The Untangling Philippine Sound, Archive, and Knowledge Workshop, held on August 5-6, at SOAS, London, featured the sound archives and theoretical reflections of a diverse group of scholars, engineers, and musicians. The workshop aimed to explore and interrogate the scientific, academic, cultural, and social knowledge embedded in Philippine sound recordings. This workshop was organized in conjunction with the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research – Sonic Entanglements Project and the UP Center for Ethnomusicology.
Participants presented their archives, detailing content, historical context, collection purposes, and the impact of these materials on their respective fields. Highlights included MeLê Yamomo’s historical contextualization of sound, Oscar Tantoco Serquiña’s exploration of speech pedagogy and its influence on Philippine English, and Elizabeth Enriquez’s intricate mapping of the colonial and postcolonial history of Philippine radio.
The second day showcased projects such as Franz de Leon’s collaboration with indigenous communities to develop a Philippine Indigenous Instrument Sounds Database, and Sol Maris Trinidad’s examination of the administrative aspects of managing a sound archive in her presentation “Establishing a Philippine Sound Archive: Chronicling the UP Center for Ethnomusicology.” Giovanni Tapang delved into notions of extractive colonialism and biological diversity through the UP college of Science’s two year archive of environmental sound recordings in the pandemic.
The workshop concluded with Teresa Barrozo providing insights into her creative process as a sound artist. She also plans to produce a sound art piece based on the sound archival materials contributed by participants.