Date: Sunday 26 October
Time: 15:00 - 20:00
Workshop Participation: Send an email to info@varia.zone with [tropical mordor] in the subject line
Lecture: Public event

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SITUATIONER
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A MICROFESTIVAL of tropico-digital fever dreams, unpacked. A LECTURE by journalist Alan Robles on the underdocumented microhistories of how the Philippines shaped the world’s digital culture wars. A MONSTERCLASS on troll hunting—for femmebots only—facilitated by Alan and Clara Balaguer. A GIFT SHOPPE for revolutionary merch and other publishing rarities from JMS Legacy Foundation and comrades. AND MERYENDA brought to you by post-colonial hospitality culture.

Co-convened by TBD and Varia.
Co-operated by XPUB and Stichting NAC.
Co-circulated with JMS Legacy Foundation, Balikbayan, Feministas en Rotterdam, atbp.
Co-organized by Naneng, Ging Ging, and Jingga.

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PROGRAM
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3:00-5:00 PM MONSTERCLASS
Troll Hunting 4 Femmebots Only
Assertiveness, quick reaction time, health tips, and ethical considerations for femmes considering troll hunting as a psychosocial pursuit. Co-facilitated by Alan Robles and white hat ideological troll, Clara Balaguer. Registration required, 10 slots only. Email info@varia.zone with a brief introduction and [tropical mordor] in the subject line.

5:00-6:00 PM MERYENDA
Ate Suzie’s Suman at Tsokolate

6:00-8:00 PM
LECTURE [break] PANEL

Tropical Mordor Journalist and foreign correspondent, gamer, multimedia publisher, and troll hunter, Alan Robles, presents a rarely told micro-history. In first person POV, he recounts how the global cyberlandscape of journalism and politics have been shaped by a not-so-secret powertool: the ingeniously vibrant, post-colonially bizarre digital culture of the Philippines. A panel discussion follows with NL-based Philippine academics Myra Colis, an indigenous techlawyer, and gender studies researcher/migrant rights activist Marlon Lacsamana.

This event falls within Varia’s Counter Coloniality Seed research thread, and is supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL.

This lecture is the output of Schengen Portal Residency No. 6 [ALAN ROBLES], independently funded by TBD.

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BIODATA
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ALAN ROBLES has been a journalist, media consultant and educator, political blogger, editor and publisher, sysadmin, and gamer for over four decades. His byline includes publications such as The Manila Times, Philippine Daily Inquirer, TIME, Asiaweek, and D+C Germany. He was formerly the training director for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Manila and a visiting lecturer at the International Institute for Journalism, Berlin. Since 2000, Alan has been a political foreign correspondent for the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong. He runs his own political blog, Hot Manila. He is the sysadmin, troll hunter, and life partner of raissarobles.com.

CLARA BALAGUER (Makati City, Pisces Metal Monkey) is a cultural worker, curriculum builder, and grey literature circulator. From 2010 to 2018, she worked with rural, peri-urban, and diasporic communities from the Philippines through The OCD, a living room residency and material culture research unit. In 2013, she co-founded Hardworking Goodlooking, a cottage industry publishing hauz that operated from Parañaque, Portland, Laguna, and New York. Previously, she has built program as curator of Civic Praxis at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht and program head of Social Practices at Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam. Frequently, she operates under aliases that experiment with forms of cultural remittance, the latest of which are To Be Determined and Galley Copy Shoppe. Currently, she teaches XPUB (MFA Experimental Publishing) at Piet Zwart institute. Rotterdam.

CZARINA CALINAWAGAN (PH-Baguio/La Union) is an artist and cultural worker based in Rotterdam. Her background is in visual arts, illustration, and printmaking. In 2021, she earned a Master in Media Arts Cultures through the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree program, held across a consortium of universities in Krems-Austria , Aalborg-Denmark, and Lodz-Poland. She moved every semester to these countries until settling down in the Netherlands. Prior to her graduate studies, Calinawagan taught in the Fine Arts Program at the University of the Philippines, Baguio. She also works as a part-time baker of gluten free cakes.

NADIA BALAGUER is a recent graduate with a background in both social and environmental science. She is drawn to work that tackles these topics in the context of farming, equitable development, and the building of community fabrics, especially in the Philippines where she was born and raised. She holds a Master’s in Environment and Resource Management from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a Bachelor’s in Public Administration from Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam. She does small-scale organizing for projects where foodways and decolonial culture intersect. She works part-time at a bakery.

MYRA COLIS is an Indigenous Igorot from the Global South with expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a Master’s in International Technology Law acquired in the Global North. As founding chairperson of MABIKAs Foundation, she is committed to foregrounding Indigeneity within movements for decolonization, regeneration, sustainability, and social impact. Her latest initiative, INAIYAN, is a knowledge platform that integrates Indigenous perspectives into AI ethics, development, and governance.

MARLON LACSAMANA is a Philippine activist and academic based in the Netherlands. He is currently serving as secretary-general of BAYAN Europe, one of the chapters of a global alliance of left-wing Philippine organizations. Prior to that, he was the secretary general at Migrante Europe and vice president of external affairs at Migrante Netherlands, both branches of an organization that defends the rights of overseas foreign workers from the Philippines. He also co-founded Philippine LGBT Hate Crime Watch. Lacsamana’s advocacy is fueled by personal experiences of discrimination and the tragic loss of friends to hate crimes.