'aNMAzine' for art: A Digital Zine on New Media Art

i still remember my first impressions on new media art when we were asked to submit a reflection paper and a collage about it.

i confessed that a lot of words sprung in my mind but three of them overarched all my thoughts. technology, futuristic, avant-garde.

- this is a digital zine t portfolio for all the artwor my hum 102 (new

that acts as my digital rks I was able to create in w media art) class.

first impressions

8.3" x 11.7" 08 sep 2022 digital collage on digital canvas made with adobe photoshop 2020

model a person in this digital reflection to portray how this new [media] art is formed by and for the people a lived and live experience, like some art in this generation.

like a phone, new media art is a product that combines influences from many diverse sources to create a fresher, more contemporary art form.

each of its parts has specific roles and tasks that enable the phone, as a whole, to function, provide productivity, and be useful. the idea of fragmenting the inside sections of the phone to serve as a metaphor for new media art's art historical antecedents

having a phone implies being connected and up to date. to understand how the things i only see on my screen are powered, i must first understand how they are created from within.

art historical antecedents of new media art 11.5" x 13.6" 18 sep 2022 digital infographics on digital canvas made with adobe photoshop 2020

generative art: a concept map 15" x 13" 26 sep 2022 digital concept map on digital canvas made with microsoft publisher 365

the heart of the concept map extends to four subideas, each of which is afterwards expanded upon with further justifications and examples. the concept map is a tool for facilitating easier comprehensio n of a frequently challenging concept.

The T in TIME stands for “Theater”: A Digital Art 8.3" x 11.7" 07 oct 2022 digital art on digital canvas made with adobe photoshop 2020

time was an important thing during those moments and through it, I was able to experience a oneof-a-kind and roller-coaster ride in being an actor for theater productions an advocacy that I wanted to share with the people that theater is both challenging but hugely fulfilling

through a pseudo-TIME magazine cover, I was able to relay the message that it is high time, at least for me, for theater to be in the spotlight —to be appreciated— now in this ever-changing world

save sierra madre 16:9 aspect ratio 04 nov 2022 multimedia collage in .mp4 video format made with wondershare filmora 9

a multimedia collage designed as an infomercial.

as a student born and living in the 21st century, this is how I see the purposes, functions, and/or role of multimedia in the academe and in society— as a source of information and a medium for a call to action.

katok-hangyo 16:9 aspect ratio

22 nov 2022 online digital art on internet made with genial.ly

some of us are still affected by duterte’s aftermath of poor governance and policy makings. the new and/or current administrations are rubbing it more, making it worsened by being purposely inattentive to the social problems in our country. the entire game is designed to tell a story ⼀ this mechanism requires the active involvement of the audience in unfolding the chain of events. the interactive elements planted in every panel serve the purpose of giving the audience choices.

experience yourself through this link: https://view.genial.ly/637262c7fbface001839b4d0/interactive-content-katok-hang

defining aestheticism and moralism.

Aestheticism, as a method of consuming art, is for those who value the beauty in art and is drawn to it alone. Moralism, on the other hand, is for those who consume art as a work embedded with advocacy with social and political messages underlying it. As a movement, aestheticism is in favor of emphasizing aesthetic qualities over socio-political ideals for all types of art, much as Moralism. It conveys, in essence, the message that the only possible function of art is aesthetic. This was argued by moralists or the moralism movement. Similar to what Tolstoy said about the value of morality-free art, “What remains of art when it is excluded from social context?” (Pereira). Moralism bypasses an artwork's aesthetic worth. It draws attention to the social and political underpinnings of how and why an artwork came to be. The audience is transformed from passive watchers to critical consumers. Art becomes a tool for moral development when these advocacies act as the inspiration or driving force for it to become an art.

As read above, both are applicable to art as concepts, but when viewed as movements, they represent beliefs that are diametrically opposed and on the other end of the spectrum.

pondering on is estheticism as a movement still applicable to majority of the artworks in new media art whether digital, multimedia, and interactive art?

