Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Some spaces are built on stories and some places are sustained by narratives. Pocket Projects Philippines is a platform for community-based creative projects that attempt to unpack emplaced narratives through collaboration and dialogue. The term “pocket” is taken in reference to the chosen sites and communities, standing against the larger psychogeographic, material, political, historical, and social understanding of these spaces. In these projects, artistic production (in the form of workshops and lectures) and cultural production (in the form of oral history and written records) serve as avenues of meaning-making. Pocket Projects operates on the belief that these inclusion-oriented thrusts articulate how art and culture works can go beyond visual aesthetic considerations and into social/relational aesthetic spheres. The two projects featured under Pocket Projects Philippines are Pag-Úlay-Úlay, an oral history project with the communities of Albay, Philippines; and Kuwentong Laura, an arts-based intervention with the community of Laura St., Old Balara, Philippines.