Neo-Urban Planner

Neo-Urban Plan suggestion on power shortages in Manila by Diego Maranan

2010-04-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

Brownouts back in oven-hot Metro, Luzon

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:16:00 04/08/2010

Filed Under: Electricity Production & Distribution, Energy

MANILA, Philippines—As if the sizzling summer were not enough, rotating brownouts are back in Metro Manila and Luzon, shutting down air-conditioners and electric fans that help people cope with the heat.

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, said all cities and towns in its franchise area were affected by the outages Wednesday as a result of the huge power supply deficit in the Luzon grid.

continue reading: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100408-262988/Brownouts-back-in-oven-hot-Metro-Luzon

Diego Maranan suggests:

Link all the equipment in manila's gyms to power-generating

mechanism so that everytime we go on the treadmill or lift weights, we
generate electricity that is stored somewhere and is used to power...
i don't know, a giant parol. street lights. traffic lights. a
mechanical art installation.

Or if not all manila's gyms, then have a stationary bike,
power-generation center.

Show Us Your City: Neo-Urban Planner

2010-04-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.creativecities.org.uk/show-us-your-city-neo-urban-planner/
According to artist Mark Salvatus, Manila is a bustling city crying out for reinvention at a town-planning level — a reinvention which is too important to leave to the planners — and which requires input from all it’s residents.

“We are affected by these problems in the Metro Manila; why don’t we cure these problems ourselves?” Asks Salvatus | Image courtesy of Mark Salvatus

For his Show Us Your City entry Mark submitted Neo-Urban Planner, a call for discussion into the ways Manila can be reshaped, and an “online suggestion box” and starting point for engaged urbanism. Rather than pondering the possibilities all on his own Mark sent a call out to fellow city dwellers, while in residency at the Green Papaya Art Projects, to get their input and solutions.

The suggested solutions been thoughtful and playful, responding to local challenges — from seasonal flooding to transport issues to the spreading concrete grey of a rapidly growing city — in inventive ways, and have come from sources as diverse as local artists, children and the Mayor of Bogota, Colombia.

“These are suggestions from the citizens and for the benefit of the citizens,” Mark told Varsitarian. “We are affected by these problems in the Metro Manila; why don’t we cure these problems ourselves?”

“I’ve lived in the city most of my life,” Salvatus told the publication. “I have experienced the chaos of Metro Manila, and as an artist, I want to improve city life.”

“Neo-urban planning somewhat became a platform to present the people’s creative ideas for change in their cities, and eventually present these ideas to local officials.”

The project gets us all thinking: how would you re-shape your city?

Mark Salvatus is one of the shortlisted entrants in our Show Us Your City competition. Explore personal journeys through the most creative cities in East Asia with a walk in Seoul, a tribute to the suburbs of Sydney, a peek into the creative spaces of Manila, or, in Singapore, through a photo diary or a study of contested spaces. Stay tuned for more!

INTERSTITIAL SPACE ALTERNATIVES Neo-Urban Plan submission by Ma. Deborah Virata

2010-04-04T22:40:00.000-07:00

There are many unused spaces in the urban setup. One of these are the spaces under the LRT Station. Why not put the public toilets under the LRT. The sidewalks we have right now in Metro Manila are already too narrow and adding public toilets here will only be an obstacle along the walkway. Spaces under the LRT are not used so why not make them useful. The walls can also serve as a canvass for creative graffiti of artists. Utilizing stone cladding on walls and putting in more plants also add warmth on the overall ambience of the city.

Another option is to just add more plants to make the urban spaces more relaxing. Why not plant bamboos? It can resist strong winds and are also very easy to grow and easy to propagate.

Ma. Deborah Virata is an Architecture student at the University of the Philippines-Diliman

Neo-Urban Plan @ The Varsitarian

2010-02-11T00:35:00.000-08:00

Painting the town GREEN

MANY Filipinos who experience traffic jams, knee-deep floods and crater-riddled streets share the dream of rebuilding Metro Manila.
Now, they can give their recommendations on how to rehabilitate the metropolis through an online suggestion box spearheaded by street artist Mark Salvatus.
“I’ve lived in the city most of my life,” Salvatus said. “I have experienced the chaos of Metro Manila, and as an artist, I want to improve city life.”
Salvatus, a UST Fine Arts alumni, launched last February the Neo-Urban Planner, as part of his residency at the Green Papaya Art Projects, an artist-run space in Kamuning, Quezon City.
Salvatus started his Neo-Urban Planner endeavor through his blogspot account, where he posted a blog entry asking readers what they would like to change the most in their environment.
The artist said he posted questions such as, ‘If you were Bayani Fernando as the head of the MMDA, what do you want to change about our city?”
The blog post attracted a lot of feedback and suggestions.

continue reading here.

James C. Talon with reports from Alphonsus Luigi E. Alfonso and Maria Joanna Angela D. Cruz

Manila from outer space

2010-02-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

http://twitpic.com/128p5g

I've been following Astro_Soichi on twitter, taking photos from the Space Shuttle Endeavour
follow him http://twitter.com/Astro_Soichi

Neo-Urban Plan update: Pananaw 7

2010-02-10T20:53:00.000-08:00

Art and its Public/s | Broad topic: Art of/degrees of Engagement
by Lisa Ito

Locally and globally, this triennium from 2007 to 2009 was anything but serene and stable—with the unfolding downfall of the global economic oligarchy and monopoly capital, the rising threat of climate change, and intermittent disturbances throughout this archipelago of unrest.

Inescapably, such an untenable situation has left its mark—whether overtly or implicitly—in the ways that visual artists have responded to the calls of creativity. Among the impressions that the numerous exhibitions and artist initiatives from 2007-2009 have left, it is the reminder that Philippine art remains a potent response to socially-situated realities: a journey of dismantling and discarding, constructing and reconstructing, seeking the invisible and reinventing the visible.

