We Like To Drink Anywhere: We’re Calling it Commorancy ###

After developing a high tolerance for alcohol and the usual sleep deprivation. This group of friends decided to make something of it — most of them already being in the creative and artistic space of society, they turned what used to be just nights of drinking, gluttony, and video games into a collective of people who are self-proclaimed “Proprietors of a Good Time” (no sexual innuendo intended) who were hellbent on bringing creatives and eccentrics together. The Easy Afternoon Fellas.

The first of a series of events is Commorancy.

In a questionable attempt at trying to sound cool. We decided to call the event Commorancy###, by definition “A house or a dwelling place — usually a temporary one”. With the intention of bringing people together in unusual nooks and crannies of Cebu. Each Commorancy has a numerical suffix attached to it which indicates the first clue of its location — The house number. The nomadic nature of the events allows guests to feel familiar in an unfamiliar place. Same same but different.

One of the goals of Commorancy is to create a very casual space for informal dialogues between people. In hopes of creating relationships that would someday become awesome collaborations with different creatives.

One of Commorancy’s attractions during the event is the mobile “Saop™” cocktail bar. The token gay boy/bartender Zach Aldave curates and conjures up signature recipes for partners. The signature drink is a token of gratitude to the host or the venue.

Another thingy that the guys from EAF are planning to do during Commorancy is “WIP NIGHT” where people — drunk or not drunk — gather and talk about the projects they are working on. It’s a very loosely moderated set-up where the person talking decides whether they want advice or just want to talk about their project.

Commorancy also allows small scale food and beverage start-ups to pop-up during the event for exposure and as much moolah they can bring in by selling their stuff. So far EAF’s go-to coffee friends are the guys at Dirty Puma Coffee Co.. For the past 2 events they’ve had BRGY. Donuts and Haps-Homemade Goodies.

The afternoon begins with more than your usual dose of caffeine then crescendos into a night of heavy drinking, good conversations, and maybe even a cute boy/girl’s phone number or someone’s CV — or maybe just really a good friend.

words and photos by Zack Aldave, eaf mastermind

Let's Talk: Ernest Diño

Earlier this month, 856G Gallery together with Beta Operations and Tropical Futures Institute displayed the video art pieces of RV Sanchez and Ernest Diño in a week-long exhibit.

Both artists are founders of Beta Operations, a collective interested in the development of new media art through tool exploration. Various art pieces from the group have been displayed on Streetkonect’s webpage over the past two years, and we’ve been proud to host a few videos from both RV and Ernest.

Here’s a quick interview with Ernest Diño about his artistic process and the videos displayed in his recent exhibit in 856G, "Diprosopus"

A lot of people know you as a filmmaker, production designer, and cinematographer. What’s the difference between your experimental films and your video art pieces? What lines are drawn between the two?

Well, I guess they've transformed but they're still essentially the same thing. It was quite some time before I heard of and embraced the term video art. So while I was doing my earlier works, around 2011, I was still thinking of them as experimental films.

                My background has always been with narrative film, watching them and helping in making them. So when I transitioned to making strange videos they were essentially experimental films but still coming from an albeit failed narrative slant. After a while I met some people who mentioned that what I was doing was probably video art. After a bit of research on the subject and seeing some works and the people who make them, I was overwhelmed by a unique sense of discovery that only comes from knowing what something you've been doing all along actually is known as. From that point on, most of my personal work has been video art, although yeah they probably are still experimental films.

How’d you come up with your set for your show with RV Sanchez this year?  How long did it take to come up with the video installations that you’ve made for this exhibit?

As with all my previous works, the piece I had for the exhibit was made up of clips I had lying around. It took a while for me to build the concept but the process of piecing together the final video only took less than a week from the exhibit opening. The final result was a single piece called Diprosopus, which had two projections playing on each other.

Can you share a few interesting behind-the-scenes stories in the development of the pieces for the exhibit?  

Well, the exhibit itself was planned late last year, there was a good several months for us to prepare the pieces but it took a while before we could finalize the number of projectors we could get, and I was conceptualizing for a multiple projection setup.  The actual time I had to work on it was about a week before the opening, which was when the number of projectors available was finalized. Also, most of the work was edited on my office computer. (Hope my employers don't read this)

Some artists have habits that keep them creative. Some listen to background noise while working on their art pieces; some take long walks around the city. Others shut themselves in for time alone. What habits have you made as a video artist? How do you keep the creative juices flowing?

I keep a camera on me at all times. Even if it's a dslr or a crappy phone camera, I'm gonna shoot footage on things that spark my interest whenever I'm walking around. I've captured several accidents, incidents, and dead animals over the years. I also walk. A lot.

What kind of themes do you currently enjoy exploring?  What draws you to these themes?

I like exploring themes that deal with the subconscious. In film, most of the stuff we see are put together as a coherent scene from several shots subconsciously. I'd like to try and test that to its limits.

Any other upcoming projects or exhibits? What do you have prepared for 2018?

Nothing? I dunno. I'm not telling.

What are your thoughts on the new media art scene here in Cebu? What words of advice could you give to younger artists who’d like to dabble in video art and other new media art forms?

Try and do things differently. And most importantly, don't let me tell you what to do.