:00

Manipis'to

2007-05-27T01:16:00.000+01:00

The Garden of Earthly Delights

2007-05-25T11:19:00.000+01:00

Heironymus Bosch

Strawberry Tree in the Garden of Earthly Delights
source: Wikipedia

Alpine Strawberries in Heironymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights.

Be Thankful For What You've Got- William DeVaughn

a moment of joy

2007-05-24T16:51:00.000+01:00

image: Akira Rachi

Summer has come (for now.) I write in the garden, underneath our apple tree. I am hoping for fruit around mid-July, as they make for the best apple crumble. Our small patch of wild strawberries have grown in their usual place, slowly inching their leaves around an overturned chair. Nature reclaims in the summer what one has left in the winter. The strawberries are small yet they have a beautifully delicate and fragrant taste.We've got some white bluebells (yes, white bluebells!) growing along the wall. James said they were quite rare.

What a lovely day.

*edit: He later pointed out that they weren't wild strawberries, but alpine strawberries . It doesn't get much better than this.

"Also called fraises des bois , these little jewels aren't much larger than your smallest fingernail, but the intensity of their flavor puts a normal strawberry to shame. When harvested completely ripe -- as they always must be -- they have a complexity not unlike the flavor journey that a superior wine takes between sip and swallow. As with fine melons, their seductive aroma plays a big part, too.

Look for them in medieval paintings and tapestries, growing at the feet of a unicorn or a maiden in a flowery meadow. Picture legions of serfs combing the fields for them, to be set before an Austrian baron or French king. Imagine Victorian gardeners tending them for her Ladyship's breakfast, served with clotted cream."

source: WashingtonPost

Mabuhay ka, Carol

2007-05-21T11:34:00.000+01:00

Pinikpikan at RCBC a few years back

Read the account of Carol Bello, lead singer of Pinikpikan, as she witnesses violations in the electoral process. She sent out an SMS/SOS to friends, fearing for her life, as she was publicly issued a death threat by the son of mayor Sally Co Kue. Mga p*t*ngina, mga walanghiya!

"Tragic would be the day when most of the people in Daguioman have no longer identified with their own cultural identity because someone from the lowland have imposed their own greed as law. Diminishing culture and identity forces others to leave Daguioman and re-settle in other places. Those who remain either allow themselves to be used or suffer the persecution of not being bought. Physical and emotional displacement is cultural displacement. If indigenous dignity has been marred, who would dance the romantic Tadek or collective Changa-i then? Who would deliver a heart-felt Oggayam or teach the young ones with Ading? Some would still, but with money in their hearts and guns in their mouths."

-Carol Bello

I read it first on Frank Cimatu's blog and stumbled on her blog a few days later. Read her beautiful words and be thankful that we can still hear her amazing voice. Mabuhay ka, Carol! I look forward to the day I can hear your voice again.

Pinikpikan -Diwang

Pinikpikan in Myspace

Order the album here.

Huli

2007-05-20T10:48:00.001+01:00

Satellite images reveal harm done by trawlers.

image: Kyle Van Houtan
source: International Herald Tribune

Intuit

2007-05-18T11:02:00.001+01:00

Linear Contruction in Space No 2
1957-1958
Naum Gabo

Nakalimutan ko na kasi, ganito pala yung pakiramdam pag may matagal kang pinaghirapan, pinagtrabahuhan, at ngayon tapos na. Hinihintay ko na lang yung show. Nakakatakot din pala kapag wala kang kilala. Maypagka pulitikal pa yung nalikha. Ano nga ba ang nangyayari kapag may bumagsak na puno sa gubat pero walang nakakarinig? The sound of one hand clapping ata. Ang liit pa naman ng kamay ko, tsk.

"Only in dreams do we dream for ourselves. Only in thought do we think in solitude, and only in imagination do we imagine in secret. But at the moment when our dreams, our thoughts, our imaginations overflow the silent chambers of our consciousness, we enter a state where the urge to communicate them to others becomes irresistible. We are compelled to form them into some kind of visible, thinkable, palpable image, and in doing so we are no longer doing it exclusively for ourselves, we are transmitting them to others, and the artist himself is merely the first of those others."

