Ideas for Continuing a Heritage Practice amidst Covid 19

ICOMOS Philippines members came together online last April 25 to discuss the topic entitled, “Heritage Practice Amidst Covid 19”. This discussion is seen as the first step in exploring collective strategies to adapt to new challenges amidst the global pandemic for Filipino heritage practitioners. Members living in different parts of the Philippines, United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Germany and Egypt shared their current situation, challenges and prognosis of Covid-19 in their heritage practice during the 2-hour discussion.

INITIAL FINDINGS

While the pandemic has threatened the heritage practice, many still viewed the resulting changes in the new heritage landscape as opportunities. Following were common experiences:

A. Stalled projects due to site inaccessibility and  suspension of government-funded projects or work with local government projects;              
B. The recent memo from Department of Budgets to keep ‘non-essential’ industries alive results in diminished spending for heritage and mass layoffs for the creative industry; 
C. Difficulty in engaging students with online learning 

Continue reading “Ideas for Continuing a Heritage Practice amidst Covid 19”

Heritage Practice Amidst Covid-19: ICOMOS Philippines Discussion

As part of the International Day of Monuments and Sites 2020 theme of “Shared Heritage, Shared Responsibility, and Shared Culture”, ICOMOS Philippines is organising a zoom discussion entitled, “Heritage Practice Amidst Covid 19”. The goal of the discussion is to check in with its members and understand how Covid-19 has affected their practice. It will explore collective strategies for heritage professionals in the Philippines to adapt to new challenges amidst the global pandemic.

Continue reading “Heritage Practice Amidst Covid-19: ICOMOS Philippines Discussion”

Internship Experience with ICOMOS Philippines – Carissa Veloso

ICOMOS Philippines is gathering testimonials from researchers, students and graduates of its internship program. The first testimonial comes from Carissa Veloso, who interned with the organization in 2018 and now has become part of ICOMOS Philippines.

In 2018, I completed an internship with my partner Chanelle Custorio at ICOMOS Philippines. While my primary work dealt with research on the PRECUP of the NCCA, I was also able to participate in a couple of other events in partnership with ICOMOS International.

As an intern and in the early stage of my career in heritage, it was exciting to be exposed to these kinds of international events and also be connected to ICOMOS Philippines members who are at the top of their fields in the country.

My mentors for the PRECUP were always approachable and while they provided a lot of guidance, there was a lot of room for me to accomplish my work through my own methods.

It was a full learning experience doing research on something that I felt was meaningful.


Carissa Veloso continues her work in heritage and now serves as the Secretariat of the ICOMOS Philippines. For interested students or new graduates who would like to take internship with the organization, please contact info@icomosphilippines.com

Recovery and Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage: The Notre-Dame Cathedral and Some Other Cases – A Talk by Toshiyuki Kono, ICOMOS President

Date and Time: 11 September 2019 | 6:30 PM
Venue: AVR 1, Mapua University Makati Campus
Address: 333 Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City

Learn more about the recovery and reconstruction processes at play at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and other similar cases. Join us for an evening with Toshiyuki Kono, ICOMOS President and international expert on heritage law — a very timely talk given the recent destruction of heritage sites in Bohol, Marawi, and Batanes.

ICOMOS Philippines invited the following reactors:

Arch. Reynaldo Lita
Chief, Historic Preservation Division of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines

Arch. Carmen Bettina Bulaong
Executive Director of Escuela Taller de Filipinas, Inc.

Kinna Mae Kwan
Researcher (and Guiuan Stakeholder) at the UST Graduate School – Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics

Architecture and its Dialectic with History

ICOMOS organised a thesis colloquium entitled, “Architecture and its Dialectic with History,” last Saturday, May 18, 2019, 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.
It was a presentation with open discussion of three heritage-centered theses wherein students were partnered with ICOMOS members to provide some crucial critique.

The activity was held at Pope Francis Hall, The Manila Cathedral, Beaterio St, Cabildo St, Intramuros, Manila. Intramuros Administration provided specially designed Beep Cards for the 1st 50 registrants. It was a well attended session with people attending in Intramuros and viewers also participated online.

Check out the video of the colloquium at our Facebook below

https://www.facebook.com/icomosph/videos/2355270738062687/

2018 ICOMOS Annual General Assembly held in Buenos Aires, Argentina

From the 3rd to the 7th December 2018, members of ICOMOS Philippines attended the Annual General Assembly of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  This meeting is part of a three-year cycle of formal discussions leading to the next General Assembly which will be held in Sydney, Australia by 2020.

ICOMOS Philippines was represented by the following members: Tina Paterno, ICOMOS President, Gabriel Caballero, Contributing Expert of ISCCL and EPWG Commnunications Officer, and John Peterson, ICAHM President.

From L-R: Gabriel Caballero, John Peterson, Tina Paterno

Ms. Paterno attended the Regional Group meeting for Asia-Pacific and presented the current activities of ICOMOS Philippines. Mr Caballero, together with the ICOMOS Board, organised the World Heritage Training Session which was aimed at engaging members about the organisation’s role within the World Heritage system. Mr. Peterson chaired the annual meeting of the International Scientific Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management . The proceedings of these discussions will be published by ICOMOS Argentina in the months to come.