This article attempts to thread through a quad of four disparate art projects exploring intersections between art and social reality. Situated from 2007 to 2009 in various spaces (from state cultural institutions to commercial galleries, as well as “non-art” sites of struggle from the rural areas right to the distended bowels of Metropolitan Manila), the exhibitions refresh reflections on the role of the artist in society and demonstrate how art, in activist-scholar Lucy Lippard's words, acts a “powerful partner to the didactic statement, speaking its own language...and sneaking subversively into interstices where didacticism and rhetoric can't pass.”

Confronting Urbanities, Embracing Ecologies

While the HOC workshops are situated as a response to various intersectional traumas (personal and political, racial and economic), another recent art initiative focuses on engaging facets of urbanity: the Neo-Urban Planner online project by University of Santo Tomas-based cross-disciplinary artist Mark Salvatus, as part of his residency program for Green Papaya.

Channelling the Internet and blogging as technological tools for engagement, Salvatus issued a call early this year for public submissions to reimagine and reinvent the Philippine's urban centers and their motley landscapes of crime and grime. This, of course, poses quite a conceptual challenge for a territory plagued by unprecedented environmental degradation (the World Health Organization counted Manila among the five dirtiest cities in terms of air pollution worldwide in 2005), extreme congestion and rising poverty (20 million urban poor Filipinos in slum communities).

Salvatus' brainchild is perhaps a personal response to the growth of urban sprawl since the 1970s –fuelled by growing dislocation from the countryside yet compounded by the dearth of urban employment opportunities. With both manufacturing and agriculture down, a situation ensues where the state of urbanization seen is not necessarily contiguous to development or national industrialization. As cofounder of Pilipinas Street Plan artists community, Salvatus' previous engagements in bringing art out into the metropolis (through graffiti and other street art forms) now takes a reverse tack and tries to bring the city into art space this time around.

The project is an exercise in changing the landscape of the metropolis and an interesting counterpoint to the practices of the infamous Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the government agency which chalked up a lengthy list of controversies in pursuing the metropolitan transformations it conceptualized (lightning demolitions of urban poor communities, displacements of street vendors, construction of an elevated U-turn overpass, the Valentine's Day massacre of trees along Katipunan Avenue, urban 'facelifts' that painted the city in ubiquitous Sanrio pink and blue). Salvatus asks the public re-imagine their selves in the place of the MMDA, identified with huge dispensatory and administrative mandate over the metropolitan landscape, and to do as they wish.

Interestingly, the reference to the MMDA in the Neo-Urban Planner project finds resonance in Fallen Map, where Anading's fallen pieces of gaily-colored rubble recall the swaths of “MMDA art” (a “beautification” program aiming to literally whitewash and overlay the works of vandals-- including graffiti and revolutionary or progressive slogans--with gay geometrical designs) but then break that allusion down into a crumbling edifice. Far from pursuing the path of MMDA art, Neo-Urban Planner directs improvement and creativity towards community-centric advancement rather than expanding state-sponsored aberrations. Speaking from the point of view as a citizen-artist, Salvatus asks: What is our role in changing the city?

Following the online responses to the artist's call for neo-urban planners were ideas that were green, clean, people-friendly and doable–no pink overpasses and community demolitions this time around. Ranging from backyard tips to city-wide plans, these belied a concern for upholding the ecological, cultural, and economical: a (finally) clean Pasig River, comprehensive mass transportation and railway system, urban planning around architectural heritage, contingency plans for the perenially-submerged Camanava (Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas,

-Valenzuela) district, canopied streets, judicious use of concrete, and small-scale adoption of renewable energy technologies. In the process of soliciting suggestions, Salvatus later on engaged in a collaborative community-based art workshop with children from the Parola compound in Binondo, Manila, using clay art to model their aspirations for the city where they were born.

Mark Salvatus: KUNG AKO SI BF: THE NEO-URBAN PLAN PROJECT AS AN EXERCISE IN ETHNOAESTHETICS

2010-02-10T20:48:00.000-08:00

This paper was presented in collaboration with Lauren Villarama of UP-D CSSP at the 31st (UGAT) Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao / Anthropological Association of the Philippines Annual Conference
"The (Re)Making of Cities and its Consequences."
22-24 October 2009
Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro City

The Neo-Urban Plan

The Neo-Urban Plan is an ongoing online project initiated by multimedia artist Mark Salvatus. Through the blog Neo-Urban Planner, he called for ideas on how to ‘improve’ or ‘change’ cities. Salvatus aimed to make the project as the bridging tool for an interactive dialogue between the city and the people who live in it. Salvatus envisioned the project to be a platform to present creative change coming from the people/”city dwellers” themselves, and that the ideas they come up with would eventually be presented to city administrators, local officials, and yes, the MMDA. The project did not specify any particular city or urban area—participants were free to choose the locale of their suggestions. The project sparked interest from different sectors—plans were received from individuals and organizations of different backgrounds, and prompting these “neo-urban planners” to present their ideas amid an audience.

To jumpstart the project, Mark Salvatus posted a ‘sample plan’: putting hanging gardens on footbridges. He also suggested the use of boats for Manila’s CaMaNaVa area, referring to the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela. These areas experience perennial flooding even when there are no heavy rains, due to its location by bay. Salvatus toyed with the idea to ‘convert’ parts of CaMaNaVa into floating markets—much like that of Thailand. “I have been to the floating market and someone told me that it was a flood zone area. The residents made it sustainable by turning their flooded community into a market and a tourist spot,” Salvatus wrote in the Neo-Urban Planner blog. His urban plan then was to make the most out of a problem—turning this into a solution. Of course, it would be better if those living in those areas would come up with this idea on their own.

Here are just a few of the submissions for the Neo-Urban Plan so far:

Setting the mood with photography. The project launch opened with a slideshow presentation of images taken around Manila by photo enthusiast Gem Urdaneta. The presentation became a guessing/memory game of sorts as the audience tried to identify what the shots were of and where these were taken. It “set the mood” for an urban-centric discussion and made the audience “re-view” the city and its structures that are often taken for granted when one sees it on a daily basis.

