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by Victoria Marie A. Macaraeg

It's not enough that we just open our eyes. We have to see the reality and make others see that as well.

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Original book covers of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games series.

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Panem Et Circenses: An Analysis on The Tragedy of Young Adult Fiction

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Panem Et Circenses: An Analysis on The Tragedy of Young Adult Fiction

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There are occasions when mainstream media goes amiss when attempting to shed light onto very heavy world concerns in more digestible forms to the layperson. One prominent example of this is Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games series, and its effect on subsequent young adult novels during its time. The trilogy is praised for its commentary on the disparity between social classes: the epitome of upper class leisure is the annual Hunger Games, where the children of the country's impoverished fights to the death. Victors are rewarded with typical riches and elevation of social status, as well as slightly better treatments towards their respective districts. This concept of Panem et Circenses (Latin for "Bread & Circuses") was heavily incorporated into the worldbuilding: for the wealthy to provide basic necessities, the poor must first provide some form of entertainment.

However, the main plot also involves protagonist Katniss attempting to escape the the Games (and aftermath thereof) by staging a prolonged romance with her district-mate Peeta. While the series received critical acclaim because of its clever portrayal of real life issues into teen fiction, future YA novels published after its success also portrayed some situations from the novels in a very ironic, meta way.

Instead of focusing on real-life social issues that are of global importance, novels catered to younger audiences tried following in Collins's steps by emphasizing the romance aspects instead. In doing so, this era of teen fiction essentially depicted the concept of privileged people paying more attention to eye catching, entertaining things like romance, instead of issues that are essentially manifestations of defunct dystopia in modern society.

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ARTivism: Showing the Importance of the Arts in Strengthening A Stand

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ARTivism: Showing the Importance of the Arts in Strengthening A Stand

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Victoria Macaraeg - Planning, Conceptualization, and Content
John Jennric Marciano - Editing of the board, Conceptualization, and Content
Migs de las Llagas - Conceptualization and Content

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A creative collaboration

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A vlog showing the different Artworks around the Metro

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“Art & Culture: Philippine Artist and Activist Pacita Abad Gets a Google Doodle.” Adobo Magazine, 4 Aug. 2020.

BRENNER, LEXA. “THE BANSKY EFFECT: REVOLUTIONIZING HUMANITARIAN PROTEST ART.” Harvard International Review, vol. 40, no. 2, Harvard International Review, 2019, pp. 34–37, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26617408.

​​DeTurk, Sabrina. “The ‘Banksy Effect’ and Street Art in the Middle East.” Street Art and Urban Creativity, vol. 1, 2015, pp. 22–30.

Ferrer, Christine Joy. “The Art of Protest: The Oscar Grant Memorial Arts Project.” Race, Poverty & the Environment, vol. 16, no. 1, Reimagine!, 2009, pp. 40–43, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41554924.

Ito-Tapang, Lisa. “VISUAL ARTS AND ACTIVISM IN THE PHILIPPINES: Notes on a New Season of Discontent.” Art Archive 01, Nov. 2017.

Dave Laing, “Ian PEDDIE (ed.), The Resisting Muse: Popular Music and Social Protest”, Volume ! [Online], 9:2 | 2012, Online since 15 December 2012/ DOI:10.4000/volume.3395

Kowsar, Nikahang. “Being Funny Is Not That Funny: Contemporary Editorial Cartooning in Iran.” Social Research, vol. 79, no. 1, New School, 2012, pp. 117–44, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23350301.

Malig, Kaela. “Guts and passion gave birth to the Oblation Run.” GMA News Online,  February 8, 2019. www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/metro/684347/guts-and-passion-gave-birth-to-the-oblation-run/story.

Pacita Abad, https://pacitaabad.com/about/.

“Pacita Abad Art Estate.” Artstor, https://www.artstor.org/collection/pacita-abad-art-estate/.

SAMONTE, QUIRICO S. “Student Activism and National Development: The Philippine Setting.” The Journal of Educational Thought (JET) / Revue de La Pensée Éducative, vol. 4, no. 3, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary, 1970, pp. 161–73, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23768353.