-Naum Gabo, Of Divers Arts

image:BM&AG

Modernity

2007-05-17T17:23:00.000+01:00

Josef Koudelka

It's been a while since I've posted. I've been extremely depressed and it came without warning. I have been lucky to have a friend, a Tibetan lama, who always seems to know when I am feeling unwell. We chatted earlier and I tried to explain what it is I was going through. I told him that there was an illogic to it, that there was no reason for me to feel this emotionally drained. He reminded me that when things end, another one follows. What comes after birth, naturally is death; what comes after building, is perhaps a collapse, and what comes after coming together is dispersal. There is a logic after all, just one which I haven't fully realized. My time in Bournemouth has nearly come to an end. I still do not know what lies ahead.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten of the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: 'I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all'-
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: 'That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all.'

The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock
T.S. Eliot

Certain Histories

2007-05-12T18:00:00.000+01:00

It's never too early, no? Spread the word and hope to see you there!

Serious Fictions

2007-05-06T19:41:00.000+01:00

Check it out : Serious Fictions

There are still some bugs, and yes, it might take a while to load. I've built and designed it myself (with a bit of help here and there) so could use a bit more work. Still keeping my blog here for now. Comments and suggestions are most welcome. :-)

Countdown to May 14

2007-05-02T19:37:00.000+01:00

image source: Davao Today

"To designate a hell is not, of course, to tell us anything about how to extract people from that hell, how to moderate hell's flames. Still, it seems a good in itself to acknowledge, to have enlarged, one's sense of how much suffering is caused by human wickedness there is in the world we share with others. Someone who is perennially surprised that depravity exists, who continues to feel disillussioned (even incredulous) when confronted with evidence of what humans are capable of inflicting in the way of gruesome, hands-on cruelties upon other humans, has not reached moral or psychological adulthood.

image source: BBC

No one after a certain age has the right to this kind of innocence, of superficiality, to this degree of ignorance, or amnesia.

There now exists a vast repository of images that make it harder to maintain this kind of moral defectiveness. Let the atrocious images haunt us. Even if they are only tokens, and cannot possibly encompass most of the reality to which they refer, they still perform a vital function. The images say: This is what humans being are capable of doing - may volunteer to do, enthusiastically, self-righteously. Don't forget.

This is not quite the same as asking people to remember a particularly monstrous bout of evil. ('Never forget.) Perhaps too much value is assigned to memory, not enough to thinking. Remembering is an ethical act, has ethical value in and of itself. Memory is, achingly, the only relation we can have with the dead. So the belief that remembering is an ethical act is deep in our natures as humans, who know we are going to die, and who mourn those who in the normal course of things die before us- grandparents, parents, teachers and older friends. Heartlessness and amnesia seem to go together. But history gives contradictory signals about the value of remembering in the much longer span of a collective history. There is simply too much injustice in the world. And too much remembering (of ancient grievances: Serbs, Irish) embitters. To make peace is to forget. To reconcile, it is necessary that memory be faulty and limited.

If the goal is having some space in which to live one's own life, then it is desirable that the account of specific injustices dissolve into a more general understanding tht human beings everywhere do terrible things to one another."

-Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others, pp. 102-103

May 14 is Election Day in the Philippines.

May Day/Beltane

2007-05-01T00:12:00.000+01:00

(Untitled)
fountain fireworks on photographic paper
photogram of fire
image source: me

"If all that changes slowly may be explained by life, all that changes quickly is explained by fire."

Gaston Bachelard's The Psychoanalysis of Fire, a book that caught my eye some time ago in a used bookstore in Berkeley, has somehow crossed my path again:

"This is the very problem of the creative life, how to have a future while not forgetting the past? How to ensure that passion be made luminous without being cooled."

The image above and other works will be part of the Fire Festival in Bournemouth.

