From Social Media to Art Making: Synthesizing Filipino Diaspora Discourse on Typhoon Yolanda
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FROM SOCIAL MEDIA TO ART MAKING: SYNTHESIZING FILIPINO DIASPORA DISCOURSE ON TYPHOON YOLANDA A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Communication, Culture, and Technology By Amanda L. Tira Andrei, B.A. Washington, DC April 19, 2016 Copyright 2016 by Amanda L. Tira Andrei All Rights Reserved ii FROM SOCIAL MEDIA TO ART MAKING: SYNTHESIZING FILIPINO DIASPORA DISCOURSE ON TYPHOON YOLANDA Amanda L. Tira Andrei, B.A. Thesis Advisor: Wayne Osborn, Ph.D. ABSTRACT When Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), the deadliest typhoon in recorded history, struck in 2013 it affected not only the people of the Philippines, but the Filipino diaspora around the world. Yet there was a greater need for understanding the disaster as not merely a singular physical event, but a process with deep cultural, socioeconomic, political, emotional, and spiritual implications. In addition to reviewing and examining the studies of social media conversations that occurred in the Philippines directly after the physical event, this research also involved conducting an arts- based research (ABR) experiment of stenciling and mural-making in order to understand the typhoon-as-process more fully. Depending on the context and audience, these areas of research can be useful for understanding a disaster, though they reveal vastly different experiences. Rapid, vast, and immediate, social media can be useful for situational awareness and first responders, though it can be difficult to sift through, noisy, and overlook affected peoples without access to digital goods and services. Arts-based research, while small, intimate, and capturing only a few perspectives at a time, has the capability for sense-making, community building, and self- healing. The creation of stencils and a mural by five Filipino American participants not only shifted the way these individual artists thought about the disaster, but also offers rich interpretations for the local Washington D.C. Filipino diaspora’s experiences and understanding iii of Typhoon Haiyan. Recommendations for future ABR experiments are included, as well as reflections on the workshop as part of the process of disaster. iv I am indebted to many people in the writing of this thesis. Many thanks to my work colleagues for first getting me started in the space of social media analysis. Miraming salamat to the faculty and staff of CCT, especially J.R. Osborn and Leticia Bode, for changing the way I think about methodology, data, and what it means to be an artist/academic. My friends and family in the Philippines, the United States, and the blue-orange skies: Tita Bing, Tito Sem, Patty, Marc, Anjo, Faith, Chinx, Gani, Ara, Kristine, Joanne, Janica, Francis, Marie, Luis, Cyd, Mark, Lesley, Josh, Stephanie. To my parents and brothers. To my wonderful, patient, and silly husband, my Colton. Finally, I dedicate this to my chance at mercy, who traveled with me through South America and painted with me in Georgetown, my Alea Mercedes. Many thanks, miraming salamat, Amanda v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 The Typhoon ................................................................................................................................... 6 Social Media ............................................................................................................................... 9 Arts-Based Research ................................................................................................................. 15 The Workshop ............................................................................................................................... 20 Emotion, Sensation, and Fact.................................................................................................... 27 Diaspora Dynamics ................................................................................................................... 32 Gift-Giving ................................................................................................................................ 38 Time and Memory..................................................................................................................... 45 Technology ............................................................................................................................... 48 Other Observations ................................................................................................................... 52 The Mural...................................................................................................................................... 56 Marie’s Shells ........................................................................................................................... 59 Luis’s Sky ................................................................................................................................. 61 Lucy’s Wave and Bubble .......................................................................................................... 64 Cyd’s Family Grove .................................................................................................................. 67 Amanda’s Dice Tree ................................................................................................................. 71 Our Sarimanok .......................................................................................................................... 74 Other Observations ................................................................................................................... 77 Post-Workshop .............................................................................................................................. 78 Survey Results and Analysis ..................................................................................................... 78 Reactions and Recommendations ............................................................................................. 82 Stenciling and Mural-Making ................................................................................................... 88 Coda .............................................................................................................................................. 90 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 95 Appendix A: Workshop Materials ................................................................................................ 98 Survey Results .......................................................................................................................... 98 Schedule and Visual Agenda .................................................................................................. 100 List of Materials ...................................................................................................................... 102 vi Appendix B: Visual Diaries ........................................................................................................ 103 Photography from Tacloban ................................................................................................... 104 Photography from Arts-Based Workshop ............................................................................... 107 vii TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1: Graffiti on a metal store shutter in Tacloban, Leyte ...................................................... 21 Figure 2: Marie creates her shells on the canvas .......................................................................... 60 Figure 3: Marie’s completed shell-flower. .................................................................................... 61 Figure 4: The participants collaborate on their pieces of the canvas ............................................ 62 Figure 5: Luis’s clouds as a sky and heaven ................................................................................. 63 Figure 6: Lucy’s Wave and Bubble .............................................................................................. 66 Figure 7: Cyd squats next to the canvas while corresponding with the spray paint ..................... 69 Figure 8: Cyd’s coconut grove family beneath the magenta tree ................................................. 70 Figure 9: Amanda’s hybrid dice tree ............................................................................................ 73 Figure 10: Our mythological sarimanok, our biblical dove .......................................................... 75 Figure 11: Cyd proudly shows off the blue-green paint on her feet. ............................................ 86 viii Introduction I can only offer belief, mirages that mean water, long travels leading somewhere. I am reading old letters, trying to make something of what’s been said. It might be raining: some pages are unreadable. —Joel M. Toledo, “Attachments” Part of the problem is that disaster is often considered an event rather than a process. —Anthony Oliver-Smith, “Theorizing Disasters” This work is borne from a desire to understand more fully. In October 2013, I began studying mixed language social media usage in the Philippines. Part of this was due to my longstanding academic and personal interests in the Philippines, and part of this