Although the bulk of new media artworks, including digital, multimedia, and interactive works, still adhere to the aesthetics of the aestheticism movement, I think that most new media artists and artists in general now subscribe to it less. Sure, people can opt to view a new media art based on aesthetics only, it is inevitable. This is due to the fact that new media artworks provide a radical aesthetic interface through which the human body and the digital technological world co-evolve (Hansen). There are more people today who value art beyond its aesthetic value. Aestheticism will probably be overlooked now that art has evolved to include technology in some of its aspects. In a study by Guo et al., there are differences between sensory and intellectual responses to beauty nowadays causing new media art aesthetics to exceed that of traditional art (Guo). This is especially with art becoming more high-tech, compared to traditional art. Due to this, the contest will be waged more on the reasoning and sources of inspiration behind new media artworks. Technology has automatically made artworks efficient, so the market now places greater emphasis on what makes a new media artist's work stand out from that of other new media artists. Incorporating interactivity and the digital element into art allows/forces the audience to a more careful examination of how to evaluate something that is constantly changing (Penny). The focus will now shift from the work's aesthetic worth to its distinctive [cultural] setting, inspiration, and creation method.

Indeed a legal nightmare: A reaction paper on Patricia Search’s “Electronic Art and the Law: Intellectual Property Rights in Cyberspace”

Patricia Search’s paper reviewed current art-related copyright legislation and court rulings in the United States of America. It examined how the institution is failing to adequately address the "plasticity" of the medium and new modes of authorship in electronic art, especially on how copyright law has both changed historically but remained inadept in establishing the meaning of "author" in the context of cyberspace.

The debate raised in the essay about who is the true author of a computer-generated piece of art was fascinating a food for the mind. Indeed, how powerful are artists in terms of authorship when using technology as a medium? How about the computer? the program used? Any computer-generated art is created with the help of all these entities, among many other more. Although it is obvious that the author of the work receives authorship, this is not specifically stated in the United States Copyright Act; the terms “author” and “authorship” is not clearly defined.

It also did not surprise me when the paper discussed technology enabling the inescapably widespread act of reproduction of mass media that is rampant nowadays. Reproduction is automatically made possible by technology (just as easily as noting the development of the camera) like copy and paste techniques being just as fast as a click of a finger. With such a phenomenon, copyright infringement and appropriation become more present. I was also displeased with the part of the paper about commercial inequities. It explained how copyright infringement lawsuits are made more difficult when the artwork in question had a [potential] market value. More so is the role that fame also plays in avoiding legal difficulties. According to the paper, artists like Warhol and Rauschenberg, just because they’re "commercially successful artists," may be able to settle appropriation problems by offering other artists presents of their work, royalties, or assurances of future attribution in exchange.

Like Search said, the world is “at the crossroads in defining intellectual property rights that will have a direct impact on the way we create and disseminate electronic art in the future.” Artists (especially those who have lesser authority, means, and resources in general) will continue to be victims of this lapse if this is consistently left unchecked by any nation's legislative body.

As there is no fine line between what is right and what is just in intellectual property rights for electronic art, countless artworks will continue to be produced, recklessly in the eyes of the law.

A “ new legal arena ” is/will be born, indeed, as mentioned in the paper. Intellectual property rights in the digital sphere are becoming more elusive as art is currently evolving at an unprecedented rate. The legislation having still a long way to address this conflict should consider "the dynamic and multilateral" aspects of the artistic production process in electronic and new media artistry. If they don't, then the field of art will keep experiencing shaky interpretations, inadequacies, and other potential uncertainties of what constitutes authorship and copyright. The legal nightmare will, indeed, escalate.

a massacre served to their golden plates 18" x 24"

22 dec 2022 digital art on digital canvas pencil, pen, and paper color through windows paint enhancements through adobe photoshop 2022

It’s sad, raging even, but it’s true.

New media as a platform for advocacy from the academic and non-academic context is deemed effective. With the help of new media, people become easily engaged in viewing and consuming advocacy that bridges them to the message it embodies. Art has always been an effective visual aid and stimulus to most people.

To forward advocacy through new media is a great way to start influencing people to do so as well.

appendices

(the following are the full rationales of each work seen inside)

first impressions

A lot of words came straight into my mind when I read HUM 102’s course description, but three of them would sum up all of it: technology, futuristic, and avant-garde.

