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Examining the 100th anniversary of the Philippine-American war, media artist glenda drew collaborated with Media Alliance, youth from Filipinos for Affirmative Action, and choreographer Pearl Ubungen of Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians to create "Makibaka!," an interactive CD-ROM incorporating video footage of contemporary public performances, oral histories, and other historical information. "Makibaka!" means struggle in Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines; and the CD-ROM explores cultural memory of and resistance to the United States' invasion and subsequent occupation of the Philippines. It was developed concurrently with Ubungen's major site-specific performance, Tagulaylay/The Presidio , which explored related content.
Following is a description of the initial vision of the project:
In a Filipino cultural center south of Market Street, a young woman sits at the computer and, on the screen, sees an image of six Filipino performers, her own age. As she slides the computer's mouse over the mouse pad, the pointer rolls across the computer screen, transforming the image of the performers. When she rolls the pointer over one of the performer's legs, an image appears that invokes the memory of an immigrant's journey. When she rolls the pointer over another performer's hands, she sees images of his ancestors' use of their hands as carpenters. The same performer has a tattoo. When the young woman rolls the pointer over the tattoo, the screen shows images of the history of U.S. violence against the Filipino people, a history that started with the U.S. occupation of the Philippines and wound its way into the lives of young Filipino Americans.
glenda drew and Pearl Ubungen came together through Media Alliance, a training and resource center dedicated to fostering a diversity of media voices and perspectives. The idea developed during conversations between Pearl Ubungen and Marcia Ochoa, who was then Technical Services Director at Media Alliance, about the role of technology in art and education: "We imagined a program that would foster a new generation of media artists who would work from a place of history, technical expertise, and social change." They envisioned a project in which Filipino American youth would create a dance performance and a CD-ROM that would record and express the cultural history of elders who lived through crucial moments in Filipino and Filipino American history. At that time, glenda drew was serving as a multimedia instructor at Media Alliance, and shared Ubungen's commitment to community-based work with youth. They met and their collaboration took shape.
The project also incorporated Filipinos for Affirmative Action (FAA), which has extensive experience organizing Filipino-American youth and which convened high school-age participants to work on both the media production and the dance performance. While this focus on working with youth was sustained throughout the project, the effort needed to get FAA youth from the East Bay to San Francisco to work on the project was more challenging than anticipated, in part because the "Makibaka!" CD-ROM took longer to develop than was originally planned.
The artists and performers were trained in methods for oral history research by Dr. Nancy Mirabál and studied political history of the Philippines from 1899-1999 under the direction of Dr. Oscar Peñaranda, both faculty at San Francisco State University. Ms. drew wrote, "This project goes far beyond anything that I have done in the past. We spent a lot of time researching the historical foundation of this project. The combination of education, technical training, body work, dance, performance, and collaboration was invigorating."
Under Ms. drew's guidance, with the support and assistance of Media Alliance, the youth learned video techniques, so that they could produce the video and audio aspects of their oral history research. After months of preparation and research, the collaborators developed the interactive CD-ROM, while the performance work for "Makibaka!" was taking shape in Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians' studios. Performances of "Makibaka!" took place at La Pena in Berkeley and SOMARTS in San Francisco. Finished copies of "Makibaka!" are available through glenda drew.
Lead artist glenda drew is a mediographer who has created CD-ROMs, videos, and installations exploring a wide variety of topics. She is committed to developing media and technological capacity among marginalized communities. Her past projects include The Paper Tiger TV-ROM, a CD-ROM on the history of Paper Tiger Television with a complete "how to make media" section; "Out of My Room," a collaborative video project with teenagers about how they construct identity within their personal space; and "A Space: The Final Frontier," an experimental documentary about parking in San Francisco.
Pearl Ubungen is a choreographer whose work addresses contemporary social topics through an innovative use of post-modern dance, theater, text, popular culture, and original live music. She founded and was director of the Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians, whose projects included Refugee , an outdoor site-specific piece designed for United Nations Plaza in San Francisco's Civic Center.
For more than 20 years, Media Alliance has provided a training and resource center dedicated to fostering a genuine diversity of media voices and perspectives. It provides support and training to media workers, activists, and community organizations. Media Alliance focuses its efforts on supporting communities under-represented in the mainstream media.
glenda drew
- Coordinator/Tenure-track Faculty, Multimedia Studies
Program, City College of San Francisco (August 1998-Deceber 2002)
- Website
Design/Development English Department,
University of California-Davis Nature and Culture Department,
University of California-Davis Technocultural Studies, University
of California-Davis
- Independent Producer/Co-owner (1999-present) RedRocketMedia
- Guest
Lecturer Department of Environmental Design, University of
California-Davis Department of Art and Art History, University
of California-Davis
- Adjunct
Instructor Multimedia Studies, City College of San Francisco
Department of Design and Industry, San Francisco State University
Digital Media Center, San Francisco Art Institute New College
of California
New Media Productions
- Where Have All The Flowers Gone? (2002). Collaborative project with Valerie Soe. Commissioned by and exhibited at the Exploratorium (San Francisco), exploring multicultural semiotics of color. National Asian American Telecommunications Association (San Francisco). Created, designed and programmed user interface with a database of over 80 video clips.
