Through the Spectacles

Manila City, Philippines, 2010. I was with my mother and my father as they accompany me through the process of enrolling at a university in which an acquaintance of mine is also a student - a graduating student at that time. I was so naive, a young boy without a hint of what it's like to be in college or how to deal with Manila traffic and so on. While filling out some pertinent documents t the registrar's office, I was asked, "what course are you going to take?" Then the registrar staff handed over a list of all the available courses that this university offers.   My first choice was Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Advertising, followed by Nutrition and Food Technology, a technical course. As an innate lover of the arts, I was drawn instantly to the name and to the anticipation of what BFA has to offer to an aspiring creative like me.  Fast forward to 2014, I finally graduated with a degree in Fine Arts. The prior anticipation and excitement during my admission days a...

IS THE ART MARKET A SCAM? On this particular question, I would like to begin my reaction by looking at the current situation of the art market here in the Philippines. As I’ve mentioned earlier in this paper, more often than not, artists are being somewhat exploited when it comes to the major art markets because of the influences behind the pricing and exhibitions, etc. For the longest time, we think of the art market as elitist in so many ways. It has been dubbed as exclusive and snobbish - and up until now, that is very true. Fine art is always expensive, thus, the market is also the elite, on the contrary, the artists who are making these art pieces usually belong to the general class; the masses. They are not born rich and as the report stated, only a few of these artists make it to the top. One should have a good connection with a person who has already saturated the market for him or her to be endorsed or to gain more traction and to be able to connect with the right clients or c...

Dada or Dadaism, is quite a topic to be discussed especially in an art or design class. In all honesty, the notion and concepts surrounding the Dada movement are still, by far, one of the most interesting art-related topics for me because it questions the way we are being introduced to art, beauty, society, and even power itself. It is also a tool not just to show the critiques of their time; I mean, the first world war, but the works linked to Dada also show the progression of the Western art scene into modernity. The movement can also be considered a part of the many art movements during the Avant-garde period. To answer the question of whether Dada is an art or a design movement, let us define the term first - for us to have a better understanding of the subject matter. According to the MoMA Learning website, Dada emerged amid the brutality of World War I (1914–18)—a conflict that claimed the lives of eight million military personnel and an estimated equal number of civilians. ...

This journal is all about the Filipino identity of graphic design, especially in contemporary times. Graphic design has been in our global landscape since the advent of modern advertising and creative movements to support businesses and other sectors. The Philippines has always been into graphic design, we can experience it in our daily lives, we see designs, signages in the jeepneys, sari-sari stores, old cinemas, and even in our sorbetes cart. This paper aims to determine the Filipino identity of graphic design and how it affects our culture, people, and the creative industry as a whole. The methodology of gathering data will be based on the available resources online and other academic journals in the same spectrum of study. What is Graphic Design? Graphic design is a craft where professionals create visual content to communicate messages. By applying visual hierarchy and page layout techniques, designers use typography and pictures to meet users’ specific needs and focus on ...

    Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a critical theory analysis of the history, culture, literature, and discourse of (usually European) imperial power. Postcolonialism encompasses a wide variety of approaches, and theoreticians may not always agree on a common set of definitions. Raja, Masood (2019). "What is Postcolonial Studies?". Postcolonial Space. Masood Raja. Retrieved 16 July 2019. Postcolonialism states that universal claims are mistaken since they assume that a certain white, Western identity or position is the template for all people and that cultural differences are ignored. It is more of a set of interests or viewpoints than a single theory. Postcolonial theory is related to political struggles in various parts of the world – the fight for racial and ethnic equality a...

Graphic design is a very interesting topic for me because of its impact in my personal and professional life. This is my practice and my main discipline in the creative industry and I am glad that there is a topic for it, and it helped me quite a lot because of the new learnings from the reading. I would like to start with the gist of the reading edited by Helen Armstrong entitled: Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field. In this book, Armstrong compiled and edited the most important documents in line with the theories and concepts encircling the field and discipline of graphic design in a scholarly and academic manner. The book discussed the timeline of the development of graphic design, cited key personalities that contributed to the development and movements of the field, and gave some examples of the important design era. It has been said in the book that during the early 1900s, the avant-garde in graphic design emerges. The designers of the old world turned their backs on ...