I chose to model a person in this digital reflection to portray how this new [media] art is formed by and for the people a lived and live experience, like some art in this generation. The model has a laptop head filled with various editing applications and software used for creating artwork nowadays. One of its hands and a leg are like that of a robot, which complements its other pairs that are still in human form but are glitched or altered. This demonstrates how originally man-made and man-centered works of art are gradually being integrated with technology such as robots and gadgets. It also symbolizes installation art, which makes use of technology and other materials that are prevalent in some places. Its other pairs are still in human form, showing the presence of humanity as part of the creation of new media art. The leaves and vines on the other arm show the ageing of traditional arts in this millennium. But not all that indicates old-ness; it also means growth and continuity despite the changing trends. The model is positioned like it is running to the right, which I attempted to portray as being moving forward progress, advancement, the future. The model runs on interactive cubes, which represent both the prevalence of interactive arts and the arbitrary nature of what lies ahead and what types of creations are up on the hill a gesture for discovering something new and newer one step at a time. Lastly, the wires that extend to the outsides of the paper symbolize the accessibility of new [media] art to the people. At first it seems like the model is being "puppet-ed" by the wires (which could be a possible stereotype of new media arts like being technology-reliant etc.), but this is an element that shows how it is able to reach all and across other spaces.

With the advent of technology being integrated into new [media] art, almost all people can easily access art. However, this provision of access to the public makes it also prone to imitation, copyright issues, illegal reproduction, and the like, which reduce and/or devalue the "art-ness" of a work of art hence, the fading of the model’s laptop head while it runs. The farther it runs and evolves, the more it loses value from its original place or being a discussion that I am looking forward to learning more about this semester.

Reading the course description is already exciting in and of itself. It seems like a more advanced topic compared to my previous HUM classes. However, beneath this excitement, I have prepared myself by expecting the course to be overwhelming, despite the fact of being born in the technology or digital era. Still, I am looking forward to a great and fun learning experience about New Media Art. I also hope that, despite it being futuristic in essence, it would still tackle its roots and/or the history of art evolution, especially in the Philippines.

I learned to love contemplating various artworks in museums and exhibits. It would be enlightening to have a grasp and a grounding in how the world evolved and birthed New Media Art.

art historical antecedents of new media art

My artistic piece exposes the inside components, gears, and bits of a typical touchscreen phone from the century. My infographics are intended to treat New Media Art as an art form that did not develop in a vacuum. Instead, it is a form of art that honors and references all significant artistic movements that came before it this was the inspiration for it. Like a phone, New Media art is a product that combines influences from many diverse sources to create a fresher, more contemporary art form. I used the entire phone's anatomy as the visual cues and/or symbols to make the infographics more relatable to its intended audience students, many of whom were born in the twenty-first century. The phone's interior is disassembled from the bottom up, beginning with the back exterior, then the core processing unit (green), battery, display enhancement material, main user interface, two touch screen pads, the front exterior, and the visible screen frequently touched by human fingers.

Each of its parts has specific roles and tasks that enable the phone, as a whole, to function, provide productivity, and be useful. Starting at the bottom are the older traditional arts and/or art movements, represented by a "charger," which paved the way for subsequent forms of art such as Dadaism and Conceptual Art, among others, until New Media Art. Without a charger, the phone would not be functional and would not be useable. A charger is a piece of equipment that recharges the energy or electricity in the phone. Like a charger, today's new media art would not be regarded as such if its art canons had not served as its inspiration. Following that is the phone's exterior, which represents Dadaism. This art movement defined the oddity and unconventionality of arts by being eccentric and detached (often rebellious) from traditional arts, as seen in new media art today.

Like a phone case, it secures all other parts of the phone while embracing all other succeeding movements a representation of Dadaism enveloping all the arts that follow it as they become more uncommon and distant from the old traditional arts. The following section is the core processing unit, which houses art genres such as Pop, Conceptual, Video, and Neo-Expressionism, among many others. These art movements, like Dadaism, set the stage for more unordinary art forms that challenged traditional notions of art. As a core processing unit of the phone, these art movements influenced the remixing and rebirthing of all art practices into newer forms but still stand on their own, like a separate chip in the phone. The next part is considered the powerhouse of the phone the battery. The battery symbolizes the rise of low-cost personal computers in the 1990s. With the introduction of personal computers, including the Apple Macintosh, art was introduced to a much newer medium of production and consumption. Slowly, “painting was declared dead by critics, collectors, and artists alike,” especially that computer-based arts “ came to dominate international museum and biennial exhibitions” (Tribe and Jana 7). A phone battery as the literal energy source of a phone fits well with new media art, which is largely influenced and reliant on technology, primarily computers. Without it, the phone will not turn on at all. The introduction of the web browser in 1992 is also an important art historical precedent for new media art. Its general public release paved the way for leveraging the potential capabilities of a personal computer. Symbolized by the display enhancement material, it elevated how people used personal computers before. Not long after, the internet became a game changer in the world of art. The internet became a medium, a gateway, and a form of place that opens online portals regardless of one's area, much like a phone's main user interface, which shows the user all sorts of stuff in one and per click (Tribe and Jana 10). It enabled anything to be experienced in the same way that we do in our phone's user interface. Net Art, Game Art, Performance Art, and Identity Art were all products of the internet and personal computers made available to the public. People experimented with these emergences and created such works of art. Finally, the New Media Art is positioned above [or even outside of] the phone's screen. This represents all art-related practices that have been combined with, inspired by, or impacted by the art movements listed below. Its repeated letters that appear to be ascending represent the continuing growth and extension of art into the future. A Wi-Fi logo is also placed on top of it, indicating that there are more forms and works of art beyond the design either a signal is captured, or a location is reached. On the other side of the texts are many known pieces of art that match to the art historical antecedents on its side.

