DEC13_SUPERDUPERFINAL

Artists as Synthesizing Agents
in a Hyperdimensional
Network
by Guenivere Decena
Depending on which syllable the stress is placed, the word bilog
in Hiligaynon may either refer to the particular with the numeric
equivalence of one, or to the complete whole with the numeric
approximation of totality. It may also either mean something linear
such as a string or something solid and circular such as a sphere.
Within the periphery of these contrasting definitions embodied
in a single text is a mirror of a participatory society; a complexity
of individuals accomplishing particular tasks yet each affecting the
turning of events within the context of their experienced realities.
Often, these connections are mapped out as dots and lines in a
growing web. But this is only the surface of human interconnections.
A single lifetime is unfathomably filled with its own timeline of
emotions, thoughts and experiences. And each timeline connects
to other timelines, so that the evolution of the dot becoming a
line moves further to become part of a hyperdimension of human
interconnections.
Artwork by Perry Argel
99
This manner of rippling out yet remaining gathered is consistent,
too, with how matter manifests in the universe. A debris of small
objects in space, for instance, gathers and emerges as spherical
formations. But they do not fall into one another unstoppably. The
merging reaches a point of temporary wholeness. The force that
causes the merging is the same force that creates distance barriers so
that there is a simultaneous occurrence of imploding and exploding,
attracting and repelling, becoming one together and being counted
as one amongst the many. This concurrence is consistent and
observable everywhere around us, from the infinitesimal atom of
which we are made up of to the colossal heavenly bodies that include
the planet we live in. Negros Occidental’s curatorial proposition for
Kalibutan: The World in Mind is ignited by this unified valuation of
the particular and the universal, the linear and the spherical.
Back in 2018, when asked how VIVA ExCon 2020 will be delivered,
Charlie Co, one of the biennale’s founding members, responded;
“like a blank canvas.”
Looking at the circumstances that unfolded with the pandemic in
2020, a blank canvas accurately describes where we were. Humanity
was caught at a standstill. We were weighing the possibilities;
anticipating the next series of attempts to survive, with the vaccine
still out of sight. VIVA suddenly became more than what it already
is. An art biennale transformed into an opportunity to animate a
portion of this standstill into an investment of time by migrating
into a virtual platform. Without this organization already existing,