Greening the city. Educator Diego Maranan laid out a detailed plan:

1) Have 80% of all exposed cement, concrete, or metal in the city covered in a creeping plant of some sort, like ivy
2) Find or bioengineer great, big, tall, sturdy, flexible trees that can withstand typhoons and have massive canopies and blanket the city under interlocking canopies
3) Ban the use of concrete in certain areas or certain structures. Only volcanic ash, wood, bamboo, recycled plastic, rubber, brick, mud, straw, whatever is appropriate
4) Link all the equipment in Manila's gyms to a power-generating mechanism so that every time we go on the treadmill or lift weights, we generate electricity that is stored somewhere and is used to power... Street lights. Traffic lights. A mechanical art installation. Or if not all of Manila's gyms, then have a stationary bike/power-generation center.
5) Go to communities and ask people to model their ideal version of the city using children's clay.

Comfort for all. Art writer Clarissa Chikiamco suggested turning the for-males-only urinals into “real” public toilets in bus stops.

More than just child’s play. Interestingly, from the online project Salvatus also received an invitation to conduct a workshop at the Museo Pambata in Manila about mapping and clay city planning together with the Children’s Advocates Program. The workshop, titled “Clay City,” allowed the children residing in the Parola Compound in Tondo, Manila to be urban planners for a day (February 28, 2009). The workshop also supported Diego Maranan’s suggestion to ask people to model their ideal version of the city using children’s clay.

Aside from the submitted suggestions for the Neo-Urban Plan, the initiating artist invited individuals and groups who deal with the urban environment as their subject of interest to weekly presentations at the host gallery. The presentations ranged from art talks, visual art exhibitions, and film screenings. These presentations gave an insight to the urban culture that inspired the participants.

Graffiti artists presented a short audio-visual on why they paint the streets; a discussion on the skating culture of Manila was also conducted; and even the emerging alternative sport parkour was given its time in the NUP limelight. Young contemporary conceptual artists created visual and audio representations/interpreta

tions of the city (Wesley Valenzuela for the visual aspect and Buen Calubayan for the sound art). Wesley Valenzuela’s graphic images morph into layers of human figures with other familiar elements of the streets of Manila.

The presentations, though not suggestions for change as called for by the NUP, nonetheless showed the urbanscape and lifestyle as experienced and expressed by the graffiti artists, skaters, parkours, and conceptual artists who participated in the project. The sharing of ideas and thoughts about the city created for them a placeworld—a shared understanding of the city, of what the city is for them—that is worth exploring.

Implications of the NUP Project
At this point it is important to note that, with the exception of the children of Parola Compund, most of the suggestions and presentations were by people from Salvatus’ own network of young artists and urban culture ‘colleagues’. Nonetheless, to derive their sense of aesthetics, it is necessary to ask “why” in inquiring the reason behind the suggestions.

[The next ‘phase’ of the project (and the ongoing study) should then be a more in-depth analysis of the submitted suggestions and presentations. How did they arrive at these ideas?]

The NUP, in creating a shared understanding of urban space as experienced by the participants, created a placeworld with a common view of urban culture—hip, expressive, leaning on the visual, and questioning what is functional and aesthetic. In submitting their suggestions and presentations, the participants of the NUP allowed us to look at their own aesthetics and sense of what is appropriate for a place, what their city should have.

Looking back at the suggestions cited here, we can give a short analysis of what constitutes the placeworld of the participants and their sense of aesthetics as they exercised it: for example, in Diego Maranan’s suggestion, exposed cement, concrete, or metal in the city should be covered in a creeping plant, like ivy. This could mean that “bare” exposed cement is aesthetically ‘lacking’ or unappealing, and also, considering the rest of his suggestion, he would like to have a ‘green’ city with its own power-generating capacities. In turn, what do his suggestions imply about the city? We must also note that he was the one who suggested asking people to model their ideal version of the city. This certainly is a participatory activity that can be part of future urban planning. On another aspect, Clarissa Chikiamco’s suggestion to create public toilets for males and females is an implication of the desire to have an equal comfort zone for all, not just for the males who need to pass water every now and then. The suggestion looks more aesthetically appealing too (as for the “olfactory aesthetics” however, we’ll just have to see).

The initiating artist’s own suggestion, to use boats for flood-prone areas, turning these into livelihood must-haves not only used for fishing but also for trade, suggests a growing consciousness of climate change and a sense of necessity for climate change adaptation, to be proactive instead of reactive.

Taking off from the sustainable suggestions, the Neo-Urban Plan also hosted a mini-exhibit of the winners of the YP Design Challenge, a competition that “seeks to encourage young design professionals to apply their creative abilities and design skills to projects addressing real community needs.” The winning designs, according to Salvatus, can be models for housing institutions and providers like the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Gawad Kalinga. The suggestion was for these institutions to consider the type of designs lauded in the competition—low-cost and environment-friendly housing but with a very high aesthetic value—in the houses they build.

The Neo-Urban Plan, as an exercise in ethnoaesthetics, elicited people’s vision of a city and the changes that they would like to see made to improve their surroundings and the way they live. It also opened our eyes to certain aspects of the process of urban planning that may have been lacking—in particular, the engagement of those who live in the city. Through the NUP, previously disempowered individuals and groups were given a semblance of power to control how cities look, a form of artistic license to participate in the production of designed spaces. From passive viewers of the changes going on in the city (including the pink-and-bluing), the participants became proactive urban planners, albeit only visually, online, or through projects and activities such as the design competition and clay city building. As art writer Lisa Ito put it, the Neo-Urban Plan “directs improvement and creativity towards community-centric advancement rather than expanding state-sponsored aberrations.”