Kakaiba din yung mga tribo nila dito.

"In Irish mythology, the beginning of the summer season for the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians started at Bealtaine. Great bonfires would mark a time of purification and transition, heralding in the season in the hope of a good harvest later in the year, and were accompanied with ritual acts to protect the people from any harm by Otherworldly spirits, such as the Sídhe...Beltane was a time when the Otherworld was seen as particularly close at hand. Early Gaelic sources from around the 10th century state that the druids of the community would create a need-fire on top of a hill on this day and drive the village's cattle through the fires to purify them and bring luck (Eadar dà theine Bhealltainn in Scottish Gaelic, 'Between two fires of Beltane'). In Scotland, boughs of juniper were sometimes thrown on the fires to add an additional element of purification and blessing to the smoke. People would also pass between the two fires to purify themselves. This was echoed throughout history after Christianization, with lay people instead of Druid priests creating the need-fire."

source :Wikipedia

Art Without A Frame

2007-04-29T10:37:00.000+01:00

screenshot source: Washington Post

I was reading metacool and stumbled upon this article about Joshua Bell, the violin virtuoso of our generation. He put on some street clothes, placed himself at the side of the metro as any busker would do, and played his Stradivarius at the height of Washington D.C.'s rush hour. And no one noticed. Except the children. Every single child that passed, stopped and watched, and were quickly pulled away by their parents.

Ah. The mind of a child.

"To see deeply and to sense the truth and the beauty. It's not the same thing as ignorance -- far from it. Rather it's a cultivated ability, an ability which, ideally, is matched with deep technical expertise and wisdom."

source : metacool

Mur

2007-04-28T15:59:00.000+01:00

Music Plays Images X Images Play Music
Ryuichi Sakamoto and Toshio Iwai
source: Ars Electronica

Check out Ryuichi Sakamoto's Mono No Aware, an interactive image/text/music site that aims to raise awareness against Rokkasho, a nuclear reprocessing plant that extracts plutonium and other radioactive material from spent fuels.

Mur - Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto

Working on my new website, so that's been an excuse for not posting. Still deciding if I should integrate the blog there or keep it here. Any suggestions?

The Legend of the Synth

2007-04-22T14:15:00.000+01:00

image source : Voices in the Net

"Some had beards. Many were German. But they all had synthesisers."

tin·tin·nab·u·la·tion

2007-04-22T02:37:00.000+01:00

tin·tin·nab·u·la·tion

Etymology: Latin tintinnabulum bell, from tintinnare to ring, jingle, from tinnire

1 : the ringing or sounding of bells

source: Merriam Webster online

I've been in a bit of a mood despite the beautiful English summer. (Yes, it is summer.) Before John Cage, there was Arvo Pärt. I've been listening to him a lot recently, dug up the cd because of this exchange. I thought it made sense, tintinnabulation, and Pärt's thoughts:

"Time and timelessness are connected This instant and eternity are struggling within us. And this is the cause of all of our contradictions, our obstinacy, our narrow-mindedness, our faith and our grief."

Tintinnabulation is an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers--in my life, my music, my work. In my dark hours, I have the certain feeling that everything outside this one thing has no meaning. The complex and many-faceted only confuses me, and I must search for unity. What is it, this one thing, and how do I find my way to it? Traces of this perfect thing appear in many guises--and everything that is unimportant falls away. Tintinnabulation is like this. Here I am alone with silence. I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me."

source: Arvo Pärt Information Archive

Arvo Pärt in myspace. (?!)

Perfumed Nightmare

2007-04-19T20:36:00.000+01:00

image source: Zoetrope Films

"You know, I've actually never seen any of your father's films." I said.

It's not like I ever really had a chance, as Kidlat Tahimik's films are known to be quite rare and difficult to find. As it turns out, the director himself didn't have a copy of his own.

"We have to get it from my aunt."

Ok. Sure. So we wait, and wait....and wait. The tatay Kidlat promises to burn me a copy. Cool.