There were many ideas that encouraged me to produce a unique and/or creative portrayal of New Media Art in the form of an infographic, but I am most proud of the idea of fragmenting the inside sections of the phone to serve as a metaphor for New Media Art's art historical antecedents. Being a 2001 baby was one of the variables that influenced the planning and creation of my design. Having a phone implies being connected and up to date. To understand how the things I only see on my screen are powered, I must first understand how they are created from within.

generative art: a concept map

This concept map contains five shapes in total: rectangles, circles, an eight-pointed star, a heart, and a large three-dimensional rectangle. The concept map's shapes and sizes are indicated in a way that reflects the relative importance of each shape. In addition, words containing key concepts or ideas are embedded into each of the forms. Along with shapes, the concept map also has arrows that point towards the general direction of the structure. The arrows that serve as connectors between different shapes also have words placed on them.

My concept map begins with a huge three-dimensional rectangle that reads, "Generative Art Theory," designating the starting point of the diagram. It is the largest shape, or node, among the other nodes to indicate that the concept map will revolve around it. At the heart of my concept map, which literally is also in the shape of a heart, is the term “Generative Art.” It tries to demonstrate how the discussion of generative art theory will largely be influenced by the discussion of generative art and its definitions, examples, key figures, and future elaborations, among others, through a concept map. Since the primary source utilized to create this creative work honored the idea of generative art as the core of its philosophy, I chose to separate the term "generative art" from the concept map's fundamental premise and center the discussion around it.

The heart of the concept map extends to four sub-ideas, each of which is afterwards expanded upon with further justifications and examples. The first is the main description that best fits what is generative art in a nutshell “created by means of an apparently autonomous system or process ” that is extended to the discussion on systematized rules (Galanter 146). Its description on how it is created is also extended in its milieu where youth culture is mentioned. The next elaboration about the heart of the concept map is its examples through categories of visual art and sound or audio art located on the right part of the map. Direct opposite to it is how it is synonymous to computer and digital art that is also further explained through the succeeding arrows.

All of these are shaped in circles which indicates the next big idea from the heart of the concept map. The New Media art is placed right next to the heart, like the circled ones, to indicate the interrelatedness of generative art to it that I deemed a considered form of it. The rest of the nodes along its texts, ideas, and concepts are rectangular in design. These are further elaborations on the preceding nodes guided by arrows from one shape to another.

The concept map is a tool for facilitating easier comprehension of a frequently challenging concept. I hope that the design I created made you closer, if not fully, in understanding generative art theory.

The T in TIME stands for “Theater”: A Digital Art

My self-portrait in a form of a TIME magazine cover displays myself as the so-called, but fictional, person of the year. I am representing the achievements and milestones I reached as a theater arts student and enthusiast. As the featured person in TIME magazine, I spotlighted all the roles and characters that I played throughout my journey under the theater arts major of my degree program.

The first thing that will catch your eyes upon looking at the design is my large self in the character of a rabbit. It is me in my most challenging role “Kuneho” from the local adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. It was a live play production staged online where the audience can interact on us. The plot is set during the pandemic. It revolves on the part of the original story where Alice tries to escape the wonderland after falling in the rabbit hole, however in this adaptation, Alice fell asleep and she dreamed about the wonderland where the rabbit, the queen of hearts, the cat, and the hatter is there. Alice solved riddles, questions, and problems from each of the characters and helped them with their situations. The plot ended when Alice woke up and it was all just a dream. I placed myself with the “Kuneho” role at the center of the magazine because, like “Kuneho,” he hops from one place to another with respect to time. Like the roles I had in theater, they were all different and far from each other when placed in a single spectrum. On the right part of the page, you can see me in a heavily masculine get up with all the beard and gesture (that was when I act a scene from Hedda Gabbler). Beside it is also a masculine get-up with a sort of scarf by my neck and an unbutton sleeve all the way to my chest (that was when I was in the role of “Lalaki” from a play about the origin of Filipino “ aswang ” entitled, “Ang Unang Aswang.”).