The Public Assembly Act of 1985, Rep. Act No. 880, § 2 (Oct. 22, 1985) (Phil.), https://lawphil.net/statutes/bataspam/bp1985/bp_880_1985.html.

“The Purpose and Power of Protest.” ADL, https://www.adl.org/education/resources/tools-and-strategies/the-purpose-and-power-of-protest.

Win, Diana Zaw. On Myanmar Art During the Spring Revolution. 31 July 2021, https://www.artandmarket.net/analysis/2021/7/31/my-own-words-beyond-trauma.

Background - Tarantadong Kalbo on Twitter: "Artista ng Bayan, Ngayon ay Lumalaban! ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏻✊✊🏾#Tumindig https://t.co/5NlOSMpMyI" / Twitter

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Squid Game | Official Trailer | Netflix - YouTube

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Video source: The Kingmaker - Official Trailer - YouTube

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Lady Gaga - Born This Way (Official Music Video)

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Image source: Lady Gaga’s meat dress now being served for dinner - New York Daily News (nydailynews.com)

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Read more: THE STORY OF: Lady Gaga's Meat Dress - 29Secrets

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Image source: Stop Asian Hate: Miss Singapore Sends A Powerful Message With Her Miss Universe Costume – DAPPER | TREND (dappertrend.com)

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Read more: Miss Myanmar delivers passionate statement against military coup at Miss Universe pageant: "Our people are dying" - CBS News

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A real-life performance of people acting to hang themselves on nooses as the ice they stand on melts. The students behind the project have referred to it as “social climate art”, and make full use of its heavy implications in order to properly demonstrate the serious consequences of climate change

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Ice on the Rope   a climate political art performance by Anne Sikora and Sophia Regner

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The Philippines also has its own example of such a song being re-appropriated to fit themes of protest: ‘Di Niyo Ba Naririnig?, our version of Les Miserables’s Do You Hear The People Sing popularized during Martial Law.

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0:00 / 2:57•Watch full video

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"Do It Now", the English version of Bella Ciao adapted to bring more attention to the climate crisis.

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Music has long been used to rouse public action for/against various social issues (Laing, 2012). The creative license involved in lyric writing provides a fairly safe avenue for musicians to artistically narrate a desire for change without explicitly mentioning such sentiments. Because the way in which social action is cryptically hidden behind “being art”, it has often been observed for songs associated with protest to have been reused for many other purposes.

The Italian folk song Bella Ciao was originally written to express the lack of labor rights for rice field workers. Later on, it was then adapted by the Italian resistance in opposition to the prevalence of Nazi fascism at the time (Giusti, 2021). Since then, Bella Ciao has also been continuously adapted for many other movements, such as climate change and most recently during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (Giusti, 2021).

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11.11.11 - Koepel van Internationale Solidariteit

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Do it now. Sing for the climate (English version)

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The current political landscape in the country is rife with many color concepts, such as the color yellow being commonly associated with the Liberal Party, and the color red with communism. Recalling the previous lessons of semiotic theory in the arts, this in itself is the use of visual elements to convey additional ideas that are connected to such colors, in the same way, many successful fast-food chains fill their materials with the color red even though the color red inherently has nothing to do with food.

Take for example presidential aspirant Leni Robredo choosing pink in her campaign materials. This could imply that she is attempting to create such visual connections of her own and not just ideas that have already been established by her affiliations with the yellow-themed Liberal Party.

Of course, we must also keep in mind that political entities cannot be completely generalized by their respective “color connections,” no matter how much effort (or lack thereof) they put into adhering to such ideologies. Additionally, these concepts can advance beyond basic color theory, to a point where works of art themselves can become filled with many political implications. This could likely become more apparent during official election campaign season.