So after a few hours (and then some), we get the film. Went back to Tuding and found that it won't play on the dvd player. So we watched Marty Scorsese's Bob Dylan biography instead (the second part) and waited for a friend to bring his Playstation. After the first film, and a bit of tinkering with the dvd player (blow off a bit of dust here and there), we get the film going.

I was loving it. Then the film starts skipping. Kawayan memorized every single line and just speaks over the skipping dialogue. We didn't want to stop it in case we wouldn't be able to play it again. You can read E. San Juan's analysis of it here, and that bit from Victor Burgin's book, I can't even summarize. If you want a copy or are doing research or whatever, let me know, and I'll send it to you. You've got to read the whole thing, see. Here's the first sentence though:

(On Frederic Jameson's The Geopolitical Aesthetic)

"Here he discusses the Soviet filmmaker Alexander Sokurov's Days of the Eclipse (1998), the Taiwanese director Edward Yang's Terrorizer (1986), Jean Luc Godard's Passion (
1981), and two works by the Filipino filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik — the Perfumed Nightmare (1977) and Turumba (1983)."

image source: oggsmoggs

And then it goes off. Summertime meditations on penile foreskin, anyone?

In/Different

2007-04-18T19:00:00.000+01:00

From Victor Burgin's intro to In/Different Spaces: Place and Memory in Visual Culture:

"But to return is not necessarily to repeat, provided we approach the place we know by a different road." (p.2)

image source: Fleeting Joy

Among the films he mentions in Chapter 9, Imbricated Histories, that intrigued me was "...in the 1993 San Francisco International Film Festival is one that was shot using a toy video camera." (p.187) This film, Another Girl, Another World is by one Michael Almereyda, a Harvard dropout who pursued a career in film. Sense of Cinema says:

"Almereyda's films are in a constant state of zigzag between the intellectual and the emotional, the swift and the lethargic, the epic and the everyday, the ironic and the sincere. "

Not bad company. Toy cameras are the bomb. Heh. Burgin continues to talk about the intricacies of time and space, and how one makes sense of changing times:

“…—Paul Virilio, ‘returning from San Francisco to Europe,’ passes over the glaciers of Greenland and observes: ‘Behind us glow the red fires of dusk and, in the same instant, ahead of us glimmer the green lights of dawn.’ He continues: ‘Seeing that which had previously been invisible becomes an activity that renews the exoticism of territorial conquests of the past. But seeing that which is not really seen becomes an activity that exists for itself. This activity is not exotic but endotic, because it renews the very conditions of perception.’” p.185

Burgin also mentions one Perfumed Nightmare, a film by a certain Kidlat Tahimik. More on this later.

Ba't ba parang lahat ng nababasa ko bumabalik sa Baguio? Pati si Victor Burgin!

Award

2007-04-17T21:35:00.000+01:00

Funny then, as I was feeling slightly braindead, that I receive a... thinkingblogger award from Wilfredo Pascual. I came across Sacred Gospels, Sacred Sites through the Pinoycentric website. The first thing I saw was a photo of the author being inked with the traditional tools and a caption that said

image source : Sacred Gospels, Sacred Sites

I have been envisioning my final work of ink (I have three to date) and have always wanted my last one to be done in the Cordilleras. I remember talking to Tommy Hafalla, a well respected Filipino documentary photographer, about it a few years back and he tried to discourage me from having to trek so far to get inked. I saw him again last October in Baguio. This time he told me I should leave more time for it, as I am going to get sick for a few days after, and need to trek quite far. He told me about another photojourn, who got one a bit different than what he expected. (He was given a woman's tattoo, apparently. He still doesn't know.)

I guess I didn't understand then, but reading Willi's story, I began to see and understand beyond the ink's surface:

"...anyone can lay claim on an emblem. I think emblems are especially attractive to those who have fallen into cracks, who are neither here nor there or caught between a terrible past and an uncertain future. We need emblems to serve as hooks, anchors, to find connections."

Read the rest of it here.

