VJ-ing the Storm

Have you ever dreamed of becoming a VJ? Urich Lau transforms the second floor lobby of the Regina Building into an interactive screen where footage from the aftermaths of typhoons Yolanda and Glenda are projected and the viewer must play the video jock. How does one describe the ruins and destruction with the cheerfulness required in front of the blue and green screen? 

Curator's Walk Through

This Saturday, 29 November, do not miss this chance to experience art, technology, heritage and people along Escolta. All artworks/installations made by Transi(en)t Manila artists in their  laboratories and spaces will be open to the public by 10AM. 

You can choose to explore the activated spaces on your own: Check out our logarithm-created loomband Rizal at the Juan Luna building, explore the street with a cellphone-activated robot drone, trade your stories for a drink at the Teoff, surround yourself with sound at the Calvo Building. Experience the "ghost" at First United. 

But it will be a special kind of fun to join Project Glocal founder and lead curator Dayang Yraola in a walk through of all the artist-activated spaces along Escolta. Each stop will allow us to interact with the installation, have a conversation with the artists, have a drink, and experience art in a new light. 

The curator's walk is at 2PM, which starts at the Juan Luna building and ends at the FUB building, where there will be performances. Here is the map which can serve as your guide: 

Map of Escolta's activated spaces.
Walk through begins at the farthest end--there on the tippity top.

Tell everyone. Bring your friends. Share the experience of art in a fun, interactive way. Come and let us all have fun. 

The Artist as Bartender

The artist as bartender.

Taiwanese artist Po Chih Huang is interested in two things for his project: to know more about the storied past of the Escolta district, where Transi(en)t Manila finds its home, and to develop a drink made from the local calamansi. 

Tools of the trade. 

His interest in developing a drink made from citrus fruits stems from his award winning Five Hundred Lemon Trees project, where he previously sold wine labels in exchange for funds to buy the said 500 lemon trees, which he then planted and from which he hopes to harvest enough fruit to turn into wine in the next couple of years. Upon arrival in Manila, he first noticed how ubiquitous calamansi is. Filipinos can't seem to live without it. We drink it as juice, we use it in our sawsawan in almost every meal. Po Chih and Chien Yu then chanced upon a locally made calamansi liqueur and found inspiration from it. Po Chih called his calamansi-based drink "Manila Research," which is an apt name for something that combines history, art and alcoholic alchemy. 

Po Chih Huang mixes history and art and turns it into a really nice drink. 

Add this to wanting to find out more about Escolta. Thus was born an idea for his laboratory. Why not ask Manila locals for stories about the districit, and in exchange, he would give them a sample of the drink he's developing based on calamansi? 

It's quite a combination: history and mixology, tales and cocktales. 

The laboratory at TEOFF in Escolta. 

It was happy hour in the middle of the day, in the middle of Escolta. The would be tellers came in, more than happy to tell their tales, but also curious about the strange brew that was promised. It was a happy exchange indeed. 

A first timer leaves his mark on Po Chih's lab wall. 

And we're not done. Come again tomorrow, 26 November, Wednesday, between 12:30-1:30 PM, and again on Saturday, 29 November at 2PM onwards at the TEOFF in Escolta. 

Tell us your stories. We'll give you a drink. 

More photos from Dayang Yraola's Facebook post. 

Happy Story Hour

Po Chih Huang and Chien-yu's laboratory is ready! 

We are collecting stories about Escolta. For every story you share with us, we will give you a shot of Po Chih's unusual brew. 

Come to the Teoff Center (old Navidad building) along Escolta on November 25 and 26, between 12:30-1:30PM, and on November 29th during the curator's walk through.

Find our Taiwanese artists Po Chih Huang and Chien Yu. Tell them your tales about Manila's queen of streets, and you get a drink that they brewed themselves. 

Cool trade, yeah? You tell us a story. We give you a drink. We'll be waiting for you.  

Activated Spaces Activate!

You know where to find us. 

Project Glocal's theme for Transi(en)t Manila is making art with technology in heritage spaces. And there's nothing more appropriate that making things happen in Manila's Queen of Streets, Escolta. 

So for the duration of the program, most of the installations, talks and activities can be found in the buildings just up and down Escolta district. 