On the left side of the cover is another self in cross-dress and whose face is emotionally articulated depicting horror, fear, and madness (that was when I portrayed a character that was characterized as mentally illed), and the last one is another self with a beach polo attire and in an R&B get-up (that was when I delivered a speech simulating a wedding toast). Time was an important thing during those moments and through it, I was able to experience a one-of-a-kind and roller-coaster ride in being an actor for theater productions an advocacy that I wanted to share with the people that theater is both challenging but hugely fulfilling. This is what my TIME magazine cover wants to point out. I, as the featured person, represents this fulfillment and challenge. I wanted to spotlight a subject where they can appreciate the people doing theater and how they deal with the demands of great efforts that it needs for a successful production. In addition to this is for them to ponder the value of theater practice and arts and attempt to be in that shoe to experience firsthand the fulfillment brought about by the rehearsals to the day of the show.

Theater as the core of my design is very close to me primarily because it is a field in arts that is usually underappreciated. Theater is such a raw and authentic art. It is performed live, unfiltered, spontaneous, and direct. With the technology nowadays, theater is easily devalued over films, short videos, and other multimedia contents that only needs a click and it is posted. At least, through a pseudo-TIME magazine cover, I was able to relay the message that it is high time, at least for me, for theater to be in the spotlight—to be appreciated—now in this ever-changing world where technology and modernization is taking place at an unprecedented rate.

save sierra madre

Our country, the Philippines, is prone to typhoons. However, the onslaught of these natural disasters and calamities was not this worse before. The continuing global warming and climate change are being paired up with man-made projects and activities, may they be illegal or not, that affect the environment. Pollution, individuals’ ignorance of their increasing carbon footprint, poor waste management, the rampant building of infrastructures, and deforestation, among many others, are some of these. The archipelago also has natural features that, in some way or another, alleviate the effects of these calamities. Mountain ranges such as the renowned Sierra Madre are the northern and central Luzon’s shield against typhoons coming from the Pacific. These are the present circumstances, situations, experiences, and factors that became our source and/or inspirations for designing and producing our multimedia collage.

Our multimedia collage is designed as an infomercial. It highlights the most recent typhoon-related events that our country has experienced. We resolved to include coverages of past typhoons in the country to include in our planned montage of local news clips. Most of our sources came from local news media companies like 24 Oras, ABS-CBN, ANC, and TeleRadyo, among others. In the first part of the video, news clips were dressed in black and white and with VCR glitching like an old television. Screen captures of digitally published articles were collaged on the screen after the television was turned off. Eerie and dramatic background music is played for build-up. Montages of landslides, typhoons, wreckage, and interviews were succeeded by these relaying the message of how shattering the reality of ignoring the environment as an effect is. It is then ended with a call-to-action message saying, “Save our last hope, save Sierra Madre.”

Our take on creating a multimedia collage may just seem simple and was easily planned. However, it was not the case for me who edited the whole video. There was an ongoing typhoon when I was in the middle of it typhoon ‘Paeng’ was hitting our country. I was in our hometown in Bicol during this time, so we were the first to be devastated, but, during the following days, the wreckage that it left in most places of Luzon was sadder. News about floods was all over my timeline, my friends at CALABARZON and Los Baños kept on updating me about how high are floods in their area, rainwaters from downpours entering their home’s ground floor, trees (like one of Elbi’s royal palm trees) were uprooted, running waters at dormitories began to drop, an electric outage is being experienced by a whole town and many more. Technical challenges, like devices lagging, software malfunctioning, and insufficient resources and space were a given in this kind of project. However, challenges that affect one ’ s mental being is a different topic. Editing the multimedia collage while thinking about how other people are struggling and fighting for their homes and lives during the typhoon was devastating for me. My point of view was news reportage about post-typhoon houses pulverized by storms, destroyed agricultural lands, rescued human bodies trapped by flashfloods and landslides, Filipinos crying for help, and poor families mourning over the death of their loved ones. It was downright challenging. I struggled at first, but I treated them as more motivation to finish and be of help in disseminating awareness of the reality of our country when it comes to typhoons and calamities through this multimedia collage. As a student born and living in the 21st century, this is how I see the purposes, functions, and/or role of multimedia in the academe and in society as a source of information and a medium for a call to action.

