A tech arts festival puts the spotlight on Asian new media art at Manila’s creative hubs this October 24 to November 4, 2017.
WSK, pronounced as “wasak” (the Filipino word for “shattered” or “destroyed”), is the first and only annual international art festival dedicated to contemporary electronic, digital and experimental art. This year, under the theme “Festival of the Recently Possible”, artists from the Philippines and Japan will come together to showcase critical perspectives on how emerging artforms and innovative applications of new technologies can respond to the cutting edge of cultural and social thought.
Major events for WSK AXIS 2017 includes an exhibition, fora, workshops and live performances:
INTERSTICES: Manifolds of the In-between
October 24 – November 4, 2017
De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde School of Design and the Arts (CSB-SDA), Manila – 6th floor Blackbox and Hallway, 5th floor Foyer,
FREE Admission (non-CSB students and faculty are required to pre-register here)
Featuring interdisciplinary forms of media and art such as video, sound, robotics, computer-generated graphics and performance, the exhibition explores the cracks of art whose nature falls between, rather than within the familiar boundaries of accepted genres and media, and the figurative gaps of the Philippine art scene.
“The exhibition spread all over the hallways, foyers and classrooms all over CSB-SDA, these non-traditional ‘interspaces’, act as a pop-up gallery where the usual exhibition paces of galleries and museums are suspended. The choice of exhibiting instead within the crevices of a university building which includes a university gallery and a museum are deliberate,” WSK founder and artistic director Tengal Drilon said.
The works range from Ryuichi Kurokawa‘s vision of a molecular cloud data gathered by astrophysicists at the Research Institute in the Fundamental Laws of the Universe (CEA, France) as close as possible to the scientific truth using striking 3D representations of space. Tad Ermitano‘s vibrating cylinder of metal is a speaker the size of a small room that vibrates with the sound of the electricity coursing in the world is an animist meditation on electricity. Tsuyoshi Hisakado’s installation, a collage of hundreds of small, circular mirrors shatter reflections of the gallery interior, offers odd structural soundscapes based on a grammar of the familiar.
Other exhibited artists include Derek Tumala, Ian Carlo Jaucian, Pauline and Ivan Despi, Houxo Que and Katsuki Nogami.
ref:now
The exhibition component is re-introduced through a collaboration between WSK and the Japan Foundation Asia Center + the Japan Foundation, Manila’s media project. ref:now – toward a new media culture in asia aims to showcase contemporary media culture and creativity through art, dialogue, education and collaboration.
“The project introduces prominent examples of dynamic culture in our networking society as well as individual creativity that is strikingly synthesized with media technology. Also, this event in Manila will continue to the next stage, with an international symposia, exhibitions and training program in Tokyo on February next year,” shares Director Hiroaki Uesugi of the Japan Foundation, Manila.
WSK Feedback Forum
October 25 – 28, 2017
De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde School of Design and the Arts (CSB-SDA) 12F Cinema, Manila
The main focus of the fora, “A Preliminary Archaeology of Experiments in Sonic Practice”, is to map and later publish the various histories of sound practice in the Philippines across different generations and locations.
The fora also extends to WSK’s immediate network in Asia: from independent sound archivists (David Tarigan of Irama Nusantara, Jakarta and Joe Kidd of The Ricecooker Archives, Kuala Lumpur), key instigators and sound organizers (Sound Pocket of Hong Kong, Ujikaji of Singapore, Jogja Noise Bombing of Jogjakarta), to renowned sound culture scholars and researchers such as Nakagawa Katsushi (Yokohama).
The fora is co-convened and organized by Dayang Yraola and Merv Espina, both of whom have been actively and independently researching and curating sound and media art, with a keen focus on Asia, in the past decade.
Asia New Media Art Forum
October 25 (Wed), 4:00 – 6:00 PM
RSVP: http://bit.ly/WSKAxis2017Forum1
The WSK Feedback Forum kicks off with a special panel hosted by the Japan Foundation Asia Center and moderated by WSK Exhibit Curator Tengal Drilon. Guest speakers will be Manila-based new media practitioner and festival exhibiting artist Ted Ermitano, together with Hiroshi Yoshioka, an Aesthetics professor from Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University and curator of OGGAKI BIENNALE 2006.
Panel 1 – Generations of Sound Practice in the Philippines
October 26 (Thurs), 1:30 – 3:30 PM / 4:00 – 6:00 PM
RSVP: http://bit.ly/WSKAxis2017Forum2
“Generations of Sound Practice in Manila” aims to gather observations and experience of participants (Tad Ermitano, Lena Cobangbang and Tengal Drilon) in sonic experimentation from various generations.
Panel 2 focuses on “Scene Report – The Philippines: expanding beyond the regions”, as presented by Erick Calilan (Cavite / E.X.I.S.T.), Ryan Pangilinan and Markus Bulandus (Tarlac / Noisebath) and Derwin Sy and PJ Ong (Cebu / Bomba Press).
