Geo/centr/e/i/city---The Earth as Center

For "Geo/centr/e/i/city---The Earth as Center" (http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/), seven Filipino digital artists focused on island folklore surrounding the activities of volcanoes and earthquakes to mount an online exhibition of the many faces, languages and voices of the savage earth. Works by four of the artists are presented here in the Leonardo Gallery [1].

As a web-specific exhibition and a collaborative effort engaging art and the geological sciences, Geo/centr/e/i/city shows how the role of the digital computer continues to shift from technology-focused utility to cultural mediator.

In the exhibition, the artists present visions of earth phenomena and the local mythologies that make order of the "middle world's" unpredictable and dynamic system. The artists interpret their visions using their choice of tools, old and new, and scientific and cultural data. Their physical meeting with scientists at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) 2 months before the start of the exhibition provided both the art and science practitioners a view 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 of earth, which were composites of RGB three-radar data obtained from Space Shuttle launches in 1994 [2]. Through visualization processes such as obtaining difference blends of composite images, it was possible to point out dry, eroded and submerged areas in volcano craters [3].

Such laboratory experimentation allowing the visualization and prediction of natural phenomena also serves to aid discovery and creativity, as well as the synthesis, representation and apprehension of invisible or inaccessible phenomena.

To visualize the dormancy of a volcano through hundreds, even thousands, of years as the environment around it evolves, artist Al Manrique used GIF images to animate a notably quiet volcano, with its blue calmness and greenery, into a savage eruption that totally cleared the surrounding area. The work addresses the Bicolandian mythology of the Quarreling Volcanoes, in which one volcano effectively steals fire from the other.

The Active Faults Mapping research at Phivolcs was also of special interest to the artists. Ferdinand Doctolero mused about a relationship between the fault lines and the Iloko mythology of Angolo and Anarabrab, whose quarrels caused the original island to break up into more than 7,000 islands. On a more personal level, Joey Ong utilized a Phivolcs map of the Valley Fault System [4] to express his dismay and anxiety at real estate developers with their "best buy" solutions to living on a fault line (http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/ong). Archie Degamo's work is an emotive visualization of nature's gender sensitivity, presenting the volcano as King and Mother at the same time http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/degamo.

Much of the cultural data that John Flores and I both utilized came from research with Phivolcs' 12-volume "Natural Disaster Management among Indigenous Communities," thanks to Regina Quiambao at Phivolcs. Flores's work (http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/john), done in Flash, presents a very straightforward and interactive overview of how indigenous communities deal with natural phenomena---by prediction through observation!

During our visit to the Seismological Observation and Earthquake Prediction Division of Phivolcs, I found that much of the work of scientists involves predicting the damage likely to be caused by earthquakes of specific intensity and at specific locations. Seismologist Ishmael Narag made a presentation of GIS software and its use for mapping population density and life-support systems along a time-space series. However, at an earlier visit I had pressed the scientists about earthquake predictions and found that some collaborative research work had been done with Chinese seismologists who actually have predicted earthquake occurrences through accumulated observations of animal and environmental behavior. In my work presented in the exhibition, I depict the involvement of animals in natural phenomena through two mythologies---those of the gigantic fish of Maguindanao and the sensuous Intumbangol of Bukidnon.

Of course, it was inevitable that I would become interested in delving 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. Maguindanaons are known as "People of the Flood Plain," and I was drawn to this region because whenever I dream of water or flooding, an earthquake occurs. The bigger the flood in my dream, the stronger the quake.

Aileen Familara's work Gulo sa Bahay utilizes the spatio-temporal visualization of earthquakes, used in Alan Jones's Seismic Waves software [5], as metaphor for cross relations between three sisters in a household. In her Fault Lines, she uses texts of Samuel Huntington's contentious views on civilization's fault lines; and in Quake Music, she converts seismographic data into music.

Fractals and pictures synthesized 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 can be found in the works of Geo/centr/e/i/city.

The Geo/centr/e/i/city experience gave artists and audiences an opportunity to see scientific visualizations not only as a technique but as an art form. Researching a myth, reading a seismograph, seeing a seismicity map or a shuttle image (in other words, learning a new language) has allowed us to bring in a wide 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 specificities of telecommunications art, contributing to the dynamic development of cultural mediation.

Acknowledgments: GEO/CENTR/E/I/CITY---The Earth as Center is a Hoydigiteer.org initiative with support from the Internet's longest-running art-technology news service, fineArt forum, and in collaboration with Phivolcs.

Fatima Lasay
Curator
University of the Philippines, College of Fine Arts
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines 1101
E-mail: fats@up.edu

References and Notes

1. Works by the artists who are not presented here can be found on the Geo/centr/e/i/city web site. Work by Joey Ong can be found at http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/ong. Work by John Flores can be found at http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/john. Work by Archie Degamo can be found at http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/degamo.
2. See http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/GGRDDpage/projects/gis/poster2/sir03/sir03.htm.
3. See http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/GGRDDpage/projects/gis/poster2/sir01/sir01.htm.
4. See http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/GGRDDpage/projects/fault/image1/image1.htm.
5. See http://www.geol.binghamton.edu/faculty/jones.