Multimedia art offers a full-packaged strategy and/or tool to communicate one ’ s ideas and thoughts to an audience more effectively (Raffat 547). The promotion of students' motivation and interest in learning is, in fact, one of the ultimate goals of multimedia language instruction, and it can be a useful strategy for engaging students and making them more involved (Mukherjee 247).

The activity, overall, was productive. It made me, not just use my current multimedia skills, but upskill myself as well with the concepts and video-editing strategies I was not familiar with before. The pre-production and production process/es were taxing as I expected, but the finished product was fulfilling. More importantly, I learned about myself in this activity which I am grateful for.

katok-hangyo

Some of us are still affected by Duterte’s aftermath of poor governance and policy makings. The new and/or current administrations are rubbing it more, making it worsened by being purposely inattentive to the social problems in our country. During Duterte’s time, his war on drugs proliferated across all news media platforms, not just on national television but worldwide. To seek justice for its innocent victims still has a reverberating sound on students, like me, who were exposed to such agendas. Our interactive art is a tribute to them. Our interactive art is designed as an escape room educational game that taps into the concept of the injustice and immorality caused by Duterte’s war on drugs as its social issue/problem. The participants are simulated as the investigator who will solve a case. This is where the interaction between the artwork and the participants is seen. They are presented with a briefer of the case going to the main case board where they will interact with the digital files found and relevant for solving the case. They can move back and forth to each interactive element in the artwork, repeat from clicking, and explore more on the whole of the board. They are then asked to point to the culprit by the end and that’s when they will know if they got it right or wrong. The entire game is designed to tell a story ⼀ this mechanism requires the active involvement of the audience in unfolding the chain of events. The interactive elements planted in every panel serve the purpose of giving the audience choices. These options, albeit very limited, ultimately lead to different outcomes/endings depending on the decision of the player/audience.

Since our creative output is a murder mystery game, our audience is of utmost importance. The audience must allot time to fully interact with the investigative file to realize its message and purpose. Moreover, the group deliberately created a plot that would vaguely point the clues to the audience, and this prompted them to engage more since the clues and answers weren’t given to them directly. The audience’s input, through their interaction by playing the game, reaffirms the fact that behind all the apologists plaguing social media, the youth which comprises most, if not all our audience never ceases to denounce the atrocities of the Duterte administration in its war against drugs since they voluntarily chose to participate in the game. Improvements in terms of the presentation of some evidence and other visual elements could be made, but overall, the 15 participants who answered the feedback form found the game interesting and informative.

When we gathered actual participants who volunteered in the simulation, some of the people I asked had their reactions very genuine and worthy of seeing from the point of view of someone who worked hard for the interactive art. Some of them had a hard time, while some of them genuinely enjoyed it. Several pieces of feedback pertain to improvements in the interactivity, such as having not to switch tabs during the art and just having a pop-up screen when they click a certain interactive element in our work. Those were points of improvement that can be solved by not having limited resources on this. Aside from those, some comments were complementing our work, how exciting it was, and how relevant alongside timely our interactive art was.

Audience participation is vital in this particular project. Interactive art is all about them, at the end of the day. Without them, our project would not be considered an interactive one. It was also heartwarming to be able to share our project with other people and have them experience what we have worked hard for. That is what I learned in this interactive art project. My groupmates were hands-on about contributing to the success of our project. Tasks were assigned equally. Everyone, including me, had a significant share in the planning stage. I was also the one who arranged all the interactive elements in our brief board, edited the CCTV footage, and checked/reviewed all other evidence if it’s liking to the details in the brief board.

More than the things mentioned above, the activity, overall, was new, challenging, and nerve-wracking, yet productive and fulfilling at some point.

We were confronted with huge setbacks, especially on how to start the artwork. However, with the help of everyone ’ s genuine participation, we were able to do something we did not expect to be possible. I, more than we, are proud of our work.

a massacre served to their golden plates

It’s sad, raging even, but it’s true. The primary subject or idea of this artwork is the widespread corruption and socio-economicpolitical condition in the Philippines, as seen through my own perception. Politicians are gathered around the fabled long dining table at the Malacañang, where they are fed [massacred] meals on silver platters, which they eat off, and feast on their golden plates.

