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.
Fats Lasay | http://www.hoydigiteer.org/ - Art | Technology | Culture
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