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8/7/2019 Digital Art in Mindanao
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Digital Art in MindanaoGutierrez Mangansakan II
In his seminal article An Emergent Paradigm, artist Paul Brown writes that for
a long time computers have been the forbidden [art] medium. It was OK for
established artists like Warhol and Hockney to use them but for a young
unknown it was the kiss of death.
While it might be true that a lot of Warhols have made a successful crossover
to and from other media, it is the young, and, in most cases, non-
established artists that have importantly proved this statement incorrect. In
Mindanao, computers and digital technology provided a new medium for
emerging artists infusing regional flavor with contemporary sensibility in
their works.
Davao artist Jojie Alcantara has cemented her artistic pathway since going
digital in 1994. A pen and ink artist since she was a kid, when she got her
first PC, she experimented for hours on end on graphic designs. She became
adept with the software, and it became easier for her to edit and create
layouts on computer rather than on paper.
As a caricaturist, Alcantara had to do initial sketches on paper to get the
facial expressions, before scanning and cleaning them on the computer.
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From there, the coloring, texturing, shadowing and creating line art into
digital 3D-like images are done.
This is an improvement from her early digital years in which she gained the
moniker Retoke Queen because she did a lot of digital enhancements on
photos of friends, from making them look slim to creating their flawless skin
and from erasing their flab, pimples or eyebags to enhancing their boobs.
For Moro artist Moslemen Macarambon, Jr., going digital provides an
accessible way to express the sentiments of the Moro people. The
emergence of Moro owned or developed websites is precisely a good way to
inform the general public about the plight of the Moro people as well as
correct what he considers as a maligned history which has suffered much
atrocity under the hands of Filipino and Western historians.
As one of the developers of Bangsamoro.com, the official website of Young
Moro Professionals Network (YMPN) in which he is a member, Macarambon
says that he hopes that the artistic elements he infused into the website will
help educate people that the Moro people have a rich, colorful heritage.
Meanwhile, publicity work was the main reason why theatre artist and
musician Geejay Arriola joined the digital scene in 1993. She was working
for a theatre group and, to make sure that publicity gets into the press, she
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gave them designs that are ready for printing since it cuts down press time
to half.
Not to be left out in the digital scene is 25-year-old Keith Bacongco who is
perhaps the youngest digital artist in Mindanao but certainly one of the most
accomplished. Gifted with a restless imagination, he is behind some of the
well-designed websites in the Philippines.
While working as a news correspondent for MindaNews, a Davao-based
news and information agency, Bacongco was assigned a second task of
maintaining the organizations website. Timonera, who is one of its editors
and a digital artist himself, encouraged Bacongco to develop his technical
skills. In a short period of time, he mastered the different softwares and
started graphics and website design. He even dabbled into digital
filmmaking with a documentary on the 2003 war in Buliok.
As a member of the press, Alcantara stresses the importance of going digital
these days. She recalls that in the year 2000, she was one of the few
columnists or journalists with a digital camera. She often argued with
traditional photographers on the values of film camera over digital camera.
The question boiled down to who could submit photo stories faster. When
the Davao pier was bombed at midnight, two newspapers used her photos
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for the front page the next day simply because she was there first and all
developing centers were closed.
This evolution in medium is due to necessity and convenience. As Alcantara
observes, most of the traditional photographers she has worked with have
moved into digital photography without sacrificing their art.
Art, like technology, is constantly evolving and reinventing. Macarambon
agrees that being up to date with any new technology is the challenge. If you
want to have a competitive advantage, you need to do research and read on
the latest developments. Most importantly, you also need to cultivate a very
open mind.
On the other hand, Arriola maintains that Mindanao digital artists are indeed
very competitive. When it comes to digital work, there's no marginalization
in terms of skills [even in this male-dominated world] or technological
access.
Needless to say, the rich cultural landscape of Mindanao has nurtured these
artists temperaments in pursuing greater heights. In 1998, Alcantara was
nominated in the Philippine Web Awards for her personal website as well as
the website she developed for a non-government organization. Arriola was a
finalist in the same awards in 1999 and was named a judge the following
year.
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Similarly, YMPNs website Bangsamoro.com made it to the semi-finals in the
Organization Website category in 2003. For 2006, Macarambon, who has
been busy redesigning the current website, plans another shot at the Webby.
Artists who have been using traditional art media are now jumping into the
digital bandwagon not necessarily to crossover but to utilize what it has to
offer.
To demonstrate that there is no gap between artists of traditional and digital
media, Alcantara notes that she was invited by traditional visual artists
belonging to the Davao Artists Foundation to join them in an exhibit.
Aesthetic snobbery is too strong a word, according to Alcantara. Artists
crossing over from one medium to another go through a kind of reluctant
acceptance especially if you feel that your skills are not yet developed.
German artist Herbert Franke, in his article The Expanding Medium: The
Future of Computer Art, contends that in the end, what counts is the
creativity and sensitivity of the artist and the form and content of the
message presented to the public. He adds that most art historians will
probably agree that aesthetic quality depends neither on style nor on the
instrumentarium.
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In a fast changing world, digital revolution is inevitable. It is something that
should be welcomed. Fear is born out of lack of understanding.
In the same article, Franke continues that even though it is not yet possible
to describe this future instrumentarium in any great detail, its general
outlines can be anticipated; the consequences arising therefrom seem
fantastic in several respects. Nevertheless, it seems important to obtain an
idea of this future instrumentarium as early as possible since, seen from a
future perspective, the activities occurring in this field today can be regarded
as paving the way for future forms of expression.
Somewhere along the way, there is a point in which the past, present and the
future must meet not in a confrontational way but to work as a synergy, a
sense of artistic and historical continuity.
Brown asserts in his article that the lessons of history seem plain: the art
mainstream is hideously reactionary and beware any creative soul who
experiments beyond the boundaries they prescribe.
But things could turn out differently. In another article entitled The New
Visual Language: The Influence of Computer Graphics on Art and Society, he
suggests that in the beginning it was expected that the artistic forms of
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computer graphics would be integrated into fine arts, but the latest situation
leads one to conclude that computer art will develop into a new field of
aesthetically-oriented activity which can neither be classified as part of the
existing classical branches of art.
Digital art in Mindanao is a distillation that links the past with the present in
expanding the artistic horizon for the future.
Gutierrez Mangansakan II < http://www.morofilm.blogspot.com> is anessayist, journalist, visual artist, photographer, cultural activist, and
documentary filmmaker from Pagalungan, Maguindanao. He majored in
Communication Arts at the Ateneo de Davao University and Art Direction at
the Mowelfund Film Institute. Starting with his award-winning documentary
House under the Crescent Moon in 2001, his films delve on the different
facets of the Bangsamoro struggle in Mindanao. In 2005, he cemented his
artistic pathway when he was named artist-in-residence of the Asian Art
Museum-Chong Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture in San Francisco,
CA. That same year, he was honored as Defender of Cultural Heritage by the
2005 edition of theFookien Times Philippines Yearbook for his work in
nurturing the rich tradition of his Maguindanaon ancestry. He is editor of
Anthology of Essays by Young Moro Writers.