Each dish stands for a government-ignored cause that should be supported with proper measures. The image of a stabbed dove serves as a metaphor for the loss of freedom of speech and expression. The torn piece of paper bearing the words "HUMAN RIGHTS" stands in for all of the country's numerous human rights violations. A gun stands for the call to put an end to police violence. Finally, their continued prejudice against LGBTQ+ rights is being served as "bigotry." The table is also covered with blood, signifying the nation's extrajudicial killings. There are silver platters placed in the table’s center signifying the general tax imposed on the populace, as stated in the text. This money, which is intended to be used for national security and development, is instead going to the politicians. The politicians were purposefully exaggerated to show their control over the butchered foods and the platter, portraying them as more significant than the problems in the Philippines (as if the nation's issues were only trivial to them). Finally, the person in the middle is preoccupied with his phone, showing a lack of attention to the foods in front of him–human rights, proper financial allocation, and a cessation of corrupt practices–all of which are supposed to be prioritized. He and the authorities instead are happily stuffing their faces to fuel their political power.

Given that this was our last project for the class, I decided to follow the example set by our FIC when he first presented his work during a lecture earlier in the semester. He creates his artwork in the traditional manner, then photographs it, enhances it, and manipulates it slightly. It is then converted to digital art. I was driven to draw it myself because I felt the Canva templates might not have enough intended elements to pull off what I wanted.

The original tools used were a pencil, a pen, and paper. The image was then scanned with a camera to produce a digital copy. Colors were applied after using Windows Paint. Finally, Adobe Photoshop 2022 was used for enhancements. New media as a platform for advocacy from the academic and non-academic context is deemed effective. With the help of new media, people become easily engaged in viewing and consuming advocacy that bridges them to the message it embodies. Art has always been an effective visual aid and stimulus to most people. To forward advocacy through new media is a great way to start influencing people to do so as well.

References

‘Karding’ leaves thousands homeless in Aurora province | ANC [TV broadcast] (2022, September 26) ANC

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author's note noitcelfer

I still remember my first impressions of New Media Art when we were asked to submit a reflection paper and a collage about it. I confessed that a lot of words sprung into my mind but three of them overarched all my thoughts. Those were technology, futuristic, and avant-garde. Being in this part of the semester where we had already accomplished all the outputs we were tasked to do; I can say that my first impressions during the first day in the class were still relevant. I was excited during the first week of the semester and have prepared myself for the possibility of being overwhelmed and clamoring for learning a way different class course since my freshman year things and sensations that were consistently present and true as I work on our requirements week per week.

When I enrolled and started learning about New Media Art, I felt confident. Such confidence came from the fact that I have a fair share of knowledge and experience about creating digital materials, especially during the pandemic where online set-up was the primary mode of information through doing publicity materials. Even before the pandemic, I self-explored different platforms for digital art creation. Some of them are Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Publisher, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, Snapseed and Windows Paint for JPEG to PNG formats. I also learned using YouCut, Filmora, and a little bit of Adobe Premiere Pro for MP4 formats. However, that confidence was constantly challenged in my new media art class. I can still remember all the white canvasses that I first stared at for so long. I remember all the dump ideas filled in my drafts to vomit all my plans so that I can see where I can begin.

This class made me realize that I still have a lot of things to learn than what I have learned already. It was a blessing, nevertheless, to be able to experience a formal and academic discussion about digital artistry and learn more about the use of such platforms through actual application. These are all in the context where I only get to learn by myself without [professional] help from any other else.

I can see the journey I went through and the growth that I had as I browse again through my artworks in this class. The semester I had with this class was filled with challenges, struggles, “brain lag” moments, and doubts. I simply saw being tagged as an “artist” or “student artist” as merely having the skills and talents to efficiently produce works that people may consider art. However, that was not the case when I continue learning about “art,”, especially in the context of this digital age where there is the convergence of traditional and contemporary ideologies and beliefs of what can be considered art (not to forget the discussion on aestheticism and moralism under one of our study guides). It was serious to consider oneself an “artist.” I never expected to have a digital portfolio of artwork that I can consider as my own, despite creating digital artwork already before this class. Beyond the reading materials and performance tasks in the class, that is what I pondered often as I learn more about myself.

One of the concepts that I find interesting in my new media art class was interactive art. I learned that interactive art doesn’t always have to be real-time interactive. I always thought that it is because of mainstream artworks I came to see in my social media news feed like the Van Gogh exhibit. Our faculty-in-charge showed some of his and his previous student artworks that had a survey-like data gathering of

anything they deem essential to create the art they plan. Some of my classmates did the same thing and I was surprised that the “interactive” in such art can also be conducted prior to the art itself. Our group opted for real-time interactive art since we created an educational game. I also loved the learnings I acquired in our study guide four. Being a reader-type of student myself, I enjoyed learning about concepts and discussions on aestheticism, moralism, appropriation, and copyright rules. They were utterly fascinating. New Media art is technologically driven. How new media artists argue on these concepts that are greatly traditional and becoming contemporary in essence were interesting to find out through our readings.

