Mapping Philippine Material Culture In Overseas Collections ca. 1500-1950

About this Event

We are excited to announce the launch of another Philippine Studies at SOAS’ Digital Humanities Archival project. The open access online inventory gathers photographic and textual data of Philippine holdings from museums and collections around the world and aggregates the data in an easy-to- navigate, all-in-one sortable portal. The ever-expanding project will go live on the 15th January and will, from then on, be free to use without passwords or paywalls. To access the project, please visit the Mapping Philippine Material Culture website .

Beyond this base-line inventory, the project also incorporates annotations and essays by scholars on selected or various pieces from different museums by digitally bringing them together in editorial exhibits that bring thematic/historic links to surface. Under the editorial guidance of SOAS' Cristina Juan, and independent curator/critic Marian Pastor Roces, we are opening the portal to further contributions that will create (and annotate) as complete an inventory as is possible. Discussion around widely-dispersed Philippine material culture is expected to contribute to filling myriad lacunae in this field.

For the launch, we will introduce the project's parameters and goals, and will be in conversation with Pastor Roces, as she gives an overview of “what is out there” in overseas collections and why an aggregated inventory is needed to map this landscape of diasporic objects.

We will end with a call for collaborative links, contributions, leads, and suggestions from both aficionados and academics.

Mapping Philippine Material Culture In Overseas Collections ca. 1500-1950

Organiser: Philippine Studies at SOAS

Contact email: philippinestudies@soas.ac.uk