Arkipelago (Ark 1)

barangayscape simulation

Arkipelago is a series of three large-scale narratives drawn from "second creation" mythologies, where a world comes to life from primordial material. Computer interfaces begin as substrate, then appropriated into landscapes, drawing out dense and layered narratives of the domestic to divine.

Ark 1 (2026) of the trio draws from disaster and rebirth, depicting the tides, calamity, and territory: fishermen, migrations, typhoons, and the aquatic spiritual. Inspired by Filipino social realist painters and city-building simulation games, it depicts everyday agricultural life amid disaster — satellite imagery, Google StreetView, forums, and marketplace sites are transformed into small vignettes of life and movement.

Through a mix of handcoded software, generative processes, and manual performance, the act of 'creation' continuously evolves, and the authorship of the world is contested. I continuously perform creation on the desktop, actively renewing the digital world rather than simply executing code. Recorded and re-composited from the desktop, each triptych is comprised of a dozen smaller vignettes — each existing as individual executable browser-based art pieces. Altogether, the work is read as a mutating history, a mythology compromised on every run.

15 narrative sequences called The Happenings — The Fishermen, Stone Tossers, Rice Pickers, and more — form the backbone alongside generated vignettes called The Town.