The Maisel-Baio case was interesting. I also admired how the set of readings was appropriate, just, and right to have us delve into the concepts of appropriation and copyright rules The articles about debates on aestheticism and moralism were fun to read, especially coming into contact again with ancient philosophers being rebutted by contemporary authors/writers. I also enjoyed exploring the index of existing net art under study guide five. This was the, “!MEDIENGRUPPE BITNIK.” I have never expected to encounter such list of artworks that are just a click of a finger to being accessed in this class. On concepts that I found confusing or ideas that I do not agree with, surprisingly, there were none. All the reading materials supplement well with the general knowledge presented in every study guide.

One major learning that I got in this class was to realize that art is all about inspiration That’s why we were always tasked to write a rationale after our outputs. To put that inspiration into art was relatively easy, but to get and have that [right] inspiration was hard and time-consuming. There were times that it takes me a day or two to get inspiration. To do tasks both efficiently and effectively, one must really make the journey towards accomplishment a worthwhile one. Despite having a hard time securing inspiration, I always end up having one that I am happy to work around and translate into a work of art. In this sense, I quote from a research study I came across within my other class, ‘

art means communicating what life normally hides from us [...], expelling us from the zones of habit and of comfort, to change our notions of what we are and what we can be (Diba and d’Oliveira, 2015).’

Aside from being all about inspiration, with this new media art class, I realized that all works of art require effort and valuation to accomplish. Art doesn’t create itself on their own, rather they are created by others. I remember when I first visited the Sining Makiling Gallery in UPLB during my freshman year An art exhibit was mounted during that time. There was a projector flashing an undistinguishable screen display where a lot of students kept on taking picture of it as their background. I also vividly remember an installation of a giant kind of fish made in metal scraps and an installation where a set of wooden gears like what you see typical in machines can be moved. Additionally, I saw one wall of the Sining Makiling Gallery itself splashed with paintings and vandals. During that time, I was not aware of the term “ new media art.” Not even interactive art. All I know was they were pieces of installation art that are distinct from the usual artworks I see in other exhibits, such as a painting. I never get to hold them, if I may say, because I was afraid that I might not bring them back to the way it was first installed. That first visit of mine to the gallery was impactful. It stayed with me for a significant amount of time. It occurred to me how fascinating artworks are, especially when you get to see them with your naked eyes. Astonishment will always be the first thing to occur in your body and sensation, but after that, I always savor thinking about how it was made, how was the journey from scratch to end, how the artist came up with the idea, what was the inspiration, and where does the art come from (its context of existence)? That instance in my college life made me want more to see works of art and contemplate them experience how it responds to the reality outside of it reflects the environment one lives in and builds their own world rather than consuming them just by its surface value. During the succeeding months of that year, I always looked forward to dropping by the gallery and enjoy sparing a little time looking at what artworks are exhibited. After all, the admissions were always free!

When our faculty-in-charge in this class announced sometime during November that we will be having our class in the Sining Makiling Gallery, I was happy. The pandemic has forced the gallery (and all exhibit areas in the country) to be closed for many months. It also forced us to refrain from visiting them because of health protocols. Hearing such an announcement made me excited for the day to come. An exhibit of artworks wade with fabric was mounted when we get there. It was entitled, “A Memoir for Lola.” Sure, I have visited a reasonable number of other exhibits before, but I placed more value on that day. It was the first time that I get to experience an art class that is held literally in an art exhibit Being a special day for me, I enjoyed just being there with my classmates and our art professor, contemplating and talking about what we saw.

My perceptions of new media art, visual culture, and the visual arts changed and became more grounded in thought and theory. They are everywhere if I may say. The only difference is how people consume and take it. Will they take it on a surface level or on a more critical sense? Just by their aesthetics (aestheticism) or more than it (moralism)? Our current condition/situation is saddening, particularly when people often devalue art as mere art. This statement of mine then reveals how I am not a fan of aestheticism. Especially now in the modern and digital world, the definition of what can be considered art is becoming blurrier and blurrier, as technology and avant-garde methods are coming into the frame of art.

and more.

all rights reserved. 2022 ruben sakay belmonte jr.