Presentation12 August 2026, 10:25am to 10:45am
Dialogue 12 August 2026, 02:25pm to 03:45pm
I will briefly discuss my background as, while I am a practicing artist who also teaches art at the University of the Philippines' College of Fine Arts, I have no formal artistic training: I studied Biology, but finished a degree in Philosophy. My inclinations and this journey have inevitably shaped my approach to making. Having discussed the tendencies that guide my approach, I will discuss samples of my work from the vantage of the two phrases "somatic art" - a phrase I coined when discussing my installation Passage with the curator Clarissa Chikiamko -- and "datíng" - the Tagalog verb for "arrive" but which popular usage has extended to denote a concept that can be roughly translated as "preverbal impact". The two phrases encapsulate my idea that an art work must first "speak to the body" before it speaks to the mind. I will expand on the notion of "speaking to the body" and then explain how and why using sound is suitable to this enterprise. My output can be roughly characterized as falling into one of five categories: Single channel films, Audio-visual sculptures, Sonic instruments, Media installations and Media Performance. I will present representative works from each category, and then I will perform with the Tungkod, an electroacoustic instrument that I built.
Tad is a key figure in new media art in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, with a sphere of influence reaching as far back as the late 80s.
Considered to be one of the pioneers of sound art in the country as well as an explorer of experimental film, his artistic practice has since grown into a remarkable assertion of technology to creative projects that could be described as an examination of the processes, senses and structures surrounding man's relationship with machinery.