WSK: The Festival of the Recently Possible together with The Japan Foundation Asia Center and De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts opened WSK Axis 2017 festival with the biggest new media arts exhibit on October 23, 2017, at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts.
INTERSTICES: Manifolds of the In-between showcased artists from Japan and the Philippines to explore critical perspectives on how emerging art forms and innovative applications affect culture and society.
Composed of computer-engineered mechanisms, all artworks are meant to be experienced, not merely viewed.
“The exhibition explores the cracks and crevices of art whose nature fall between, rather than within, the familiar boundaries of accepted genres and media,” the artistic director and exhibition curator Tengal Drilon said.
“It features a variety of media that emphasizes various cultural and social issues—from animist meditations of electricity to performing internet selfies and memes on the street, to fusing traditional art medium, painting with technology by literally using LED monitors as canvases. All of these are framed within the embracing concept of interstices, namely the spaces between disciplines, practices, and cultural phenomena; the fluid gaps where these intervene in each other and pause only to dynamically interact once more.”
The “Yamada Taro” project by Japanese artist Katsuki Nogami explores ideas of identity and the anonymity in technology. “Yamada Taro” is a placeholder Japanese name, like “Juan Dela Cruz” in the Philippines. To create “placeholder people,” Nogami attaches iPads to people’s faces. The performers, who he calls as “friends,” will take photos of strangers they encounter. Each photo will appear on the iPad screens, “transferring” one’s identity to the performers.
WSK, in partnership with Carlos Celdran will be bringing Katsuki Nogami’s “Yamada Taro” project to Intramuros on Oct 27, 2017 at 4PM. Celdran mapped a special route around Intramuros, starting from General Luna, Muralla St., leading to universities in the vicinity, such as Mapúa University, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Lyceum of the Philppines University, and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
INTERSTICES: Manifolds of the In-between features a mix of Japanese and Filipino artists—Ryoichi Kurokawa, Houxo Que, Tsuyoshi Hisakado, Pauline and Ivan Despi, Tad Ermitaño, Ian Carlo Jaucian and Derek Tumala. Show runs until Nov 4, 2017.