- Mission Window (2002). Collaboration
with Daisy Eneix. Exploration of internal and external space
within the context of one San Francisco apartment building. The
Lab Gallery (San Francisco). Created and programmed a series
of digital photographs and text-based images. Projected images
into a fabricated space. Created and edited a sound track.
- Makibaka! (2002).
Collaborative project with Pearl Ubungen. CD-ROM/performance
project exploring the Philippine American War and the effects
of "struggle" on Bay Area Filipino youth. Live performances at Somarts Gallery (San Francisco) and La Peña
Cultural Center (Berkeley). Created animation, CD-ROM production,
graphic design, user interface, photography, programming,
video production and virtual sets.
- Teller Machine (1999). Collaboration with
Jesse Drew. CD-ROM exploring the political economy through
the familiar interface of an ATM machine. Premiered at the Mill
Valley Film Festival (Mill Valley) and showed at Artists Television
Access (San Francisco), Berkeley Museum of Art (Berkeley),
Crucible Steel Gallery (San Francisco), Media Alliance (San Francisco),
San Francisco State Gallery (San Francisco), the San Francisco
Art Institute (San Francisco), SF Camerawork (San Francisco)
and Tulipmania (Amsterdam). Created graphics, sound effects,
photography, programming and user interface.
- The Paper Tiger TV-ROM (1997).
CD-ROM exploring the history of Paper Tiger Television, as
well as a history of media and communications, including a complete "how
to" make
media section, a bookstand of publications, a catalog of
videos and a comprehensive list of resources. Premiered at
Artists Television Access (San Francisco) and played on cable
television. Created animation, graphics, sound effects, user
interface and programming
http://www.redrocketmedia.com
http://www.redrocketmedia.com/ART_114
http://www.redrocketmedia.com/Flat_Stanley
http://www.redrocketmedia.com/makibaka
http://technoculture.ucdavis.edu
http://www.facearchitecture.com
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~fwdore
http://www.papertiger.org
http://www.slip.net/~esther
- Where Have All The Flowers Gone? (2002). Collaborative project with Valerie Soe. Commissioned by and exhibited at the Exploratorium (San Francisco), exploring multicultural semiotics of color. National Asian American Telecommunications Association (San Francisco). Videotaped interviews.
- Makibaka! (2002).
Collaborative project with Pearl Ubungen. CD-ROM/performance
project exploring the Philippine American War and the effects of "struggle" on Bay Area Filipino youth. Live performances at Somarts Gallery (San Francisco) and La Peña
Cultural Center (Berkeley). Created a video-based, futuristic character;
organized upload, download and projection of live video feed; videotaped
and edited documentation, historian interviews and oral histories.
- A Space: The Final Frontier (1997). A
30-minute collaborative video in the genre of experimental documentary,
addressing parking issues in San Francisco. Interviews with Bill
Maher, head of Department of Parking and Transportation; Tim
Redmond, editor of the Bay Guardian ; and Peter Byrne,
consumer advocate; are woven with found footage, street interviews
and skits. Premiered at Artists Television Access (San Francisco)
and played on cable television. Collaboratively conceived, project
managed and videotaped interviews.
- out of my room (1995). Collaborative
video project with Daisy Eneix and teenagers exploring the construction
of identity within personal space. San Francisco State Gallery
(San Francisco). Collaboratively conceived, project managed and
videotaped segments.
- Menu (1995). Collaboration with Daisy Eneix.
Short, experimental video exploring connections between fast food,
phone sex and the meaning of satisfaction. Artists Television Access
(San Francisco) and local cable. Collaboratively conceived, created
and edited.
- Finally Got The News (1994-1996). A Paper
Tiger Television monthly public access alternative look at the
news (San Francisco). Performed a variety of roles at a variety
of times, including conception, camera, editing and switching.
- The Single Tingle (1994). Series of 22
looped Super-8mm films (original and manipulated found footage),
loaded into toy projectors. A multi-layered soundtrack weaves
interviews of women as they speak of discovering their sexuality
during adolescence, with social and religious myths of masturbation.
Artists Television Access (San Francisco). Conception and creation.
- Being Some Body (1992).
Experimental, short, optically printed, 16mm film exploring a
relationship between mass media and women's body obsessions. "8th a nnual f ilm
a rts f estival", r oxie c inema (San Francisco); " g
irl to w oman", u niversity of California- i rvine (Irvine); " m
edia d arlings", v ictoria t heater (San Francisco); " m
enstrual b ouquet", e -space g allery (San Francisco); " n
ew e xperimental w orks", Artists Television Access (San Francisco); " n
ew e xperimental Works", local cable showing (San Francisco); " p
hiladelphia f estival of w orld c inema (Philadelphia); " s
isters' p ictures", Artists Television Access (San Francisco).