Right, so, I am horrible with memes. I want to give it a go, but might fall short. Here goes:

Pu-pu platter is great (whenever Ari finds the time to update it.) He is also incredibly helpful and generous with his resources and has sent me a whole lot of essays when I identified my interest.

Motel de Moka is a music blog with several different contributors. I think the blogger that interests me most is someone called Squashed, who also contributes to music is art. He has his own blog too. I mean, where else can a question about dropping tunes turn into a small lecture on sound theory in the comments box?

I read the Wired blogs a lot. Does that count?

*Pahabol

One blog that I do like reading (but don't get to read too often) is Howie Severino's.
Candid, informative, and you know what? He really makes me think about a lot of things.

Mishka Adams in London

2007-04-15T00:28:00.000+01:00

Mishka Adams

11/4 Pizza in the Park, Hyde Park Corner

image source: me
more here.

Spent nearly a week away from my laptop. My sister is visiting from San Francisco and luckily a friend took her on his bespoke 'one day around London' tour. Lucky he was there, otherwise she would've ended up in Hackney. We went to see the incredible talent that is Mishka Adams. At twenty one, she's a recording artist for Candid Records, whose history of recording artists include Charles Mingus and Mongo Santamaria, while the more recent roster is headlined by a certain Jamie Cullum. Right. The British-Filipina singer has won the Awit Awards in the Philippines for 'Best Female Vocalist' as well. To top that all off, she's beautiful, incredibly nice and cooks real well too! If you haven't heard her voice yet, do check out some tracks on her myspace and lastfm.

So please, if you're in London (calling eevilmidget, hello) go check her out.

The idea of eternal return

2007-04-10T09:42:00.000+01:00

image source: Phys. and Astronomy at NWU

I have been dreaming about Albert Einstein, god knows why. I vaguely remember having a photo taken with him on my phone. What I do remember is that in a moment of lucidity in my dream I thought, 'I dreamt of Einstein,' not once, but twice, as I saw him again in the same dream. Apparently there's a book called Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, a professor from MIT. Here is an excerpt:

14 April 1905

Suppose time is a circle, bending back on itself. The world repeats itself, precisely, endlessly.

For the most part, people do not know they will live their lives over. Traders do not know that they will make the same bargain again and again. Politicians do not know that they will shout from the same lectern an infinite number of times in the cycles of time. Parents treasure the first laugh from their child as if they will not hear it again. Lovers making love the first time undress shyly, show surprise at the supple thigh, the fragile nipple. How would they know that each secret glimpse, each touch, will be repeated again and again and again, exactly as before?

On Marktgasse, it is the same. How could the shopkeepers know that each handmade sweater, each embroidered handkerchief, each chocolate candy, each intricate compass and watch will return to their stalls? At dusk, the shopkeepers go home to their families or drink beer in the taverns, calling happily to friends down the vaulted alleys, caressing each moment as an emerald on temporary consignment. How could they know that nothing is temporary, that all will happen again? No more than an ant crawling round the rim of a crystal chandelier knows that it will return to where it began.

[...]

In the world in which time is a circle, every handshake, every kiss, every birth, every word, will be repeated precisely. So too every moment that two friends stop becoming friends, every time that a family is broken because of money, every vicious remark in an argument between spouses, every opportunity denied because of a superior's jealousy, every promise not kept.

And just as all things will be repeated in the future, all things now happening happened a million times before.

text source: Random House

Le Sacre Du Printemps

2007-04-09T00:18:00.000+01:00

Pina Bausch's Le Sacre Du Printemps (The Rite of Spring). She is a German choreographer and one of the leading figures in expressionist dance. Her work was featured in the Pedro Almodovar film Habla Con Ella. Pina is also short for Philippine (!)

Discovering Rimbaud

2007-04-06T16:23:00.000+01:00

Seascape
Hiroshi Sugimoto

Eternity

It is recovered.
What? Eternity.
In the whirling light
Of the sun in the sea.

O my eternal soul,
Hold fast to desire
In spite of the night
And the day on fire.

