Collages and Montages

As I was preparing for my classes today, I decided to go online and search for some video material to open our discussions. Spurred by an article I saw on Rappler.com about the 180 Microcinema, I thought about searching for more of those movies, as well as a couple my sister shot for a competition in 2007 titled the Nokia Cinemaiksi.


I found the films all right, and while waiting for them to load so that I could review them, my mind wandered around the Web, remembering I wanted to learn how to make photo collages in a snap. I found a good resource and as I read, hopping back and forth between the videos I was watching/waiting to load/downloading, I realized that depictions of life were now squarely done with the use of montages. 


Notice how, in this how-to guide about creating collages for a blog's header, the images are all about "everyday" things -- clothespins, weeds, bowls of vegetables, pencils. The images are supposed to sum up how one person wishes to be identified. These "make her up." How many times have we tried to put together albums based on snapshots of an event? The more "experienced" include the occasional still of a beer bottle, or an ashtray perhaps. There is also the ubiquitous plate of food or coffee cup. These create a mood or provide a context of events and activities, and no one really has to know the chronology. There is simply feeling, and affect.


Meanwhile, in the videos of Cinemaiksi, where the challenge is to shoot and tell a story in one minute, the narratives are pieced together with cutaways and jump shots. Check them out here, and here. The storytelling is peppered with juxtapositions of images that try to heighten the trope of 1) real life, and (2 ordinariness that ironically attempt to underscore larger issues of identity and purpose in individual living. The grand prize winner in 2007 in fact decided to forego any semblance of narrative and instead created a stylized view of life. 


The "cracks" in between the shots and images are readily filled in by the viewers (or I assume they are) and the creators seem to know that the audiences know what they should think about to connect the images. One question on my mind is, did the creators take their audiences into account, or did they just assume anyone who saw the short knew what they were talking about?


A good place to start would be the images themselves. What representations are being used? In "I Wish You Well," it is quite obvious that the tropes are very middle- to upper-middle class, what with the jewelry being focused on in the story. Another point for discussion is the narrative itself -- whose narratives are these? Do these belong to everyman or to certain level in society alone? 


Perhaps it is presumptuous of me to assume that the creators did expect everyman to understand. Maybe they didn't, and it just so happened that their stories resonated. As we experience the acceleration (at least in the urban centers) of daily living, thanks to the barrage of information and the apparent expectation to act on that information, we have to make do with the bits of what we know and put them together in a montage or collage that can represent what we know at the moment, or where we think we want to go, or achieve. Is it a coping mechanism, or is it a new strategy for learning and knowing? Is this associative thinking? Or are we drowning in too much information that we just have to put what we have out there, and leave others to construct us the way they find most convenient?

Climb to nowhere

It's been a long, arduous climb. And I think it will only get worse before it gets better; or it may just fail altogether. 


I'm talking about one of my goals. Is it still worth it? Maybe. Maybe is all I can answer for now. On top of work commitments, taking care of myself, taking care of other people, trying to keep up with the demands of my career, this...thing has consumed me. More so in the last few months. All of a sudden I am questioning the logic of this path. All of a sudden my gumption has left me. All of a sudden I feel lost.


So I feel like I'm climbing some sort of incline that seems to have no summit, no end, no direction. But I just keep climbing. I got it into my head somehow that perhaps if I just keep moving I might eventually find what it is I think I want. If I keep busy, I will get what I set out to do. If I keep pushing, something will eventually happen.


So far, all that's happened is that I have become quite tired and disheartened, because it seems like no matter how much I try or how much work I put into this, I seem to be getting nowhere. I am filled with dread every time people ask me how things are because I get so distressed trying to explain the snags I am encountering. 


Yes, maybe I am trying to cover up my embarrassment too. There's that. And it sucks so much. 


I suppose I am also trying to control my frustration and anger when I learn other people got what I wanted  and I didn't, when I know I worked just as hard. 


So now I am wondering if my heart was really in this all along. Was I really doing it for the right reasons? Or was there something else dictating/brainwashing me into doing this? Did I really want this? If I ever did, how badly did I want this? What higher purpose would it serve?


Tomorrow I will wake up and resume the climb. I still don't know when or how this will end, but what I know is I have a choice. I have the choice to continue or to just stop. I know that if I make this decision, there will be other options suddenly open to me. I know I will be hurt and very exhausted and devastated but I also know I am intact. 