‘Inward’ thoughts
One thing I learned by doing community development work is that when people have a sense of ownership, they tend to protect or take care of what is owned and not alien structures. When one sees more of the self in programs, projects, and structures, one becomes more responsible, and there is a conscious effort to build or work toward the advancement of these programs and, in the context of this study, structures. Thus, a strategy used by local governments is to say “alagaan ang lungsod—atin ito,” to instill a sense of community and to elicit cooperation. Note that most vandals are on walls and structures marked “government property.”

The Neo-Urban Plan is an example of a ground-up instead of a top-down plan for a city, to use terms commonly used in community development. This gives ‘urban development’ a positive meaning to people, instead of connoting that ‘development’ simply means more sidewalk clearing operations, more (not-so-people-friendly) footbridges, and more concrete.

Recommendations and Challenges

What’s next for the project?
• The project has had a good start in providing an avenue for the expression of ethnoaesthetics. The continuation of the project is crucial in maintaining a dialogue about how people experience their placeworlds and in eliciting ideas for development.
• The ideas and suggestions submitted for the NUP would remain ‘in the air’ unless these are realized/put to action/concretized with the cooperation and participation of the governing bodies concerned, in particular, local city planners and yes, the MMDA.
• It is also recommended that more participatory activities in urban planning are conducted, not only in Metro Manila, but in other areas as well. Local governments and city planners together with the communities may collaborate and conduct their own ‘versions’ of the project, with participatory aesthetics as the main idea behind the planning. The resulting project must enable communities to express their own visions of and ambitions for public space—why waste funds on structures that have no meaning for a people?
• Taking off from the earlier suggestions, it would be best to include plans for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation (as is appropriate per area) in future ideas.

What’s next for anthropology?
The challenge for Philippine anthropology now is to use our knowledge of ethnoaesthetics and the significance of placeworlds in pursuing studies related to space (conflicting spaces, embodied spaces, etc.), urban aesthetics, and urban planning and be able to apply these to wherever these are appropriate and necessary.

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The Children's Advocacy Program or CAP is an alternative educational program that aims to help children understand and appreciate their roles in their families, schools, communities, and in society. It uses the child-to-child approach wherein children advocates serve as mentors who help inspire other disadvantaged Filipino children through outreach activities in schools and communities. Children advocates are chosen from various street children centers and disadvantaged communities and are exposed to workshops, field trips and film showings to enhance their awareness on identity, nation-building, rights and values formation. CAP is a venue for children to learn how to formulate ideas and speak their minds on issues affecting them. [http://www.museopambata.org/]

______________________

WEDNESDAYS i'm-n-love OPEN PLATFORM RESIDENCY (WOP) is an experimental and creative laboratory for new artistic explorations in contemporary visual arts, performance, and new media. Six local artists/curators/researchers have been selected to present their current tendencies and creative investigations for a once-week critical exchange via screenings, conversations, performance and temporal exhibitions for a period of two months at Green Papaya Art Projects. During the residency the artists will develop and/or produce their works (literary, writing, video, performance, painting and plastic art) referenced on the creative environment and experience brought about by the Wednesdays happenings while negotiating the exigencies of documentation and archiving. The outputs of all six participants will be presented in a culminating exhibition and publication after one year of WOP Residency completion as part of Green Papaya's calendar for 2009. W.O.P RESIDENCY is a program of Green Papaya Art Projects and supported by Arts Network Asia. [http://wednesdaysmnlove.blogspot.com]

References
Young, Jane M. (1998). Ethnoaesthetics. in Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music and Art (Hardcover). Edited by Thomas A. Green. Published by ABC-CLIO.

Gordon, Eric & Gene Koo. (2008). Placeworlds: Using Virtual Worlds to Foster Civic Engagement. in
Space and Culture vol. 11 no. 3, August 2008 204-221. Sage Publications.

Ito, Lisa. (2009). Art and its Public/s | Broad topic: Art of/degrees of Engagement . Pananaw 7.

http://www.greenpapayaartprojects.org/
http://papayapost.blogspot.com/
http://neourbanplanner.blogspot.com
http://ypdesignchallenge.tao-pilipinas.org/
http://www.museopambata.org/
http://wednesdaysmnlove.blogspot.com

Pilipinas Street Plan

2009-05-28T23:42:00.001-07:00

Neo-Urban Plan report - Green Papaya Art Projects WOP Residency

2009-05-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

Neo-Urban Plan | Mark Salvatus

January – February 2009

The projects that I did during my two-month W.O.P. residency at Green Papaya revolved around urbanism and urban culture. I was very ambitious when I proposed three projects—Neo-Urban Planner; Connecting Urban Spaces; and Street Art Locator Map. I am very happy with the outcome as I had virtually realized my dreams of being an urban planner and architect.

Neo-Urban Planner was an online project wherein I created a blog and called for ideas on how to improve or change our cities. The open call was an interactive dialogue between the city and its dwellers.

The project was to become a platform to present the people’s creative ideas for change in their cities and eventually present these ideas to city administrators, local government officials, or the MMDA. The online project sparked interest from different sectors—receiving “plans” from individuals and organizations of different backgrounds, thus creating a new breed of urban planners. Some plans received were from writer Lisa Chikiamco, media artist Diego Maranan, and illustrator Joan Medrano, among others.

From this online project, I also received invitations to facilitate workshops at the Museo Pamabata in Manila on mapping and clay city planning with the Children’s Advocates program, and an informal invitation from the Calapan City administration in Mindoro to make their city as a “laboratory” for the Neo-Urban Plan.

Urban Culture

Aside from the received suggestions from the online call, I also invited individuals and organizations who are dealing with our urban environment as their subject of interest and how they see our cities in different perspectives and to present their projects on the weekly W.O.P. gig. From talks, exhibitions and screenings, these presentations were very insightful, spontaneous, fun, and very engaging.

January 7, 2009 was the first presentation of Neo-Urban Planners and I invited photographer Gem Urdaneta to present her Flickr photos of our neglected city and become a guessing game in the end and it was really fun; media artist and radio hacker Jong Pairez’s presented his Postal Box project – an intervention of stickers in postal boxes and mapping as an immigrant in Tokyo, and Buen Calubayan’s sound installation of Manila’s chaotic streets was set up in the second floor of the gallery. It was packed with an eager audience; they interacted earnestly with the presenters and asked questions that ranged from light-hearted queries to more serious ones.

