Geo/centr/e/i/city
Fatima Lasay
As a web-specific exhibition and a collaborative effort engaging art and
the geological sciences, Geo/centr/e/i/city
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/) presents yet
another example of how the digital computer continues to shift its
technology-focused utility to being a cultural mediator.
In the exhibition, seven Filipino digital artists present thirteen
visions of earth phenomena and the local mythologies that make order of
this "middleworld's" unpredictable and dynamic system. The artists
interpreted their visions with their choice of tools, old and new, with
scientific and cultural data. A physical meeting with scientists at the
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) two months
before the exhibition provided both art and science practitioners a
cross-examination of the various disciplines that would be engaged in
the completion of the project.
In a visit to Phivolcs' Geology and Geophysics Research Division, we
looked at spectacularly colorful SIR-C (Shuttle Imaging Radar) images
obtained from Space Shuttle launches in 1994 which were composites of
RGB three-radar data
(http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/GGRDDpage/projects/gis/poster2/sir03/sir03.htm).
Through visualization processes such as obtaining difference blends from
composite images, it was possible to point out dry, eroded and submerged
areas on the crater
(http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/GGRDDpage/projects/gis/poster2/sir01/sir01.htm).
Such laboratory type experimentation which visualizes and predicts
natural phenomena to enable understanding and communication, serves also
as experimentation for discovery, creativity, synthesis, representation
and the apprehension of invisible or inaccessible phenomena. The
art-science relationship here becomes obvious.
To visualize the dormancy of a volcano through hundreds, even thousands,
of years as the environment around it evolves, Al Manrique uses animated
gif images
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/alman/quarrel.html)
- from the notably quiet volcano
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/alman/quarrel2.html)
with its blue calmness and greenery, to the savagely erupting
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/alman/quarrel3.html),
totally clearing the surrounding area. The work addresses the
Bicolandian Mythology of the Quarreling Volcanoes
((http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/alman/quarre7.html)
where one effectively steals fire from the other.
The Active Faults Mapping research at Phivolcs were also especially of
interest to the artists. Ferdinand Doctolero muses a relationship
between the fault lines and the Iloko Mythology of Angolo and Anarabrab
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/doctolero) whose
quarrels caused the country to break up into over 7,000 islands. And on
a more personal viewpoint, Joey Ong utilizes a Phivolcs map of the
Valley Fault System
(http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/GGRDDpage/projects/fault/image1/image1.htm)
to express his dismay, angst and anxiety at real estate developers and
their "best buy" solution to living on a fault line
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/ong). And Archie
Degamo's work is a more emotive visualization of nature's gender
sensitivity
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/degamo)
presenting the volcano as King and Mother at the same time.
Much of the cultural data that John Flores and myself utilized came from
research at Phivolcs 12-Volume Natural Disaster Management Among
Indigenous Communities, thanks to Regina Quiambao at Phivolcs. John's
work, done in Flash, presents a very straighforward and interactive
overview of how indigenous communities dealt with natural phenomena
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/john) - by
prediction through observation!
At the Seismological Observation and Earthquake Prediction Division,
much of the prediction going on has more to do with the apprehension of
damage likely to be caused by earthquakes of specific intensity and
location. Seismologist Ishmael Narag presented GIS software and its use
for mapping population density and life support systems along a
time-space series. But at an earlier visit, I had pressed on any
prediction being done by Phivolcs and found some collaborative research
work with Chinese seismologists who have actually predicted earthquake
occurence by accumulated observation of animal and other environment
behaviour. I depict the involvement of animals in natural phenomena, as
some scientific (at some point) and cultural basis are found, through
two mythologies - the gigantic fish of Maguindanao and the sensuous
Intumbangol of Bukidnon
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/lasay/snake.html)
Of course, it was also inevitable to delve into other specializations
apart from the geosciences.
My inquiry into earthquake prediction led me to sky geography -
astrology - for charting the births of four historical earthquakes in
Maguindanao
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/lasay/astro.html).
Maguindanaons are known as People of the Flood Plain and I was drawn to
this region because I could actually apprehend earthquakes by dreaming
of floods. The bigger the flood the stronger the quake.
Aileen Familara's work "Gulo sa Bahay,"
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/len/gulo.html),
utilizes a spatio-temporal visualization of earthquakes used in Alan
Jones's Seismic Waves software
(http://www.geol.binghamton.edu/faculty/jones) as metaphor for cross
relations between three sisters in a household; in her "Fault Lines,"
uses texts of Samuel Huntington's contentious views on civilization's
fault lines; and in Quake Music,
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/len/fault.html)
uses a seismogram for conversion into music
(http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/len/seismo.html).
Fractals, picture synthesis from mathematical formulas, were also
explored in the works as these represent the chaos and disorder caused
by the savage earth. With careful inspection, Julia, Newton and other
strange attractors may be found in the works on Geo/centr/e/i/city.
The Geo/centr/e/i/city experience gave artists and audiences another
opportunity to see scientific visualization as not only a technique but
an art. Actually getting up to research a myth, read a seismogram, see a
seismicity map or a shuttle image (in other words, learn a new language)
has brought in a wider variety of tools and possibilities for artistic
exploration and the perception of new media work. And as a wholly
Internet-based work, Geo/centr/e/i/city presses the aesthetic over the
technical specificity of telecommunications art, contributing to the
dynamic development of cultural mediation.
