Sonic Manila Research: explainer

PhDIA (PhD Incentive Award) will have its own update in the Spotlight tab and Collection tab because of its pivotal role to my research and practice in sound art and archiving.

Besides documentation materials on the hyperlink, on Spotlight tabl, additional essay for Listening Biennial-- expounding on the experience from Sound Camp, Symposium Exhibition and Neverending Gig, which in large part served a unique platform to gather, analyse and implement learnings from SMR.

Finally, For The Record, as a concluding project for SMR, a reflection essay and a database will be made available on Spotlight tab and Collection tab later.

Meantime, while I work on completing this site...and because of the "despite" I'm on project break now, since mid-June, which means I do not have any project at the moment, until maybe February next year. I am not in any social media anymore (I am missing on a lot of events, but I don't miss being there). I minimise social engagements (bare to none, which proved to be so helpful for my mental health). I keep minimum school load (as much as possible). And I only travel if accompanied or will have friends/ family in my destination. Concessions I agreed to, with the hope that I will have a better fighting chance to reach the age of 50 (or more...sana. Gusto ko ng Senior Citizen Card!)

Eto muna ulit. More later...hopefully 🫰

31aug2024

Notice

Sorry, no updates for now. Archiving of materials earlier deposited to Sonic Manila Research Archive (SMRchive) will be on-hold (again) starting August. But not archiving, not Sonic Manila Research. I'm working on a commissioned music archiving project. Expected completion is early 2021. I will share the output on SPOTLIGHT tab as soon as it is ready for public release. Those who would like to deposit their sound and music works and documentation of their projects to SMRchive may still do so. Please send me an email. Thanks! - dmnty, 9aug2020

Explainer 05: DEPOSIT, LOAN, DONATE

DEPOSITED material means that owner is giving SMRchive a copy of an audio work, documentation of sound or listening project. SMRchive will include these materials in the inventory that will be periodically shared on the blogsite and instagram. In the occasion that someone is interested to use the deposited material for their research, artwork, presentation or whatever possible use, SMRchive will facilitate the process of acquiring permission from owner. SMRchive does not have the right to release deposited material without permission of the owner unless expressed by the upon entry to the collection.

LOANED material is the same as deposited material, except that there is an agreement between the materials' owner and SMRchive on the length of time it will stay in the SMRchive inventory. After the period agreed the owner may decide to deposit his/her material, which means SMRchive can keep the materials for as long as the archive exists. The owner too may decide to donate his/her material to SMRchive.

DONATED material means that the owner entrusts SMRchive the full management. This means that at the time someone is interested to use the material for whatever purpose, SMRchive has the full discretion to decide whether the request will be granted or not.

Whether loaned, deposited or donated, in the occasion that the use of specific material involves money, earnings or expenses, SMRchive will not release the material until approval from the owner is secured.

Explainer 04: ENTRY TYPES

OBJECT: this means that the material entered the collection as a CD, DVD, cassette, vinyl, among others, printed photo, zine, catalogue, etc. These materials are later digitised. Original objects may be kept in my care, donated or gifted to collectors, or returned to the owner if it is just on loan.

DIGITAL: this means that the materials entered the collection as a digital file: Jpeg, Tiff, Wav, MP3, MP4a, MOV, WAV, or other format. The digital format will not be altered.

LINK: this means that SMRchive does not keep a copy of the material, instead an inventory of links are entered in the collection. This is important because of the volume of relevant materials in the internet. Among these were Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Youtube, Vimeo, private websites, among others.

Explainer 03: RECORD GROUPs

The base data for Record Grouping is generally the geographic origin of the record and/or the record author.

I am not exactly following a traditional geographic classification, instead, I am using one that is more related to how I built the starting collection.

Manila is usually my take off point as my person and practice is rooted here. Manila is anything that happens within Metro Manila and its immediate neighbouring provinces (like Rizal to the East, Cavite to the South, and Bulacan to the North… (to the West, well there’s where the controversial and much contested sea). Including neighbouring provinces reflects my claim that the network of practice does not exactly follow political boundaries (i'll try to write an explainer for this point in the future moons).

Manila may also contain activities of artists who are rooted from Manila but do projects elsewhere. For example, if a Manila artist produce an album in Hong Kong, the entry will be under Manila, not under Project Glocal Asia.

Philippines pertains to the rest of the cities in the country, with specific identification of the city where the author of the records belong or where projects happened. For example, if noise artists from Dumaguete performs in Davao, the record will be identified to belong to Dumaguete. In the future occasion that I get substantial data from one province (for example: if I get to collect 10 materials from Dumaguete), I will make its own Record Group.

Project Glocal Asia is the offshoot of my first curatorial platform. What belongs here are countries from Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the “conveniently Southeast Asia” (technically East Asia): Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. In the future occasion that I get substantial data from one country (for example: if I get to collect 30 materials from Hong Kong), I will make its own Record Group.

Asia will be the place for records gathered from all other cities in Asia.

Beyond Asia will be the place for records gathered from all other cities in continents other than Asia.

I am still within the inter-Asia framework, a hangover or something I inherited from the graduate school (aka big school).