The next presentation (January 21, 2009) was very spontaneous and was not meticulously planned—but it was a hit! After coming back from Kuala Lumpur, I asked award-winning photographer Veejay Villafranca to show his Marked project—a series of photographs of gangs of Baseco, a shipping compound which is now one of the poorest neighborhoods in Manila. His black and white photographs show the underground culture of gangs and its daily muddle of poetry and malady in the dystopian paradise of Baseco.

We also had an instant talk show on stencil-making by graffiti artist Vermonyo of Pilipinas Street Plan—explaining his process of making large format stencils. A deck art exhibition and conversation on skating culture in the Philippines by Datu of 27+20, visual artist Ferdz Valencia and Okto of Pilipinas Street Plan was the funniest and most engaging part of the evening—they discussed the brief history of the culture of skating from the 80’s up to the present and how the movement merged with fashion, design, art, and sport.

And to cap off the night, I screened BCBruta’s video on their “bombing” of Barcelona. BCBruta is a group of street artists in Spain who are changing the colors of their city with manchas and pinturas.

The following week saw a multimedia exhibition that I curated, which brought together artists from Manila, Bangkok, and Madrid. The exhibition’s main theme was urban environment.

Visual artist Wesley Valenzuela made a huge poster of his graphic images that morphed layers of human figures with other familiar elements of the streets of Manila—jeepneys, stars, dogs, and guns, among others. Madrid-based cross-disciplinary artist Kristoffer Ardena showed his project Talking Walls (2006), a series of graffiti photos in Madrid. As a Filipino living in Spain, he collected these “texts-as-images” or “images-as-texts” that was both familiar and foreign—because these images can similarly be found in walls in Quiapo or Sta. Cruz or Madrid.

There were two video screenings that night; the first is from Filipino multi-media artist Mannet Villariba—Idolatry, a performance video he presented at the NIPAF in the streets of Shinjuku in Tokyo, Japan. The second screening was supposed to be of visual artist and music video director Jay Pacena, but did not get a copy of his video on time. Instead, I presented Silencio, a short film by Thai filmmaker Sivaroj Kongsaku. The film was shown at the 12th Thai Short Film and Video Festival in Bangkok last year. Andrea Teran’s Monthly Period Readings also graced the evening.

I was very excited that the subsequent weeks of presentations became very diverse—and even the audience became very diverse—people came in from the NGO sectors, and there were students and unfamiliar faces who are not members of the usual artsy crowd.

Upon Donna Miranda’s suggestion to look for the YP Design Challenge—we were lucky to talk to TAO-PILIPINAS, a women-led NGO of professionals in architecture and urban planning that gives technical assistance to urban poor communities. They presented their different projects and one of these is the YP Design Challenge—a competition open to all architecture students in Metro Manila to design sustainable houses, playgrounds, and other spaces for urban dwellers. Aside from the presentation, the Design Challenge winners brought their winning designs and had an instant exhibition of their plans together with the scale models. These designs are just models or suggestions for institutions like National Housing Authority (NHA) or Bahay Kalinga to consider sustainable designs—which are not only low-cost and environment-friendly, but also have a high aesthetic value. Another interesting presentation was from the Philippine FreeRunners, a group of parkour/free running practitioners shared their jumps and glides that made our cityscapes as their big playground. It was also funny that these architects and free runners have the same tastes regarding the different contours and forms of the urban landscape.

Connecting Urban Spaces

I curated a multimedia exhibition that started as a “virtual office” where we investigated, discussed, and developed multi-disciplinary works about cityscapes and urban environments to produce a physical space show. In line with the idea of connecting and researching these urban spaces with a nomadic perspective that the artist is working with, the artists documented their environments using digital technology such as photography, video, and sound for four months.

The project was a collaborative effort among artist-run organizations: web-based group Wooloo.org from Germany, Emmay Thomas Gallery in Brazil and Green Papaya Art Projects in the Philippines.

Participating artists are: Adriano Casanova (Brazil/UK), Rafael Suriani (Brazil/France), Nick Buer (UK), Aline Vondder Assen (Germany), Samantha Orui (Brazil), Marcus Bastos (Brazil), Mark Salvatus (Philippines), Claudio Bueno (Brazil), Denise Agassi (Brazil), Nacho Duran (Brazil), Agustina Barthes (Argentina), Daniel Medina (Venezuela), Juan Estanislao Ortiz (Argentina), Noemie Benezeth (France), Sebastian Bravo (Chile), and Monica Meireles (Mexico).

The last presentation (February 25, 2009) was a quick run-down of what happened during the six weeks of presentations. I also met, for the first time, the ANA people who supported this project; they were in Manila for the peer panel meeting at Green Papaya.

The Neo-Urban Plan is by far the most unique and ambitious process-based project that I have done. Even if the W.O.P. program is over, the online project still continues. Many opportunities are opening up because of this project; the most recent is an invitation for a dialogue with the former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia, who will be visiting Manila this May. The meeting is organized and supported by the Ayala Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Bibliography / Press

De la Paz, Gino. Draft Punk. Manila: Supreme, Philippine Star, January 2009

Mahino, September. City by Design. Manila, Garage Magazine, February 2009

Razon, Lila Anne. Urban Plan, Mark Salvatus urges everyone to rethink and reimagine the city. Manila, Stella Magazine, February 2009