Check out the map to find out where the artist, art work or other art related activities are. Everything in Escolta is just a hop, skip and jump away from each other. 

Bonus tip: If you get tired from walking, you can stop by and have some ice cream to cool you down from all the skipping, hopping and the amazing, amazing art.  

Here we go, Manila!

Project Glocal and 98B COLLABoratory, in partnership with the Escolta Commercial Association, Inc, present Transi(en)t Manila, a lightning residency program, conceived to provide avenues of involvement for artists and collaborating creatives from different disciplines. The project was launched in April 2014, with satellite programs in Taipei in March and Penang in August. 

Through the lightning residency program Transi(en)t Manila, invited artists from Manila, Japan, HongKong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand will produce installations, performances, laboratories, talks, and screenigns to activate selected heritage buildings in Escolta. 

Transi(en)t Manila launches this Saturday, 15 November, in Escolta. See you there! 

Reviving the Queen of Streets

The Roman Santos Building. Photo by Popin Obien

Calle Escolta is  a street steeped in history.  Established in 1591, it served as the bridge between the more commercial sites of Santa Cruz and Binondo to the Spanish settlement known as Intramuros. During the American colonial period, Escolta was Manila's downtown: the site of prime commercial establishments. It boasted of structures designed by the nation's finest architects, the first drug stores and buildings with elevators and central airconditioning. It was so alta, only girls who knew how to speak Spanish were allowed to work in its high end department stores. 

Escolta Street Corner. Photo by Popin Obien.

In The Image of the City, Kevin Lynch identifies five elements a city must have: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. Escolta used to be all of those. Used to have all of those. However, as the city's center migrated elsewhere, the Escolta neighborhood was forgotten. Property values fell. Through the decades, the formerly majestic buildings slowly became decrepit and antiquated and thus suffered from low rents, high turnover, cost squeeze and the businesses lost its purchasing power.  The loss of business lead to the erosion of place, which in turn effaced the power of what once was the Queen of Streets. Escolta lost its glamour as urban decay crept in. Escolta was dying. Escolta is dead. 

Is it possible to revive a dying district?  The legendary urban activist Jane Jacobs insists that to bring a place to life requires the inclusion of all its inhabitants. "Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody," she writes in The Death and Life of Great American Cities. "Only because, and only when they are created by everybody." Reviving Escolta should then be a cause where everyone with a stake in it participates-- business owners, academics, heritage conservationists, scholars, the youth, urban dwellers. There must be encouragement from the government. 

Part of what makes reviving Escolta as a commercial hub difficult stems from the implementation of a law, Republic Act 10066, which restricts the use of heritage property and freezes land value. Not much can be done--not by property and business owners--because there are no financial benefits from owning heritage property. 

Photo by Popin Obien. 

This is where the Escolta Commercial Association Inc. comes in. It is a group of business men, property owners, along with its allies of individual and professional partner organizations, whose purpose is to revive the glory of Manila's Queen of Streets. They plan not just to revive Escolta as the country's premier business district, but also to uplift the neighborhood through modern and sustainable programs and activities. These include encouraging the relocation of business process outsourcing companies to the area, supporting tourism activities, art communities, and heritage conservation. 

Nearly two decades since its establishment in 1993, ECAI has started to see the fruits of its efforts. In 2010, the Juan Luna E-Services Building was declared the first renewal and redevelopment of a heritage structure in Binondo. Since then, ECAI, together with the City of Manila, the Philippine National Police, Barangay 291 and various other professional, academic and heritage organizations, has formed a core group that continues its search for a renewal and redevelopment plan that they can implement and realize well into the future. 

Photo by Popin Obien

Reviving Escolta is not an easy task. It requires grand plans and brilliant visions. Perhaps it is only apt to take inspiration from Daniel Burnham, the architect who designed the 1905 plan that would have made Manila a city on par with the greatest cities in the world. "Make no little plans.  They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized.   Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing,  asserting itself with ever-growing insistency." 

By enlisting everyone with a stake in it, ECAI and its allies of individual and professional partner organizations hopes to once more have everyone bow down to the majesty of its Queen of Streets.