Digital Art in Mindanao

Gutierrez Mangansakan II <morofilm@yahoo.com>

In his seminal article An Emergent Paradigm, artist Paul Brown writes that for

a long time “computers have been the forbidden [art] medium. It was OK for

established artists like Warhol and Hockney to use them but for a young

unknown it was the kiss of death.”

While it might be true that a lot of Warhols have made a successful crossover

to and from other media, it is the young, and, in most cases, non-

established artists that have importantly proved this statement incorrect. In

Mindanao, computers and digital technology provided a new medium for

emerging artists infusing regional flavor with contemporary sensibility in

their works.

Davao artist Jojie Alcantara has cemented her artistic pathway since going

digital in 1994. A pen and ink artist since she was a kid, when she got her

first PC, she experimented for hours on end on graphic designs. She became

adept with the software, and it became easier for her to edit and create

layouts on computer rather than on paper.

As a caricaturist, Alcantara had to do initial sketches on paper to get the

facial expressions, before scanning and cleaning them on the computer.

From there, the coloring, texturing, shadowing and creating line art into

digital 3D-like images are done.

This is an improvement from her early digital years in which she gained the

moniker “Retoke Queen” because she did a lot of digital enhancements on

photos of friends, from making them look slim to creating their flawless skin

and from erasing their flab, pimples or eyebags to enhancing their boobs.

For Moro artist Moslemen Macarambon, Jr., going digital provides an

accessible way to express the sentiments of the Moro people. The

emergence of Moro owned or developed websites is precisely a good way to

inform the general public about the plight of the Moro people as well as

correct what he considers as a maligned history which has suffered much

atrocity under the hands of Filipino and Western historians.

As one of the developers of Bangsamoro.com, the official website of Young

Moro Professionals Network (YMPN) in which he is a member, Macarambon

says that he hopes that the artistic elements he infused into the website will

help educate people that the Moro people have a rich, colorful heritage.

Meanwhile, publicity work was the main reason why theatre artist and

musician Geejay Arriola joined the digital scene in 1993. She was working

for a theatre group and, to make sure that publicity gets into the press, she
gave them designs that are ready for printing since it cuts down press time

to half.

Not to be left out in the digital scene is 25-year-old Keith Bacongco who is

perhaps the youngest digital artist in Mindanao but certainly one of the most

accomplished. Gifted with a restless imagination, he is behind some of the

well-designed websites in the Philippines.

While working as a news correspondent for MindaNews, a Davao-based

news and information agency, Bacongco was assigned a second task of

maintaining the organizations website. Timonera, who is one of its editors

and a digital artist himself, encouraged Bacongco to develop his technical

skills. In a short period of time, he mastered the different softwares and

started graphics and website design. He even dabbled into digital

filmmaking with a documentary on the 2003 war in Buliok.

As a member of the press, Alcantara stresses the importance of going digital

these days. She recalls that in the year 2000, she was one of the few

columnists or journalists with a digital camera. She often argued with

traditional photographers on the values of film camera over digital camera.

The question boiled down to who could submit photo stories faster. When

the Davao pier was bombed at midnight, two newspapers used her photos
for the front page the next day simply because she was there first and all

developing centers were closed.

This evolution in medium is due to necessity and convenience. As Alcantara

observes, most of the traditional photographers she has worked with have

moved into digital photography without sacrificing their art.

Art, like technology, is constantly evolving and reinventing. Macarambon

agrees that being up to date with any new technology is the challenge. If you

want to have a competitive advantage, you need to do research and read on

the latest developments. Most importantly, you also need to cultivate a very

open mind.

On the other hand, Arriola maintains that Mindanao digital artists are indeed

very competitive. When it comes to digital work, there's no marginalization

in terms of skills [even in this male-dominated world] or technological

access.

Needless to say, the rich cultural landscape of Mindanao has nurtured these

artists’ temperaments in pursuing greater heights. In 1998, Alcantara was

nominated in the Philippine Web Awards for her personal website as well as

the website she developed for a non-government organization. Arriola was a

finalist in the same awards in 1999 and was named a judge the following

year.
Similarly, YMPNs website Bangsamoro.com made it to the semi-finals in the

“Organization Website” category in 2003. For 2006, Macarambon, who has

been busy redesigning the current website, plans another shot at the Webby.

Artists who have been using traditional art media are now jumping into the

digital bandwagon not necessarily to crossover but to utilize what it has to

offer.

To demonstrate that there is no gap between artists of traditional and digital

media, Alcantara notes that she was invited by traditional visual artists

belonging to the Davao Artists Foundation to join them in an exhibit.

Aesthetic snobbery is too strong a word, according to Alcantara. Artists

crossing over from one medium to another go through a kind of reluctant

acceptance especially if you feel that your skills are not yet developed.

German artist Herbert Franke, in his article The Expanding Medium: The

Future of Computer Art, contends that in the end, “what counts is the

creativity and sensitivity of the artist and the form and content of the

message presented to the public.” He adds that “most art historians will

probably agree that aesthetic quality depends neither on style nor on the

instrumentarium.”
In a fast changing world, digital revolution is inevitable. It is something that

should be welcomed. Fear is born out of lack of understanding.

In the same article, Franke continues that even though it is not yet possible

to describe this future instrumentarium in any great detail, its general

outlines can be anticipated; the consequences arising therefrom seem

fantastic in several respects. Nevertheless, it seems important to obtain an

idea of this future instrumentarium as early as possible since, seen from a

future perspective, the activities occurring in this field today can be regarded

as paving the way for future forms of expression.

Somewhere along the way, there is a point in which the past, present and the

future must meet not in a confrontational way but to work as a synergy, a

sense of artistic and historical continuity.

Brown asserts in his article that “the lessons of history seem plain: the art

mainstream is hideously reactionary and beware any creative soul who

experiments beyond the boundaries they prescribe.”

But things could turn out differently. In another article entitled The New

Visual Language: The Influence of Computer Graphics on Art and Society, he

suggests that in the beginning it was “expected that the artistic forms of
computer graphics would be integrated into fine arts, but the latest situation

leads one to conclude that computer art will develop into a new field of

aesthetically-oriented activity which can neither be classified as part of the

existing classical branches of art.”

Digital art in Mindanao is a distillation that links the past with the present in

expanding the artistic horizon for the future.

Gutierrez Mangansakan II < http://www.morofilm.blogspot.com> is an

essayist, journalist, visual artist, photographer, cultural activist, and

documentary filmmaker from Pagalungan, Maguindanao. He majored in

Communication Arts at the Ateneo de Davao University and Art Direction at

the Mowelfund Film Institute. Starting with his award-winning documentary

House under the Crescent Moon in 2001, his films delve on the different

facets of the Bangsamoro struggle in Mindanao. In 2005, he cemented his

artistic pathway when he was named artist-in-residence of the Asian Art

Museum-Chong Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture in San Francisco,

CA. That same year, he was honored as Defender of Cultural Heritage by the

2005 edition of the Fookien Times Philippines Yearbook for his work in

nurturing the rich tradition of his Maguindanaon ancestry. He is editor of

Anthology of Essays by Young Moro Writers.