Links:

http://neourbanplanner.blogspot.com/

http://connectingurbanspaces.blogspot.com/

http://www.iu.dsnc.art.br/

http://pilipinastreetplan.blogspot.com/

http://www.tao-pilipinas.org/

projects/events at GP for WOP

CONNECTING URBAN SPACES / WEDNESDAYS OPEN PLATFORM
ARTS NETWORK ASIA (ANA) INTERPHASE
MEDIA ARTS MANILA (MAM) FIELD TRIP

FEBRUARY 25, BAR OPENS 7PM, ANA RECEPTION AT 8PM, MAM FIELD TRIP AT 9PM

Surely it has been said many times over that nothing lasts forever. No matter how strongly we delay such encounter, it is also at the same time inevitable. But endings are nothing but mere temporal constraints, fluid at the same time malleable. The means to transgress the boundaries will persist but not to be approached without caution. Mark Salvatus caps off his two month W.O.P residency, delivering a state-of-the-metro sorts for his last presentation. And because we like things to be auspiciously arranged according to the arbitrary arrangement of planetary constellation, be prepared for a hearty evening of talks, presentations, food, booze and sound as Arts Network Asia (ANA) throws a little reception for the evening. Lastly, Media Arts Manila (MAM) pays us a little visit with an excursion of field recordings and soundscapes of corporeal and imagined environments. So do pay us a visit, there is much in store for everyone in the family.

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Feb 18, 2009

It is easy to dismiss virtual environments as pale renditions of our alternate lives, utopian visions and replacements for interpersonal interaction but its inevitability remains. While junkies attest to its necessity, cynics remain doubtful. And yet no doubt there is comfort in knowing that no one lives in isolation any longer. Almost dreadful in fact, you can run but never hide. Could it be true that each one of us will always long for some kind of connection no matter how strange, circumstantial, perverse or 'unreal' it is. Our favorite wise man once said that appearances work in so far to sustain our belief. Then there is also that question of increasing homogeneity masked behind divergence, plurality and open societies.

There remains the disputable dictum: the devil is in the details. Or is it god? Unknown to most, new nomadic communities have been cropping up thanks to that new dystopian universe called the web. This Wednesday as growing networks both oblique and congruent slide into each other's reality, Mark Salvatus continues with his residency presenting the online project Connecting Urban Spaces together with a nomadic artistic community built the last two years. If you are beginning to get used to our incessant calls to go out and get over the hump, here we are again calling out its never late nor too early the week to go out.

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URBAN PLAN WEDNESDAYS OPEN PLATFORM February 4 When the notorious writing on the wall "No to work" appeared on the streets of Paris in the 60s little did we think that in the 21st century thousands of people would loose their jobs everyday. As of yesterday close to 11,000 overseas migrant workers were laid off in Macau. Meanwhile, the Department of Labor predicts that 800,000 workers in export-oriented industries such as electronic are at risk of losing their livelihood because of the global financial crises. The easy speak of crisis versus opportunities won't be so easy to grasp. The little obscure group of situationists in France must be boisterous and laughing secretly over wine, saying 'we told you so.' Obviously the only solution is to succumb and drift. To drop out of work and leisure and be drawn by the attractions of a ravaged terrain and encounters we find in the psycho-geographic subversion of crass cosmopolitanism. And because it is almost obvious that we have exhausted 'the world' it is only but logical to drop out and turn our heads away. Instead, listening to secret hum-drum of promoting sustainable communities. No this is not about buying those 'green' fabrics, environment friendly designer tote/shopping bags or even buying franchise coffee beans grown by poor farmers in Africa. This Wednesday, Mark Salvatus invites Philippine FreeRunners, TAO-Pilipinas, Diego Maranan and YP-Design Challenge Winners to present their winning designs to make the world a better place. Undeniably love will heal the world. So, come and feel the love! No, don't wait till that barbaric Valentines day, it may all
be too late.

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Feeble attempts to conjecture cosmic collisions and astrological fluctuations should be shamelessly dismissed as purely superstitious. In no way can the backward movement of Mercury towards the sun affect interpersonal communication, business, travel and the like. Delays and introspection are of course, caused by more sinister emergent events such as a freak road accident, broken alarm clocks, crowded commuter trains, engine trouble, a new US president, police raid or even the partial eclipse of the sun. Still the only thing that can derail utopian visions of urban life can come from lack of inspiration or sleep, perhaps. So come over this Wednesday as we continue to sketch the cities we love most as Mark Salvatus invites Kristoffer Ardeña, Jay Pacena, Mannet Villariba and Wesley Valenzuela for another weekly affair. And because nothing is ever enough, Andrea Teran's Monthly Period Readings come back after a two months hiatus (thanks to that overdrawn holiday back in 2008) hosting Writers in Conversation between Mabi David and Mark Cayanan. As usual we expect you to beat that midweek hump, see you on Wednesday.

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URBAN PLAN
WEDNESDAYS OPEN PLATFORM JANUARY 21, BAR OPENS 7PM

The reason for those jarring calls of apocalyptic renewal lies not in the obvious impossibility of tranquil afternoon strolls by the bay but in the delicate breakdown of city dwellers navigating the land-locked streets of Manila. Meanwhile, the cool pleasant breeze fails to soothe the mad morning rush. Drifting is probably not a bad idea after all. Perhaps an ultimate act manifest of the resolve to reject the all-encompassing aim towards productivity. Again, we take yet another undisclosed tour of the Metro this Wednesday as Mark Salvatus' Neo-Urban Plan brings us into the underbelly of our beloved city/ies with video screenings, stencils, skateboard deck art, and slide presentations by BCBruta (Barcelona), Vermon Yo, Okto+Ferdz and Veejay Villafranca. Come, be warm and coozy this Wednesday night at Green Papaya.

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JANUARY 7, BAR OPENS 7PM
WOP RESIDENT MARK SALVATUS WITH
GEM URDANETA, BUEN CALUBAYAN AND JONG PAIREZ

"Kidnap someone and make them happy." Wear your Sunday best and catch a ferry ride along Pasig River. Remember to close your eyes, lest you miss out on devilish details of history. Stroll along the least navigated paths; under the bridge; the dark, crowded, and rowdy eskinita and leave your markings. Never mind the looming disorientation, burning heat of the sun nor the sticky pungent city smells, our stories are woven in the streets. Our lives unfolding between the public and private. Should it all be too much to bear, there is nothing else left to do but throw kisses in the air. If you can't beat them don't even try.

