I am posting in my blog with the writer's consent selected ethnography penned creatively by my students to contribute to the emerging sub-discipline of anthropology called 'Virtual Ethnography'.
Basically, virtually ethnography is also referred to as Webnography. We cannot deny the fact that with increasing use of technology and the Internet, there is now a demand for online spaces on various ethnographic accounts.
Ethnography by Dolf Cheng
1:13 pm: The quiet, air-conditioned, two storey-high great hall was suddenly broken by a barrage of noise from students from Sapang Palay National High School in Bulacan. Around 300 students from a mixture of one to four formed a scattered line to tour and witness the Spoliarium (often misspelled Spolarium), a national cultural treasure by Filipino artist Juan Luna which garnered a gold medal in 1884 at the Explosicion Nacional de Barcelona.
They passed by this national treasure nonchalantly often posing for photographs from cellphones and digicams with a seeming feeling of “I was here.” About 80 percent of these high school girls and boys were dressed with the fashion so reminiscent of American MTVs. It is amusing to note today’s western dressing style in stark contrast with the conservative “cover-all, dress like a fliffball” 19th century Spanish colonial dresses and suits seen from the painting of Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo in the same great hall.
The Hall of Masters houses the paintings both by Hidalgo and Juan Luna that shows their European influences while away in Madrid and Rome among other European cities. Unfortunately, the only influences Filipino artists of this 21st century are from the internet and media which developed into self-expressionism with a lesser cultural context behind it, however, this is another story for another time.
The Sapang Palay high schoolers were ushered into the hall hurriedly as they were ushered out to accommodate each and everyone. It seemed as if just being in the same room with the great masters was enough to meld them, albeit temporarily, with the society, culture, and rich history of the past. The teachers have not even bothered to explain how a single painting like the Spoliarium threads into our Philippine history and digs into our Filipino roots during the Spanish colonialism.
I was clearly disappointed with this field trip experience that ended with tour guides warnings of “Don’t touch the paintings,” “Don’t use flash in your camera,” and “Guys, faster, hurry up!” The barrage of noise from these Bulacan adolescents ended the 20 minutes later and I found out later from a high school teacher that they came in 26 buses! This somehow (comfortably) justified the need for the tour guides to hastily and effectively do their jobs to accommodate everyone.
1:45 pm: A group of eight undergraduates from De La Salle University walked into the Hall. They were recommended to visit the National Museum by their Humanities professor. “What piece are you most drawn to in this hall?” is almost answered with the most obvious choice. Yet, when I proceeded to ask one of the students named Ira what he thinks of the Spoliarium. He explained that the woman wearing a blue toga of the times represents the Philippines. Just like the highschoolers of Bulacan, they seem to be more engrossed with posing with the masterpiece in the background.
2:30 pm: I knew Ali from my last visit to the National Museum just three days ago on a Sunday. He was quite free from entertaining school students/visitors during Sundays and had the liberty to wholly explain both the literal meaning and the interpretation made by Dr. Jose Rizal on the Spoliarium. The whole painting measuring four meters in height and seven meters in width depicts dead gladiators being cleared off and discarded in room (called Spoliarium). The entire painting is in dark colors with two obvious and contrasting colors: intense red and calming blue. On the far left side, there is a weeping woman dressed in blue kneeling before fallen beasts seemingly looking for dead family members before they are burned in the furnace. In the middle painting are dead warriors in red cloths around their torsos being dragged off by chains to a corner to be piled up for disposal. Near the soldiers are two lepers waiting at their chance to drink from the fresh blood in their belief of a cure for their skin affliction. Beside the two lepers are two struggling people, one old and the other younger. The two struggling men are waiting for their chance to strip these gladiators of their precious armour. And on the far right are spectators seemingly coming to this room to witness the final destination of these warriors. They all seem to be looking elsewhere and are not singly focused on the main centerpiece being the dead gladiators. This is the literal meaning of the Spoliarium.
Ali who recently graduated from PUP with a degree in A.B. history proceeded to tell me that Juan Luna did not actually oppose the socio-political interpretation of Jose Rizal toward the painting. Ali proceeded to tell me that the gladiators are interpreted as Filipino men who died for their country, the oppressed, and the victims of the Spanish colonialism. Red stands for blood that is shed but at the same time stands for courage and valor shown by Filipino men despite the darkness that looms in the whole society as interpreted by the darkness of the whole painting. The sole color of hope and faith is depicted in the woman in blue. She weeps for her country and looks for pieces, for the bodies of slain men (and women), hoping to retrieve them and restore their dignity. The two lepers are interpreted as Filipinos who benefit and exploit from less fortunate fellow Filipinos by occupying positions of power for the Spaniards. The two strugglers are opportunists who care only for selfish and self-enrichment purposes. Finally, the spectators are interpreted as other European countries who clearly know the situation in the Philippines but look away uninvolved.
I am amazed by Ali, the museum guide, with his rich recall of this particular history behind the massive painting of the Spoliarium. He is envisioning a second course of either law or architecture and is keen at setting this goal for himself.
2:45 pm: Recalling Ali’s share of knowledge the previous Sunday, I chanced upon two professional spectators in side the hall who introduced themselves as art lovers. I asked them, curiously, why they were drawn to this particular piece (Spoliarium). Their replies took me quite by surprise. They had witnessed the great masterpiece when they were high school students nonchalantly passing it by during their field trip many years later, and today they are re-visiting this masterpiece once more. Isn’t this what I witnessed earlier with the Sapang Palay students? I feel as if I am witnessing a cycle of a past and a present in the same afternoon. I told them to wait because the6y surely are not going to walk away this time with an unfulfilled visit. I fetched for Ali who came to the hall and started to tell the rich history behind the Spoliarium once again. He started, “the painting garnered a gold medal in Barcelona in the year 1884…”
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