Conception and creation.
- 4 Gordy (1992). A 16mm, non-camera, direct
film. University of Dayton Art Gallery (Dayton, Ohio). Conception
and creation.
- Untitled (1991). A 16mm, non-camera, direct
film purchased by the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago). Conception
and creation.
- Mission Window (2002). Collaboration
with Daisy Eneix. Exploration of internal and external space within
the context of one San Francisco apartment building. The Lab Gallery
(San Francisco). Created and programmed a series of digital photographs
and text-based images and then projected them into a fabricated space.
Created and edited a sound track. Collaborated on the creation of
the space.
- Where Have All The Flowers Gone? (2002).
Collaborative project with Valerie Soe. Commissioned by and exhibited
at the Exploratorium (San Francisco), exploring multicultural
semiotics of color. National Asian American Telecommunications
Association (San Francisco). Created interactive, installation
based components.
- Teller Machine (1999). Collaboration with
Jesse Drew, a CD-ROM exploring the political economy through
the familiar interface of an ATM machine. Premiered at the Mill
Valley Film Festival (Mill Valley) and showed at Artists Television
Access (San Francisco), Berkeley Museum of Art (Berkeley), Crucible
Steel Gallery (San Francisco), Media Alliance (San Francisco),
San Francisco State Gallery (San Francisco), the San Francisco
Art Institute (San Francisco), SF Camerawork (San Francisco) and
Tulipmania (Amsterdam). Collaborated with a metal worker to construct
a housing for the computer and monitor so that it directly resembles
an ATM machine.
- who owns the internet? (1997). Window
installation exploring the privatization of media. Artists Television
Access (San Francisco). Collaboratively conceived, constructed
and painted elements.
- welcome to the crossroads (1996). Exploring
ownership of communications and public access. Arts Commission
Gallery (San Francisco). Collaboratively conceived, constructed
and painted elements.
Pearl Ubungen
For nearly a decade, Pearl Ubungen has focused on the creation of interdisciplinary dance-theater that explores the revisioning of history and contemporary cultural/social issues through in-depth community engagement. A fourth generation Filipina American, born and raised in San Francisco, and a summa cum laude graduate in history, Ms. Ubungen has made a body of work pertaining to the Filipino Diaspora experience and has worked with other immigrant/refugee communities as well, exploring how they are re-defining themselves within a cross-cultural context.
As a choreographer, Pearl Ubungen is noted for both her captivating physicality and lyricism, and her layered, interdisciplinary approach to creating socially relevant work. She is committed to addressing social injustices through the content of her material and to bringing her work and that of like-minded artists to under served audiences.
- Founder and Choreographer, Pearl Ubungen Dancers
and Musicians (1990-2002)
- Refugee , site-specific work designed for United Nations Plaza, San Francisco Civic Center, commissioned by the San Francisco Art Commission's Market Street Art in Transit Program, based on a month-long workshop with Tenderloin residents and homeless people (1995).
- Alley Dances for "Performance in the Gutter," in
the Tenderloin's Cohen Alley, produced annually in collaboration
with the 509 Cultural Center, San Francisco (1999-2001; 1990-1993)
- I Hotel/The Fall site specific work in
San Francisco's Chinatown, with Kearny Street Workshop (1997)
- Take Me to the Tenderloin,
Now!" commissioned
by Theater Artaud and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation,
an inter-cultural, inter-generational work inspired by the perceptions
and realities of Tenderloin children (1996-97)
- Bamboo Women (1994)
- Buko (1993)
- Pinay (1992)
- "Where the Waters Meet," Kohler
Art Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin (1997-1999)
- Teaching and performances in
Germany (1993)
- Movement Research Presentation
at Judson Church/The Series, New York City (1994)
- Representative of San Francisco
at the Seoul Sister Cities Folk Festival (1994)
- Franklin Furnace Performance
Art Grant
- LACE/New Langton Arts Artist
Project Grant
- San Francisco Art Commission's
Market Street Art in Transit Project
- San Francisco Bay Guardian "Goldie" Award
for excellence and achievement in dance
- California Arts Council Choreographer's
Fellowship (1995)
- Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation
Commissioning Award to Theater Artaud and Pearl Ubungen (1996)
- McKnight National Fellow in Dance
(1999)
- Asian Cultural Council
- Asian Pacific Performing Arts
Series
- California Arts Council
- Dance Bay Area Commissioning
Project
- Meet the Composer/International
Creative Collaborations
- National Endowment for the Arts
- Zellerbach Family Fund
- Honored by the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women for "T.R.O." (Temporary
Restraining Order), a solo piece examining violence against women
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