How do we write the city? In varying degrees of love and hate? Mark Salvatus, WOP resident, embarks on a stroll of our beloved cities to investigate how artists, creatives, by-standers, and the public see the city in different perspectives. Taking a step further and begging committed actions. Yes, opinions will be strongly solicited. Kicking off his eight-week residency is an introduction to Neo-Urban Planner along with a presentation from Gem Urdaneta, sound installation from Buen Calubayan and Jong Pairez's Postal Box Project. The holidays are finally over, we can be normal once again! See you for the initial installment of Urban Plan.

Neo-Urban Plan Submission

2009-05-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

submission by Clarisa Chikiamco - Pink urinals into real public toilet in bus stops

Neo-Urban Plan Project update: Invitatition- Dialog with the former Mayor of Bogota, Columbia

2009-04-29T20:37:00.000-07:00

I didn't expect that my Neo-Urban Plan Project will be this serious... I was invited to have a dialogue with the former Mayor of Bogota, Mr. Enrique Penalosa about urban planning.
Mr. Penalosa was in town to present his insights about new approaches in urban planning that he did in Bogota and maybe can be a model plan for Manila or Cebu.

Enrique Penalosa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrique_Pe%C3%B1alosa

From the dialog, he said about the good effect on decongesting high volume of traffic with the BRT system in Bogota, and now the second largest city in the Philippines (Cebu) will adopt its concept.

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In Cebu Daily News report, Cebu City Planning and Development Officer Nigel Paul Villarete told that BRT system will be a more feasible mode of public transportation for Cebu City because its capital costs are lower compared to a metro rail system.

Cost is not the only variable being considered. Bus rapid transit (BRT) system has been admired and proven for its effectiveness in easing mobility of the people. Besides the system has been found flexible on its implementation.

more reports here:

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/brt-approved

Bus rapid transit (BRT) is a term applied to a variety of public transportation systems that use buses to provide a service that is of a higher speed than an ordinary bus line. Often this is achieved by making improvements to existing infrastructure, vehicles and scheduling. The goal of these systems is to approach the service quality of rail transit while still enjoying the cost savings of bus transit. The expression BRT is mainly used in North America; in Europe and Australia, it is often called a busway, while elsewhere, it may be called a quality bus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_rapid_transit

photo from http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=623368&page=2502

Cebu City
from wikicommon

Neo-Urban Plan: Clay City + Parola Compound

2009-03-30T01:50:00.000-07:00

Clay City
workshop at Museo Pambata ng Maynila
Feb 28, 2009

These kids are from Parola Compound in Manila (Binondo side), "Looban" - a walled slum maze-like neighborhood.

First, I asked them to draw their community- mapping their neighborhood - drawing their houses and other structures like stores, bakery, internet shop, basketball court, barber shop, school, water well etc. and they explained their typical day in the community...

Since all of them live in Parola (except Xtian who is from Pandacan), I asked them to model thier ideal "Parola" using children's clay... and these kids has an amazing grand plan for their community...

*Planning their ideal city/community (construction site)

After doing the activity, the kids invited me to come with them in Parola... and it would be nice to see their actual neighborhood and suddenly I realized that I am already riding with them in a motorized pedicab flying along Roxas blvd! hehe. They toured me around the maze- amazing! hehe

It's a very unique experience - I remember hearing the Poverty Tourism of India and Brazil
But I went there not as a tourist but for my new friends.

These kids has a grand plan for their community and maybe we can realize their plan in the near future...

Their actual neigborhood in Parola Compound

*This is part of Mark Salvatus’ Neo-Urban Plan project that was developed during his 2-month residency at Green Papaya Art Projects and Diego Maranan’s suggestion (from the online call) to ask people to model their ideal version of the city using children's clay. The project is a collaboration with the Children's Advocacy Program of Museo Pambata

The Children's Advocacy Program or CAP is an alternative educational program that aims to help children understand and appreciate their roles in their families, schools, communities, and in society. It uses the child-to-child approach wherein children advocates serve as mentors who help inspire other disadvantaged Filipino children through outreach activities in schools and communities. Children advocates are chosen from various street children centers and disadvantaged communities and are exposed to workshops, field trips and film showings to enhance their awareness on identity, nation-building, rights and values formation. CAP is a venue for children to learn how to formulate ideas and speak their minds on issues affecting them.

http://neourbanplanner.blogspot.com/
http://www.museopambata.org/

Neo-Urban Plan: Clay City

2009-03-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

*Selected street and urban poor children from Parola in Tondo.

This is part of Mark Salvatus’ Neo-Urban Plan project that was developed during his 2-month residency at Green Papaya Art Projects and Diego Maranan’s suggestion (from the online call) to ask people to model their ideal version of the city using children's clay. The project is a collaboration with the Children's Advocacy Program of Museo Pambata

The Children's Advocacy Program or CAP is an alternative educational program that aims to help children understand and appreciate their roles in their families, schools, communities, and in society. It uses the child-to-child approach wherein children advocates serve as mentors who help inspire other disadvantaged Filipino children through outreach activities in schools and communities. Children advocates are chosen from various street children centers and disadvantaged communities and are exposed to workshops, field trips and film showings to enhance their awareness on identity, nation-building, rights and values formation. CAP is a venue for children to learn how to formulate ideas and speak their minds on issues affecting them.

*Please donate used or new children's clay for the said workshop, thank you. ;-)

http://www.museopambata.org/

Green City- Neo-Urban Plan submission

2009-03-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

1) Have 80% of all exposed cement, concrete, or metal in the city
covered in a creeping plant of some sort, like ivy

2) Find or bioengineer great, big, tall, sturdy, flexible trees that
can withstand typhoons and have massive canopies and blanket the city
under interlocking canopies

3) Ban the use of concrete in certain areas or certain structures.
Only volcanic ash, wood, bamboo, recycled plastic, rubber, brick, mud,
straw, whatever is appropriate

4) Link all the equipment in manila's gyms to power-generating
mechanism so that everytime we go on the treadmill or lift weights, we
generate electricity that is stored somewhere and is used to power...
i don't know, a giant parol. street lights. traffic lights. a
mechanical art installation.

