2008 / Sound and video installation / Artist: Tad Ermitaño / International Symposium on Electronic Art, Singapore

Presented in the Juried Section of the 2008 International Symposium on Electronic Art, Singapore, Ermitaño’s code-propelled and human-triggered media constructions sought to challenge the delimiting notion of low-tech and what is interchangeably termed new or intermedia. Working in a range of both analog and digital media such as film, video, and installation, Ermitaño takes a Javanese gamelan set and rigs its elements with automated beaters to produce a video-triggered ensemble of digital programming and human intervention.

In keeping with a desire to have the virtual animate the real, the conductor at center faces four screens that each corresponds to an ensemble “member” whose performance is manipulated through sensory interfaces that set off computer-coded sound. Ermitaño’s ambivalence toward human agency is evident in how the gamelan element frames the work in identity politics, exploring what it means to be from and working in Asia and the Philippines even as he was “generally wary of waving the third world flag.” As if to underline this further, he asserts that he finds affinity with the Balinese (as opposed to the Javanese) gamelan and its use of quarter measure, which is also found in round music.

Robot Gamelan Quartet is recognizably melodic whereas Ermitaño’s other works have largely been atonal. As in Ermitaño’s other pieces, he interchanges the positions of the human and mechanical as conduits of improvisation. In contrast to his earlier work, this consists of a possibly more tangible experience given the audience participation. This latter aspect is particularly evident in relation to the Gangan Ensemble, another confluence of video, sound, and rule-bound interactions that Ermitaño collaborated on with artist-curator Tengal Drilon.