Curatorial Notes: technology+heritage+people

From Project Glocal founder and lead curator Dayang Yraola's curatorial notes: 

The theme for Transi(en)t Manila is technology+heritage+people. These are three disparate actors in the present urban society. Putting them as theme of Transi(en)t Manila hypothesized that there exists a system of confluence between people, technology and heritage. 

Artists involved in the project are required to create site-specific works employing a technology of their choice (mechanical, electronic, digital, etc.). Site-specificity in this case is defined in two threads: (1) the work has to be built specifically to fit, work with, enhance, challenge the spaces in Escolta, Manila; and (2) the work has to explore, reflect and react to the history, condition and image of Escolta as heritage business district. 

Artists are given 13 days to build his/her project. Specific sites and spaces chosen along Escolta Street will be open to the public during the time of installation and production. This,  on one hand, will allow artists to clearly understand how the site actually operates, and on the other, this will give guests a rare experience in attending an "open studio" and to watch the new media artists at work. 

Outputs will be launched on specific dates as installations, performance, labs and exhibitions spread throughout the thirteen day period. 

There are three expectations on the artists projects: (1) it has to be technologically-telling, which means that it would allow the audience to recognize the technology that was used to build the work and how it adapts to the heritage site; (2) it is culturally relatable, which means that the culture of the artists and that of the audience is reflected on the work; (3) it is aesthetically inclusive, which means that the work should consider different aesthetic competencies of a diverse audience, as broad as something called  the "general public." 

Meeting with Interns

Web platform manager Jessel Duque explains the documentation tasks for interns. 

This year, Project Glocal Manila's interns are students from the School of Design and Arts's Art Management program at the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde. 

The internship gives the students the chance to observe how an ongoing international art project is run. More than that, the students are also expected to participate in any of these three core areas: liaison and artists' assistantship, marketing and web content. Students doing liaison and AA work are assigned to helping specific artists while they complete their residencies in Manila. Interns' tasks include coordinating the artists' activities and help out with the research in preparation for their work for Transi(en)t Manila. Those assigned with marketing will work closely with Mark Laccay from Artiste Connect, to help out in coordinating with the various institutions and sponsors for Project Glocal. The documentation team is tasked with covering the activities that will later be turned into content for Project Glocal's various web and online platforms.

The interns will also go visit other Project Glocal Transi(en)t sites, most notably, in Penang, Malaysia in August. They will participate in workshops, immersions and studio visits with local artists. Thus, the internship becomes invaluable as it places the students not just on the sidelines, but also right in the middle of the action. 

The internship is made possible through the coordination of Jason Vitorillo from CSB's School of Design Arts Management program, Mark Laccay from Artiste Connect, Team Transi(en)t web platform manager Jessel Duque, and Project Glocal curator Dayang Yraola. 

Internship Orientation

Project Glocal curator Dayang Yraola with students
from the College of St. Benilde and UP Manila. 

Last May 23, Project Glocal held an orientation for students considering an internship with this year's Transi(en)t Manila. 

The orientation focused on working with new media artists, heritage sites as venues for interactive art installations, and Project Glocal as an independent project for students in the Arts Management Program of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and the Philippine Arts program at the University of the Philippines-Manila. 

Project Glocal curator Dayang Yraola spearheaded the orientation by explaining the arts praxis that the students will be exposed to during the internship program. Arts praxis includes the more practical aspects of getting a project off the ground, like securing funding. 

Artiste Connect and Chief Executive Officer Mark Laccay.

Artiste Connect's founder and CEO Mark Laccay was also on hand to explain how crowd funding projects work. 

Dayang Yraola on the intricacies of curatorship. 

All in all, Dayang Yraola emphasized that Project Glocal (and by extension, curatorship as praxis) is more about curating artists, opening up avenues in which artists can cross borders and interact with other artists in a truly trans- and international way. 

The orientation venue was at 98B's Collaboratory at the First United Building in Escolta, Manila. 

RePORTS x Dayang Yraola & Mannet Villariba

RePORTS poster by 98B

Last May 8, curator Dayang Yraola and artist Mannet Villariba gathered the friends and supporters of Project Glocal at 98B's Archive Room at the First United Building and gave a talk that provided insight as to what's in store for Project this year. 

Project Glocal has been engaging artists to experiment on different production platforms, conditions and circumstances since its inception in 2011. Art is dynamic and collaborative, as proven by what Project Glocal and its artists have come up with starting with its 2012 incarnation. 

Mannet Villariba, Yukie Mitomi, Abigail Lee Tin
and Marika Constantino are all listening to Dayang's report. 

As Dayang Yraola asserted in her RePORT: "Art is a creative decision (individually or collectively) manifested in a product, an act or combination of both with the purpose of exciting those observing or taking part." This dynamic also allows for the artists to expand not just their awareness of their city of origin or art practice, but to cross borders and interact with other artists in other nations. Artists worked with what they found and inspired them on site in the cities they visited. 

With this year's program called "Transi(en)t," Project Glocal continues the conversation by bringing artists from Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, HongKong, Thailand, the Philippines and Japan to Taipei, Penang and Manila. In these three cities, the artists will explore art+technology, heritage and people in lightning or nomad residencies, collaborative production and non-museum/gallery exhibition/presentation. 

Manet showing a video clip of his work for Transi(en)t Taipei

Manet shares his experience in Taipei to a full house at 98B's Archive Room

For his part, Mannet Villariba shares his experience in Transi(en)t Taipei. He showed videos of his performance installation piece in which he worked with sound projection and a rotating stage stacked with newspapers. 

Dayang also shared the plans for this year's Manila Transi(en)t, wherein artists will work with and in heritage buildings in the Escolta and Intramuros area. There will also be a book that will document the Project Glocal over its multi-year and multi-explorations. But more than the production of art, Dayang is most proud that Project Glocal was able was able to build a communicty and network of artists, and hopes to sustain that environment well after Project Glocal concludes this year.