BedroomLab: BEDROOMLAB + FUTURE SHORTS

For the fifth BEDROOMLAB session, we had two special film screenings of two very rare experimental short films by Regiben Romana and Miguel Alcazaren with Ricky Orellana which was curated by Merv Espina. They were old 16mm prints that haven't been screened since the early 90s. BEDROOMLAB in conjunction with Future Shorts, rescreened these two underground classics with a new live score by Caviteno sound artist and organizer, Erick Calilan aka UGONG. Erick used home-made synthesizers and a no-input mixer to compliment the striking images from these two films.

Here are screenshots with descriptions:

PILIPINAS: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PHILIPPINES MR JANETZKO? by Regiben O. Romana 1989 / 16mm / 05:42min / experimental collage

An optically printed abstract film taken from the outtakes of an action flick mixed with visual noise and news broadcasts resulting into a raw collage powerfully evoking Filipino politics and culture.
Best Student Experimental, 8th FAP Awards for Distinguished Achievement During 1989 (1990)

SA MAYNILA by Mike Alcazaren, Josephine Atienza & Ricky Orellana 1989 / 16mm / 06:20min / experimental documentary

An impressionistic portrait of the Philippine metropolis.

Honorable Mention, The Asean Young Cinema Festival - Tokyo, Japan (1992) Best Student Documentary, 8th FAP Awards for Distinguished Achievement During 1989 (1990) Special Jury Prize, Documentary Film Category, 3rd Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video (1989)

UGONG performing a live score

The other lecturers were video artist and VJ, Pierre Sigmoon from France, who presented his Future Ethnic Lab project: whose aim was to transfer the ancestral ethnic sources and traditional knowledges in our time and technological evolution.

From their site:

"Ethnocomputing is the study of the interactions between computing and culture. It is carried out through theoretical analysis, empirical investigation, and design implementation. It includes research on the impact of computing on society, as well as the reverse: how cultural, historical, personal, and societal origins and surroundings cause and affect the innovation, development, diffusion, maintenance, and appropriation of computational artifacts or ideas. From the ethnocomputing perspective, no computational technology is culturally "neutral," and no cultural practice is a computational void. Instead of considering culture to be a hindrance for software engineering, culture should be seen as a resource for innovation and design."

Other projects were from Tengal, artistic director of Fete dela WSK! he showed his recent collaborations with The Museum of Transitory Art (MoTA), and made a quick preview of network projects by SABAW media art kitchen with MoTA. He subsequently showed a quick video excerpt of this live cinema project called CLIMAX he did with Slovenian media artist, Martin Bricelj, a visual research project that evolves through time and has many permutations, which he defined as a "collaborative cinematic experience | live cinema | coded + networked performance | AV concert | video object | theatre mirror | neverending movie".

Caliph8, a "beat smith, graffiti purveyor, and soothsayer" talked about his work in the local art scene. For more than a decade now, he has been active in the music scene, the local hip-hop culture in particular. He's probably one of the hottest producers / beat professors, and an important lynchpin to many ensembles.

Tengal presenting collaborative projects with MoTA (Museum of Transitory Art)

Caliph8

Eclectic madman selector, Mark Zero (also known as Minister Zero, Joseph Insect) spent the rest of the night spinning odd collections of strange sounds, unpopular & underated music from across the globe. He got into record collecting 15 years ago while he discovered an abandoned pile of old maps, childrens books & a bunch of old african latin & Filipino Library broadcast records; (one of them is from the late great national artist Dr. Jose Maceda) on a basement of his grandfathers ancestral house were he once use to smoke & read poems. He constantly blogs about the uncharted sonic terrain of the Philippines' ethnic and ecletic in his blog, EXPANSIONS.

He played while people danced and got drunk until we were forced to go out. Just check out the pictures!