[Nettime-bold] DMF2001: Borderless Art

[Fatima Lasay <fats@hoydigiteer.org>]

DMF2001: Borderless Art
By Fatima Lasay
http://digitalmedia.upd.edu.ph

MANILA, Philippines - As the United States launched the air attacks October 
7 in Afghanistan, I had just welcomed three foreign guests at the Ninoy 
Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for the Digital Media Festival 2001 
(DMF2001). I greeted Japanese film and video artist Takahiko Iimura and his 
art coordinator Kazuyo Yasuda at the Philippine Airlines Centennial Airport 
Terminal and fineArt forum's (fAf) editor-in-chief Nisar Keshvani from 
Singapore at the NAIA Terminal 1. As I saw their faces for the first time, 
I affirmed that art (and not war) is borderless.

Our first stop was my mother's home to meet with members of my family, then 
a quick visit to the Festival venue, the Corredor Gallery of the University 
of the Philippines College of Fine Arts (UPCFA). As Kazuyo handed me prints 
of Taka's installation video and CD-ROM works to be mounted in the gallery, 
and as Taka sat before the iMac and started clicking on the mouse, I grew 
to believe more in the calming and unifying power of being passionate of a 
gift that bridges cultures.

Monday October 8, DMF2001 opened with ribbon-cutting ceremonies headed by 
UP Diliman Chancellor Emerlinda Roman with UPCFA Dean Virginia B. Dandan, 
Taka, Nisar and myself. Artists' Talks with Jim Ayson, Ben Razon, Al 
Manrique and Lionel Valdellon followed, covering  topics from digital 
photography, digital art to electronic music. Tuesday's highlights were 
fineArt forum's Travelling Screening Program, Nisar's lecture, Taka's 
video, film and work on CD-ROM, lunch with the college executive board, a 
workshop-demo on non-linear video editing, and a night at the UP Film 
Center to see "The Harp of Burma" and meet with the Japanese ambassador to 
the Philippines.

Wednesday, Ronnie Millevo conducted the DMF2001 Flash workshop, and we 
moved on to Manila for the Metropolitan Museum, the Cultural Center of the 
Philippines and the GSIS Museum. We passed by the US Embassy and saw the 
protest rally, experienced heavy traffic, saw the slum areas, the street 
children, the high rise buildings, the shopping malls; we had Starbucks 
coffee, Chinese food, local buffet dinner, Lebanese lunch; while in the 
morning papers it's always the war offshore, the conflict down south, 
anthrax, the political and economic crisis. It is easy to feel how swiftly 
and mindlessly the world moves around us and it is even easier to become 
trapped into its roundabout journey, to sit hypnotized as if in front of 
the screen watching a (very bad) movie. Then some of us snap out of that 
trance and live in a borderless world that respects and actively bridges 
cultures with the purpose of making life better through art.

Thursday and Friday of DMF2001 were devoted to videos - outstanding videos 
by mostly young artists from all across the globe. We screened Multimedia 
Art Asia Pacific's "Oil Friction" and "Excess" videos from China and 
Australia; a second look at fAf's one-hour program from Malaysia, New 
Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Philippines, France, Taiwan and USA; we also 
looked at artists' videos sent in from Romania, Greece, USA, and Australia. 
Throughout the Thursday screenings in the dimmed Corredor Gallery, the 
movement and scenes in Margaret Roberts' "Cook East Cook West" installation 
video seemed constantly to serve as our window to the fast moving outside 
world.

The screenings, especially the fAf Screening Program which focused on rich 
cultural digital content, reinvigorated enthusiasm in video art at the 
University and encouraged many young video artists to pursue excellence in 
their work. With technical assistance from Computer Devices Corporation, I 
am currently working on a modernization plan for the video art elective 
course with Prof. Benjie Cabangis, aiming to acquire funding for new and 
better equipment for digital video editing in UPCFA. We all have our 
fingers crossed.

Also throughout the event, computers served artists' CD-ROMs and websites 
from Brazil, Argentina, Germany, USA, Estonia, Australia, Hong Kong, 
Philippines, Romania, Slovenia, Thailand, Canada and Japan. Experimental 
and electronic music from Japan and Gavin Prior's Lachrymal of Ireland 
played in the background.

Audience favorites include Australian Michelle Glaser, Andrew Hutchison and 
Marie-Louise Xavier's CD-ROM-based interactive narrative "Juvenate" which 
transformed the hand's movement on the mouse into a healing touch on the 
screen images. German Wilfried Agricola de Cologne's "Moving Picture 
Collection" also sparked special interest particularly the 
piece"Divisionistic Approach"; and Brazilian Wilton Azevedo's "Interpoesia" 
(with Philadelpho Menezes) introduced the new reading and authorship 
involved in interpoetry while Palm Poetry Reading, the UPCFA students' 
entry to the 2nd Interpoetry Exhibition in Brazil, also presented in 
DMF2001, actively participated in the exchange of new ideas in the digital 
poetry genre. The portrait and the music in French Gustavo Kortsarz's 
"Vanarsky / Toporgraphie" digital video also brought eyes and ears to 
attention.

The CD-ROM based works and Taka's migration from film and video to CD-ROM 
(spanning over 35 years of dedicated work from analog to digital media) 
also served as challenge and inspiration to a number of video and 
filmmakers here. The possibilities of creating interactive work from film 
and video content provided the catalyst for getting more artists involved 
in interactive and digital technologies.

In DMF2001, we had also worked closely with the UP Computer Center through 
their director Prof. Roel Ocampo and the Diliman Network (DilNet) which 
provided fast and uninterrupted internet connection and live streaming video.

I am currently "de-stressing" myself, writing emails and postcards to all 
who helped in DMF2001, preparing to send out catalogs to all the artists 
involved in the event, putting the event aftermath little by little into 
the DMF2001 website. All the stress and hard work has been worth it and art 
has proven again to be a weapon for peace never comparable nor to be traded 
for bombs or a lackadaisical weekend watching CNN. And we move on to 
DMF2002 ...



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