Scene Report on Sound Practices in Southeast Asia
October 27 (Fri), 1:30 – 3:30 PM / 4:00 – 6:00 PM
RSVP: http://bit.ly/WSKAxis2017Forum3
Panel 3 (Japan, Hanoi): Nakagawa Katsushi, Associate Professor at Yokohama National University; Kim Ngoc, Hanoi New Music Festival
Panel 4 (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia): Indra Menus, Jogja Noise Bombing; Mark Wong, Ujikaji Records; Kok Siew-Wai, Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival (KLEX)
Independent Sound Archiving, Historicizing and Discourses
Oct 28 (Sat), 1:30 – 4:30 PM
RSVP: http://bit.ly/WSKAxis2017Forum4
The final panel focuses on issues and discourses with relations to sound practice. It will cover specific issues on archiving and historicizing as particular attempts to document and map the practices. The panel will further attemtp to understand discursive constructs emanating from present globalized societies that affects sound practices in realization that sound practice is not an autonomous field.
Panel is composed of Joe Kidd (Ricecooker Archives), David Tarigan (Irama Nusantara) and Alice Wong (The Library / Sound Pocket).
Performances
WSK 2017 will feature concerts on the evenings after the scheduled fora in order to provide a platform for independent practitioners who produce the wealth of material from which researchers, curators and archivists draw and re-establish connections among a variety of different independent sound and media artists and collectives from all over.
Noisebath X Ruthless
October 24 (Tues), 9:00 PM
Today x Future, 7-T Gen. Malvar Street Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City
FREE Admission. RSVP: http://bit.ly/WSKAxis2017TodayXFuture
Noisebath x Ruthless is a night of collaborative explorations of visceral, abysmal noise that which violates the eardrum and articulates its own overwhelming presence upon the body.
PERFORMERS: Lush Death x Dethomega x Slay Your Boyfriend | Kahugyaw x Drago Katzov | To Die [Indonesia]
Labyrinth
October 25 (Wed), 9:00 PM
Club XX XX, 20B La Fuerza Plaza 1, 2241 Don Chino Roces Avenue, Makati
Free admission. RSVP: http://bit.ly/WSKAxis2017XXXXConcert
LABYRINTH is a display of the landscape being reworked, a celebration of the experimental spirit that hovers over the labyrinthine soundscape of contemporary electronic music.
PERFORMERS: squaresolid (Indonesia) | Gen Thalz | Sloj | Auspicious Family | Sewage Worker | Malek Lopez | .G/FK/DS
HIVE
October 27 (Fri), 9:00 PM
Dulo MNL, 4992 P. Guanzon Street, Poblacion, Makati
Fee: PHP 250 | RSVP: http://bit.ly/WSKAxis2017DULO
HIVE will be the locus of intersection for a variety of different hives, a site for exchange between independent labels and initiatives, a venue featuring performances by a number independent artists who work within the confines of the familiar yet are in continual pursuit of the new.
PERFORMERS: Yurei | Joee and I | Pastilan Dong! | Panzerschreck | Bombo Pluto Ova (Cebu) | Visuals by Sublingua, Submachines
x-pol – Buwan Buwan x Maltine
October 28 (Thurs), 9:00 PM
Club XX XX, 20B La Fuerza Plaza 1, 2241 Don Chino Roces Avenue, Makati
Fee: PHP 350 (1 drink)
“x-pol – Buwan Buwan x Maltine” is a modern metaphor on musical and cultural cross-pollination and a medium for exchanges between two important music collectives/communities from Japan and the Philippines. It is a showcase as well as an intersection of ideas, ethics, creative expressions.
PERFORMERS: Tomad | Toriena | Parkgolf | Pa’s Lam System | Similarobjects | Moon Mask | Meh Shua | Nights of Rizal
KPR x WSK
October 29 (Sun), 9:00 PM
Green Papaya Arts Projects, 41B T. Gener Street Quezon City
FREE admission. RSVP: http://bit.ly/WSKAxis2017KPRCollab
KPR x WSK is a live freestyle collaboration between two sound art collectives in the experimental music scene in PH.
PERFORMERS: Erick Calilan | Halfsound (Australia) | Tusa Montes | Siew-Wai Kok (Malaysia) | DJ Sets by David Tarigan (Indonesia) and Joe Kidd (Malaysia)
Workshops
The Medium is the Mess Age
October 26 (Thurs), 2:00 – 5:00 PM
5F, Sceneshop, CSB-SDA, Manila
Experimental drawing workshop on the relationships of the body, new and old media, in the internet age conducted by Houxo Que (JP). In this workshop, participants will operate smartphones with paint attached to their fingers, leaving the trajectory of their finger movements on the screen. This “painting” will accentuate the action of manipulating information as a trace of human act.
Participants must bring a smartphone and painting brush. Workshop includes protection screen for each phone and acrylic luminous paint. Maximum of 20 participants only.
Dual Oscillator DIY Synthesizer Workshop
October 29 (Sun), 1:00 – 7:00 PM
Venue TBA. Follow WSK on Facebook for updates.
Rambo and Laredo Hackerspace teams up to lead a workshop where participants build their very own mini DUAL oscillator analog synthesizer. Participants will learn basic electronics, soldering techniques and working with circuits. No previous knowledge on electronics or synth building required.
16-bit Analog Video Synthesizer Workshop
October 29 (Sun), 1:00 – 7:00 PM
Venue TBA. Follow WSK on Facebook for updates.
This workshop is conducted by Andreas Siagian of hacker-diy art collective, Lifepatch from Indonesia. Participants will learn basic electronics, soldering techniques and working with circuits. No previous knowledge on electronics or synth building required.
Here are some photos taken during the press preview last October 5, 2017 at The Loop, CSB-SDA:
Visit WSK’s official website and Facebook page for more information.