Or if not all manila's gyms, then have a stationary bike,
power-generation center.

5) Go to communities and ask people to model their ideal version of
the city using children's clay. Then have their models realized in
exactly that way, complete with all the sinuous curves and
imperfections of the medium.

submitted by Diego Maranan

Neo-Urban Plan update- a plan for CaMaNaVa area (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela)

2009-01-27T22:55:00.000-08:00

Flooding due to typhoons and the rising of sea level (global warming) is one of the major problems in Metro Manila especially in CAMANAVA area- and here are some grand ideas for that region.

Floating cities

http://weburbanist.com/2008/03/09/5-floating-utopia-and-ocean-city-projects-from-seafaring-condos-to-to-oceanic-micronations/

The Freedom Ship project is a serious step up from ResidenSea but also unbuilt as of yet, though 1/5 of the on-board living units have already been sold. The concept? A mile-long, energy self-sufficient floating city with absolutely everything included from parks and playgrounds to apartments, businesses, schools, casinos and shopping malls. It will also be fully networked for phone and internet communications.

For a more realistic plan for CaMaNaVa im thinking of ala-Floating Market like in Thailand

From this (Navotas/Malabon)

To this (Bangkok)

From this (Malabon)

To this (Bangkok)

I have been to the floating market and someone told me that it was a flood zone area. The residents made it sustainable by turning their flooded community into a market and a tourist spot.

This are some ideas for the Neo-Urban Plan project and hope you can share some plans too!
This is open to all!

for more details on how you can participate check http://neourbanplanner.blogspot.com/
or http://markrams.multiply.com/journal/item/130/Open_Call_for_Neo-Urban_Planners

email your plans to markrams@yahoo.com

This project is supported by

Open Call for Neo-Urban Planners

2008-12-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

Open Call for Neo-Urban Planners

Project by Mark Salvatus @ Green Papaya (Jan-Feb 2009)
WEDNESDAYS i'm-n-love OPEN PLATFORM
http://neourbanplan ner.blogspot. com/

*What if you were tasked to take over MMDA (Metro Manila Development Authority) and make a new urban plan? What will you do? What will you change? Be creative! be innovative! It can be simple to grand / utopian plan... or serious to fun-unrealistic one... grab your camera and roam the city and see what you can do...

Urbanization
In a 1975 survey, one out of three people all over the world live in urban areas, with most of the 1.5 billion "urbanites" living in districts with less than a million residents. (Many of these urban dwellers, in fact, live in communities with a population of less than 5,000) Over the years, the urban residency has swelled significantly that half of the world's population is living in cities. Parallel to this growth in urban population (and the continuous rise of smaller cities) is the emergence of "mega-cities" -- urban areas of no less than 10 million people.

Between 1975 and 2005, the number of mega-cities has grown from a meager three (two of which were in industrialized, first-world countries) to a record-breaking 20 (with 15 of them belonging in developing nations).

SOURCE: United Nations Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects:
The 2005 Revision (2006).

Layers

In East Asia alone, more than 2 million people have moved into urban areas. The rapid exodus to these specific areas indicates more opportunities in wealth and a chance for a better future for some. In the Philippines, where the Metro Manila region is the official hub of economy, education, and contemporary culture, more and more people from the rural areas are moving into the city to try their luck. Away from home, these people would often bring their customs and traditions with them as they settle in the metro; thus making their rural culture an integral part of the urban setting.

There are layers upon layers of old and new structures; chaos in the streets; graffiti, may it be political or apolitical, street vendors, MMDA, gigantic billboards, and the overwhelming influence of Western cultures--malls in every district, pocket shanties, layers of sound - among others. And in the last 3 decades, Metro Manila became a very problematic region in terms of urban planning, drainage systems, pollution, over-population--and these problems affect the city dwellers negatively.

Urbanist

Having lived in Manila for more than a decade, the projects that I am doing for W.O.P. will revolve around urbanism and the urban culture, and how artists, creatives, and ordinary people see their city in different perspectives. I will be doing personal and collaborative works that will be presented as exhibitions, screenings, talks etc.

What is our role in changing the city?

We are making a new urban plan for our city. We are the neo-urban planners.

Project: The city as our creative juice

*Neo Urban Planner

This will be an online project, I will make a multiply or a blogger account wherein I will ask people living in the city (Manila, Cebu, Davao etc) to take a photo of a certain area wherein they want to improve. They will become an urban planner and encourages creativity in all its forms in ways that are intrinsic and integral to the daily life of the city. Just think that you are the current MMDA chairman. Be creative and innovative. No pink please…

The project will be presented every Wednesday and the person who submitted a plan will be invited to show and discuss what he thinks should be improved. The collected photos and proposals form the people who participated on the online call

will be used for a future exhibit or publication.

example plans:

*Make a hanging garden on all the foot bridges

*Make a graphic design that will be printed on tarpaulin and give it to pedicab drivers - pang tarapal etc...

email your plans to markrams@yahoo. com with the subject "Neo-Urban Plan"

*there is no specific deadline just send it until Feb 2009

Mark Salvatus is a cross-disciplinary artist based in Manila and Lucban, Philippines. He graduated cum laude at the UST College of Fine Arts & Design and currently taking up MFA at the same university. In 2007, he was granted a scholarship by the Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation under the Ministry of Spain in Barcelona. His projects has been exhibited and presented in the Philippines and abroad. He is also the co-founder of Pilipinas Street Plan (2006)- a community of street and graffiti artists that is changing the urban aesthetic of our cities. http://marksalvatus .blogspot. com

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2008-12-26T04:48:00.000-08:00

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