You must set yourself free
From the striving of Man
And the applause of the World!
You must fly as you can...

No hope, forever;
No _orietur._
Science and patience,
The torment is sure.

The fire within you,
Soft silken embers,
Is our whole duty--
But no one remembers.

It is recovered.
What? Eternity.
In the whirling light
Of the sun in the sea.

image source: Tokyo Art Today
version from : Fin de Siècle cache

Good Friday

2007-04-06T01:48:00.000+01:00

Useless, really.

image source: me

Gursky at the White Cube

2007-04-03T22:05:00.000+01:00

Andreas Gursky
F1 Boxenstopp I
2007 C-print
87 9/16 x 239 3/8 in.

The best photography show I have seen so far. I am, of course, slightly biased. I was on an almost orgasmic high from seeing these massive prints (11.5 strides from one end to the other), and all the little details about the F1 pit stop. I couldn't have been happier. Gursky + f1 = love.

Go see it at the White Cube in Mason's Yard now!

Mason's Yard Site
25-26 Mason’s Yard (Off Duke Street) St. James’s London SW1Y 6BU
Open: 10 – 6pm Tuesday – Saturday

image source: White Cube

acid on the cheap

2007-03-31T14:54:00.001+01:00

one good trip.( or a performative collaboration according to Akira)

I was getting some strange looks from the people working in the gallery! Just having a bit of fun, really. If anybody decides to trip out as well, let me know how it goes.

crap

2007-03-31T14:46:00.000+01:00

Carsten Holler slide at the Turbine Hall in Tate Modern

Ariz: Para kang tae na lumalabas sa intestine no? (You're like a piece of shit coming out from an intestine, no?)

Me: Oo nga eh, no! Gusto ko maging tae! (You are too right! I want to be a piece of shit!)

If you're in Manila...

2007-03-31T13:17:00.000+01:00

photo by Jose Enrique Soriano

My personal fave, Filipino photojournalist Jose Enrique Soriano (otherwise known as Derek) is having an exhibit called Tabaco at the silverlens gallery in Makati. Show runs til April 28th with an artist talk on "Sticking to the Path of Documentary Photography" on the 14th from 3pm to 5pm.

silverlens is the first museum quality space dedicated to photography in the Philippines. For more on Silverlens check out their website here.

silverlens gallery is located at 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., Yupangco Building, Makati City.

Reading List v.4

2007-03-30T14:37:00.000+01:00

'Nous vivons des enfants perdus, nos aventures incomplètes.'
We live as lost children, our adventures incomplete.

The Game of War: The Life and Death of Guy Debord
Situationist International: A User's Guide

Still reading about the life and times of Guy Debord. It's a pretty long book. Fascinating, but long. It intersperses biographical stuff with theory, from Hegel to Huizinga to McLaren which makes it drag on a bit. Here's another excerpt:

'In the second bulletin of the Lettrist International, however, the group revealed itself as a revolutionary group. This revolution was in the true Sadean sense of unleashed, unlimited subjectivity, a vision of negativity delineated by Bataille and defined in Howling in Favour of Sade: 'All black, eyes closed to the excess of disaster,' read Debord from the text of his first film,

letterist provocation serves to pass the time. revolutionary thought is nowhere else. we pursue our little uproar in the realm of literature. and lacking anything better, naturally it's to manifest ourselves that we write manifestos. offhandedness is a beautiful thing. but our desires were perishable and deceiving. youth is systematic, as they say. weeks multiply in a straight line. our encounters are by chance and our precarious contacts are led astray behind the fragile defence of words. the world turns as if nothing ever was. all said the human condition doesn't please us. we dismissed isou who believed in the utility of leaving traces. there are no nihilists, there are only weaklings. almost everything is forbidden us, the diversion of minors and the use of drugs are pursued like all our gestures to fill the void. several of our comrades are in prison for theft. we rise up against the pain inflicted on those whose conscience insists that one must absolutely never work. we refuse to discuss it. human relations should be based on passion. if not, the terror. (Hussey, 2001, p.68)'