Biodivercities & The Sustainability of Urban Historic Plazas

The second joint partnership of ICOMOS Philippines and Philippine Association of Landscape Architects (PALA) brings together two stellar speakers, Prof. Perry S. Ong and Mr. Paulo G. Alcazaren for the CPD Seminar “BiodiverCities and the Sustainability of Urban Historic Plazas” on Nov 17 (Saturday) 1:00 – 6:00 pm at the Institute of Biology Auditorium, UP Diliman.

With rapid urban development of centers, how do we work towards having well-planned, sustainable, and resilient cities and communities?

This program is an accredited CPD Seminar for Architects and Landscape Architects (Applied Points: 3.5 – 4), but is open to other professions, LGUs, scholars, and advocates of sustainability, design, urban planning, biodiversity and natural and cultural heritage.

Registration fee is at Php 1,300 for regular entrants and discounted rates of Php 1,040 for Senior Citizens and Php 500 for students.

To register, kindly follow the instructions on this link: https://goo.gl/forms/WxRdeQT6uEBAcWUt2. For inquiries and other concerns, email info@icomosphilippines.com or visit our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/icomosph/ for more details.

Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning Workshop for Intramuros

Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning Workshop: Intramuros
23 November 2018 (Friday) | 9AM-5PM (Manila City, Philippines)

ICOMOS Philippines and the University of Tokyo Graduate Program in Sustainability Science, in collaboration with the Intramuros Administration, will be holding a Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning Workshop for Intramuros on November 23 (Friday), from 9AM-5PM, at the Casa Blanca in Casa Manila Compound, San Luis Complex, Gen. Luna St., Intramuros, Manila City.

The workshop will be based on a slight amendment from the Ritsumeikan Model, which is currently taught in workshops and is considered to be the best practice of disaster workshops for heritage. Already in Phase 2, this workshop will involve the disaster imagination game for contextualizing the disaster; collaborative focus group discussion with stakeholders; and drafting the policy brief.

The Intramuros would be the second historic district in the Philippines, after Vigan, to have such a plan.

For those interested to join us, kindly send us a message at info@icomosphilippines.com for us to save you a seat.

ICOMOS Philippines: New Members 2018

ICOMOS Philippines is very pleased to welcome its new members for the year 2018! Get to know them as we share with you a brief of their profile and expertise.


Vicente L. Rafael

Dr. Vicente L. Rafael is the Giovanni and Anne Costigan Professor of History and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. He obtained his BA from the Ateneo de Manila University and his MA and PhD at Cornell University. He is the author of several books and articles on the history and cultural politics of the Philippines, including “Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society Under Early Spanish Rule,” “White Love and Other Events in Filipino Histories,” “The Promise of the Foreign: Nationalism and the Technics of Translation in the Spanish Philippines,” and “Motherless Tongues: The Insurgency of Language Amid Wars of Translation,” all published by Duke University and co-published in the Philippines by Ateneo University Press.

He’s also edited “Discrepant Histories” and “Figures of Criminality in Indonesia, the Philippines and Colonial Vietnam”. Rafael also wrote the Introduction to a collection of Nick Joaquin’s stories, “The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic” recently published by Penguin Classics. 

He has published numerous essays and articles in journals such as the Journal of Asian Studies, Positions: Asian Cultural Critique, Public Culture, Social Text, American Historical Review, Philippines Studies, Cultural Anthropology, American Literature and many others. He is a regular contributor to various newspapers and journals, including Rappler, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Dissent, and Social Text and Public Culture, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Journal of Asian Studies, American Historical Review and many others.

Throughout the years, he has received several awards, most notably The John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Post-doctoral fellowships at Stanford, the Humanities Institute at the University of California at Irvine, Princeton University, East-West Center, University of Hawai’I, Social Science Research Council, the American Council of Learned Societies, among others. He was also the recipient of two National Book Awards from the Manila Critics’ Circle for “Contracting Colonialism” and “White Love.”


Andrea Jalandoni

Dr. Andrea Jalandoni is a Digital Archaeologist specializing in rock art recording and enhancement using photogrammetry and other remote sensing techniques including laser scanning and unmanned aerial systems. She obtained her BA at Ateneo de Manila University, MA at the University of the Philippines – Diliman and her PhD at the Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia where she is Research Fellow on an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship project ‘Australian rock art: history, conservation and Indigenous well-being.’

She received grants for the following projects: “Digital Archaeology and Dating: Innovative recoding methods and the first dated rock art in the Philippines” for 2019 – 2020 and currently working at present on “Guam Rock Art Study” under the Guam Preservation Trust. She has certifications on Remote Pilot at the Federal Aviation Administration, United States, and Advance Nitrox at the Technical Diving International.

She has projects in Australia, Southeast Asia, and Micronesia. Among her recent and notable projects are “How 3D models (photogrammetry) of rock art can improve recording veracity: a case study from Kakadu National Park, Australia”, “Inundation Exposure Assessment for Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands Using A High-Accuracy Digital Elevation Model”, “New Insights into the Rock Art of Anbangbang Gallery, Kakadu National Park”, “An Overview of Remote Sensing Deliverables for Rock Art Research”, “Optimizing the Potential of Research Data through an Integrated Data Management Approach: Considering Research Method, Data Life Cycle, Big Data and Linked Data in an Eresearch Example In Australian Rock Art”, and “A Systematic Quantitative Literature Review of Southeast Asian and Micronesian Rock Art”.

Andrea is also interested in Austronesian migration from Southeast Asia to Micronesia and archaeological sites of cultural identity.