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Of course, the arts can also be an accomplice in providing the public with a certain narrative for certain parties to achieve personal goals. Take for example the plethora of media depicting the global West’s savior complex: Uncle Sam, a personification of the Americas, is always shown to be the uncontested helping hand of lesser-known cultures by ushering in newfound technology. Obviously, these types of media will opt to leave out the nitty-gritty to leave a more favorable impression.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Editorial cartoons are a common form of visual arts in journalism to help express criticisms of current events, even before viewers even began reading the accompanying article. It commonly makes use of satire, allegories, and analogies to universally known topics, which makes it a  particularly popular form of expressing one’s personal stances while maintaining a level of anonymity. This is especially apparent during times where public opinion faced general censorship (Kowsar, 2012). The reading cited describes the role of editorial cartoons throughout Iran’s political history

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PUP students hold protest rally against call to scrap PUP-DND

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PUP students hold protest rally against call to scrap PUP-DND

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The Oblation Run, inspired by Guillermo Tolentino’s Oblation statue, can be an example of how arts serve as a method of protest. The concept of streaking on-campus was conceptualized by the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity as a way to promote Hubad na Bayani, a play depicting revolt for socioeconomic justice which Marcos flagged as “politically dangerous” for its time. Today, APO continues to use the controversial reputation of the run in hopes of criticizing and making public statements on various national issues. The last physical Oblation Run was held in 2020 as a call for climate action.

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Image source: UP to stop collecting tuition, other fees (philstar.com)

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“Student activism” is defined as the involvement in mass demonstrations of young people drawn predominantly from college and university populations who are protesting the status quo or some segment of it (a phenomenon of varying magnitude, intensity and organization) and raising some problems of public order fot the university and/or public authorities. Not falling within the purview of this definition are such as student government, campus elections, or membership fraternities or sororities — enterprises that do not normally raise problems of public order (Samonte, Quirico)

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Miley Cyrus - Mother's Daughter (Official Video)

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 Dance as a form of Protest/Awareness by PUP Maharlika Dance Artist 

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#FightCovid19 #StayAtHome #ArtIsNotDead

#PUPMaharlikaDanceArtists

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Spotify – Protesta!

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 “Snorting Policeman,” “Basquiat being ‘stopped-and-frisked’ outside the Barbican Centre,” “Napalm” sources: artsy.net, theartist.me 

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Banksy is a street artist whose style is defined as containing “dark humor, controversial images, and not-so-subtle political statements” (Brenner). Because of the popularity he gained from his politically-charged graffiti, an increased interest in street art became evident, thus the term “Banksy Effect” was coined for this phenomenon (Brenner and DeTurk).

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 “Marcos and his cronies,” “Filipina: A racial identity crisis,” “Alone.” source: “Pacita Abad.” Pacita Abad, pacitaabad.com/ 

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Pacita Abad was a Philippine-American artist and humanitarian whose works of art include paintings, collages, and trapunto, depicting themes that range from abstractions to societal issues. She utilized vibrant colors and accumulated materials, and her works have been displayed in several countries around the world.

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Activists and farmers groups in the Philippines marched in the capital Manila on Wednesday, October 21, 2021, to mark the observance of Peasant Month. 

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The Influence of Art in the Philippine Political Setting

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The Influence of Art in the Philippine Political Setting

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In the Philippines, the visual arts have contributed greatly to the expression of political stance and dissent and accentuation of revolutionary struggle (Ito).

Read more about the protest: Activists, farmers hold protest marches to pay tribute to Filipino peasants | Catholic News Philippines | LiCAS.news Philippines | Licas News

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Art gives people a bigger voice. “Used as a symbol, to frame the message, to attract resources, to communicate information, and foster emotions” (Ferrer), movement art makes the identity of an ideology more loud, coherent, and visible. The illustration of issues being faced in society can register in people’s minds and give them something to think about regarding the welfare of the people and all that surrounds them. Political and cultural resistance is birthed from and sharpened through art (Ferrer).

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“The role of the revolutionary artist is to make revolution irresistible.”

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“The role of the revolutionary artist is to make revolution irresistible.”

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- Toni Cade Bambara, Writer and Activist

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Protest is the act of assembling publicly and posing a stand on certain issues in the hopes that better conditions for those who are affected negatively will materialize. According to “The Public Assembly Act of 1985” in the Philippine Constitution, it is a constitutional right to hold protests and make grievances known to the government. The purpose of protest is essentially change (“ADL”).