Explainer 02: ORDER OF RECORDS

This order of records is designed to favour search efficiency.

If you know who you are looking for, read the database from left to right, which starts with the author's origin then author's name.

If you do not exactly know who you are looking for, read the database from right to left, which starts with the type of record then year of production.

<Sample call number: SMR04.02b>

Level1: Record Group

Geographic origin of the record author: Manila; Philippines; Project Glocal Asia; Asia; Beyond Asia

See Explainer03 for more details

Level2: Author of Record

Artist, curator, research head, producer, or organisation name

Can be author’s legal name or artist name/ alias, whichever is more recognisable in the field. There will be sublevel: Other Names

*Alphabetical (last name first)

Level3: Project

Sublevels: Project Type_Project Title_Data Title

Types of type: Exhibit; Performance; Research; Experiment; Talks; Conference; Symposium; Publication; Album; Program; Composition; Artwork; Field recording; Others

Level4: Year Released

All information available: yearMonthday (ex: 2020Jan25); year only (2020)

Undated will have own set

Level5: Record Type

Audio; Video; Image; Text; Link

Explainer 01: Archive, Collection, Ownership, Access, Duration

Archive: This is a digitised and digital archive. Records are kept in an offline digital data carrier. Search engine and snippets of collection highlights will be posted online on this website and/or Instagram. This is a non-profit, non-commercial, independent project.

Collection: The starting collection are records gathered from my curatorial practice, various research projects and awesome friendships. Public solicitation of materials was launched in May 2020 via this website and Instagram.

Ownership: The ownership of the records remains with the record author or whoever legally owns the copyright of the original format of the records. The archive then functions as a custodian of data, with special permission to gather, organise and promote the records for the purpose of education, production and documentation of art, science and history and culture.

Access: Access protocols and policies will be formalised when there is a substantial amount of conditions and restrictions determined with the growth of collection. Meantime, those who are interested to use any of the records in this archive is requested to email. Requests will be assessed on case-to-case basis.

Duration: This project is intended to run for at least 3 years...if I'm lucky ;)

why i'm reactivating sonic manila research now

i am reactivating sonic manila research after i have unboxed the last of my balikbayan boxes.

this is the long of it...
rewind: sonic manila research is an acoustic ecology research project i piloted in late 2014. it was intended to gather sound samples from areas in the city that have representative sonic characters. sonic character is a coined phrase that refers to sounds that represent the usual acoustic condition of a space. it is like taking a photograph of a place to show how it usually looks like. it is a project i conceived after ikotoki para, and while working on composite: environment in performance and project bakawan’s listeningterminals. as part of the artmaking process, these three required me (a curator) to try to understand sonic character of particular areas in the university of the philippines diliman campus. i started discussing possible partnership for this project with college of music, school for urban and regional planning, and the college of engineering-digital signal processing laboratory, but had to put things on hold because of some changes in my university employment.

the other rewind: in 2014 my non-tenured contract (which i held since 2007) with the university of the philippines center for ethnomusicology as collections manager and archivist expired. in its place was a 6mos contract as consultant but still without tenure-secured appointment in sight. so, i’ve decided to move to hong kong to change course, to strengthen my art by learning new things and rediscover others. i did the big school (aka phd). by august 2015 i was living and studying in faraway tuen mun, new territories, hong kong. a year after, august 2016, i was diagnosed with cancer. i had to move back to manila. change course again. while doing treatment, i was invited to teach at the university of the philippines college of fine arts on a tenure-track (i love these guys! especially my department chair, who despite my medical condition thought hiring me is a good idea.). i accepted it. after 18mos of progressive treatment (aka mutation series), i got the green light to return to hong kong to continue school; with the condition of returning to manila every month for continuation of my medical protocols. i was granted too a study-leave by the university until december 31, 2019; with the condition of returning service the semester after i graduate. i returned to the big school in january 2018. finished and passed my phd requirements in october 2019. maximising my leave privileges, i spent november and december traveling to korea, singapore, banaue (philippines), japan, hong kong again, bataan (philippines), tagaytay (philippines), singapore again. on the first day of second semester in january 2020, i finally flew back to manila, my default home.

closer to now: manila 2020 had a frantic start. too many things were happening all at the same time, which means back to the normal grind, normal pre-phd and pre-cancer. towards the second week of february i started getting ill again. troubling post-mutation days. i was compelled to cancel most of my projects and reduce my interaction with other people, especially crowds. so i was, to some degree, already social distancing and periodically on quarantine at least a month before the rest of manila.

now on lockdown: march 15, 2020 manila started the enhanced community quarantine, which was scheduled to end on april 14, then extended to april 30, then another extension to may 15 (as of this writing). as i mentioned on the other blog, this gave me "a surplus of something which i have had very little for most of my adult life: free time." and i've been spending most of this free time unbalikbayanboxing--unboxing my moving boxes and digital data carriers. i’m now in the last bit of inventorying, cataloguing and shelving my stuff. more importantly though, this unboxing inspired me (instead of changing yet course again) to pick up where I left-off in 2015, informed by 5years-rollercoaster ride of a life.

this is the short of it...
why this project in time of covid?

5may2020.manila