I know this post seems full of bitterness but I think there's also a glimmer of hope. Where that will take me next, we can only speculate. For now, I will leave this for the morrow. 

Then End of a Conversation and the Death of Creativity

If SOPA/PIPA gets passed in the US Congress next week, we could face an unprecedented violation of our creative agencies, face criminal charges for the vaguest definitions of piracy and face new levels and dimensions of discrimination.

The acts which the US Congress claims will put a stop to piracy through several provisions (read about it here, here and here) but the act fails to ignore the deeper, more critical effects it will have culturally and socially for the coming digital generations.

First, it will affect how people communicate online. If our conversations offline are peppered with references to media and pop cultural artifacts, our online dialogues go a step further and provide links to these very media. Some writers claim that, because of the ambiguity and broadness of the provisions, licensing companies like Disney may invoke these provisions for the sharing of these media links in comment boxes by people in social networks.

This points to a second consequence -- that of sharing. Ideas, projects, even businesses were created through the conversations online, through the exchanging of materials and media. People on the web contribute to programming projects online, remix audio-visual materials and create new artforms. This involves building on previous creations, thoughts, reactions (see Lawrence Lessig's Freeculture) that people willingly share in the spirit of cultural growth. Is SOPA and PIPA do become laws, that freedom to speak one's mind and share ideas may be curbed, out of the fear of overstepping the (vague) lines that define online piracy. The web itself was born because of Sir Tim Berners Lee's idea that the web, and people's access to it, should be unhindered. There are provisions in SOPA and PIPA that imply immunity for those who voluntarily "squeal" on suspected "pirates." Trust is broken. Sharing stops. Knowledge disappears.

The US Congress thinks passing these acts into law only apply to their citizens, or those who live in the US. They forget that boundaries crumble on the web, and everyone, anywhere they are are all citizens on the web. Because many servers are housed in the US, most, if not nearly all of us who have made virtual homes on the web, are affected by these policies. How will the US implement measures that do not discriminate against non-US ISPs? If the acts are strictly for US companies and entities, how do they get past the glocal expressions of their media products?

This discriminates, in my view, user-producers in developing countries. Without the same physical and capital muscle countries like the Philippines will be at the mercy of these provisions. Most of the Philippines' ISPs offshore servers are in the US, server space shared with US companies. As one of the most prolific content generators on the web, Filipinos find expression by remixing material from the West through parody or just plain fun. But we learn because we share and without that freedom and agency they suppress further the ability to access more knowledge.

With the web and social media now an inextricable part of our lives, we are in a constant conversation, one that does not end and didn't begin at any particular point in time. While some may argue that this becomes a nuisance and a time sucker, our asynchronous and tethered-ness to one another is the reason why the knowledge base of humanity can now be accessed through simple dialogue, link-passing and collaboration.

This is a new age of creativity. The most fecund of ideas find expression no longer housed in material goods but in ongoing conversations through time and across physical space. Putting up nets and traps around the web only means killing some of the most basic skills that has brought humanity this far in history -- thinking, creativity and collaboration. It's a new model for survival in the digital age and if SOPA and PIPA are given the go, and if the US Congress fails to change their paradigm, we can be sure we will see the beginning of the end of human innovation in our lifetimes.

Frozen frames

We're organizing a photo exhibit and naturally I needed to go over the snaps that I have available, and which tie into our theme of advocacy, theory and the media, especially as practitioners and academics.


We really only need two, but I realized I had quite a number which I thought would fit well. Here they are. Let me know what you think.

I got into photographing our shoots and our travels when I was still with the children's program I worked for. It was fascinating to watch them grow up in front of our eyes -- I know I sound like some surrogate mom. However, working with kids (and being responsible for them, I might add) gave you an acute sense of awareness and reawakening: the things I took for granted, I had to see through their eyes and describe in their language. And I realized how simple the world was for them, but also that, they had a way of making every moment count because like childhood, there was no going back. So these photos really are a documentation of these kids' time growing up, and me, growing along with them.

Supernova Steve

Steve Jobs

1955-2011

I suppose the only to way to leave a life that has been as innovative, colorful and transformative as Steve Jobs' has been is to do it like a supernova: with a great flash, a supersonic bang and a lingering curtain of light, made of billions of tiny shining points illuminated by an indefatigable spirit.

It's the only thinkable way, for Steve Jobs, because he deserved nothing less. He refused to be bogged down by the illness that plagued him, and though physically, his body looked drained, his spirit was far from defeated. He inspired, and will continue to inspire generations to come. He planted the seeds at Apple and future innovators will look to his legacy to guide us into the future.

Just as he said in his 2005 Stanford speech, the old will be cleared away to make way for the new. He is giving us that time now, and I believe he trusts that the world is ready for more innovations, just as he, on so many successful occasions, trusted his gut when it came to the "crazy" decisions. The spirit of his genius will continue to guide us.

So I guess the best tribute there is for Steve is to suck up our gut, follow our heart and trust in what we love, and witness how our own personal passions can change our world.

Thank you for the inspiration, Steve.

BC 199 MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS

Dear BC 199 Students,

You may click on the following link to view the exam questions.

BC 199 MIDTERM EXAM

Please follow the instructions carefully. Good luck and see you in September!

BC 199 MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS

Dear BC 199 Students,

You may click on the following link to view the exam questions. Good luck!

BC 199 MIDTERM EXAM

The UP Meme is now a Monster

There was practically a comment coming in every second!

The Facebook meme, Taga-UP Diliman ka kung..., is, as of this writing, housing 25,010 members on the group page, all within a week of its creation. It's been featured on a mainstream news channel already. The threaded discussions keep getting longer, and the posts keep on coming.

Did I mention a comment every second? I've had to adjust the notifications settings for my email.

What is it about this near-phenomenal gathering of the best and the brightest online? I suppose one would hasten to compare it with the intellectual gatherings at Renaissance coffee houses, talking about art, politics and society. It is a virtual gathering indeed, but one with a less high-brow purpose.

This, I believe, is the first time members of a community are attempting to document a shared culture, outline personal and group histories, and build memory through crowd sourcing. Specifically, people are writing down their personal experiences on campus as students, completing the sentence of the meme, "Taga-UP Diliman ka kung." The idea is focused and clear: there is a certain student culture within the UP Diliman campus that merits such a targeted question. It is so unique that one had to be a part of the culture to know what the question is all about.

As proof, members begin talking about personalities, events, artifacts of "student life" in UP -- badges that authenticate their membership in the community. Members complete the meme with phrases like, "kilala mo kung sino si Zorro," "gumising ka ng madaling araw para pumila sa registration," "kumain ka ng isaw kay Mang Larry." In some instances, posts attempt to map the political and economic developments through the years -- from the cost of an IKOT jeepney ride to the rallies they joined.

It's both fun and interesting to share similar experiences with people twice your age or younger, but still claim common ground. It's also quite flattering to have people notice your own attempt to start a mini discussion on the wall itself. Within the day I posted this question, I got more than 200 responses!

Still, it's nothing compared to Bibeth Orpesa's post, which has, to date, more than 3,000 comments!

This simple activity is creating a bridge through time and space, putting together a mosaic of personal experiences and individual histories to create a whole picture of the campus culture, which, hitherto, has been difficult to really pin down and capture. To document a hundred years of experience among millions of graduates would be a crime if it was to be written from a select group's point of view. And how would one select that group? What criteria would one use? What aspects of that culture would remain invisible by their very act of choosing which items to write about?

The unexpected monstrous response became a crowdsourcing activity, and one that had complete buy in from the most important stakeholders in the phenomenon: all those who graduated from UP. What made this work was a compendium of many things. First, it happened on a platform that was open and available to the 25,000 members of the page. They were all on FB anyway, and they just needed a signal or trigger that would get them to "talk" online. The question was provocative in itself: it was focused enough to limit the space (UP Diliman) but vague and open enough to connect various aspects of the UP culture to. It also did not discriminate against personal experiences or opinions. And since every student's experience is personal it was easy to relate with the personal is someone else's meme, and connect. Memory is one of the most fragile forms of documentation but doing it in a group strengthens the validity of an event, person or artifact existing. Personal encounters become important and corroborating members plug into the memory as well.

What is similarly interesting is that the members openly exchange views and experiences that are both pleasant and unpleasant. The freedom of posting on FB allows them to practice being controversial again -- a given trait of UP students, members claim -- in case in their political present, they are prevented from being so.

Most of all it is a nostalgic trip down memory lane to a time of freedom -- artistic, political, sexual, social and cultural. It was a time pregnant with innovation and possibility. It was an environment kept alive by previous generations of graduates and professors, and is guarded carefully til now. I suppose this is why the meme is such a success too -- it offers a space that proves there are minds that believe in the possibility of a nation that can be this free, innovative and courageous.