Making history while preserving it: Project Kisame lifts off

Soon after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that wrecked several Spanish-era churches in Bohol and Cebu last year, heritage conservationist Joel Aldor stepped forward and spoke about Project Kisame, a massive cultural heritage documentation project focusing on the artwork to be found on the ceilings of these churches.

The quake shook Aldor's confidence in getting the National Commission for Culture and the Arts grant he applied for in August, but it did nothing to dampen his enthusiasm.

After all, Project Kisame had been running for four years before the quake, with more than 400 churches and 60 examples of ecclesiastical ceiling art already documented.

As a user on Wikipedia, Aldor has made more than 25,000 hi-res photos of these churches available through Creative Commons, via the Project Kisame photostream. The National Museum even began using his photos to help rehabilitate the quake-ravaged churches. Why stop there?

“Every time you look up, you get a glimpse of heaven,” said a smiling Aldor.

Team effort

So, seven months after the Bohol earthquake, how is Project Kisame doing?

On January 25, 2014, while busying himself with screening applicants for Wikimedia's Philippine Cultural Heritage Mapping workshop, Aldor got wind that the NCCA had awarded him the grant: P500,000 for the comprehensive documentation of 15 of the original 30 churches.

“The other 15 are already gone,” he explained. “I am very honored, at the very least, that someone very new to the field of cultural heritage was given this task.”

Aldor was provided a small team, consisting of a photographer, an architect, an art specialist, an archivist, a graphic artist, a consultant, and a documentation specialist. The consultant is Boholano priest Fr. Ted Torralba while the documentation specialist is currently a student completing her thesis at De La Salle University.

“One of the conference volunteers is also on my team,” he said. “I'm trying to work with the best I know.”

Accompanying Aldor's team is another group, The Extra Mile Productions, which is making a documentary about Project Kisame's efforts.

The project's on-site activities began on May 16 and will continue until August 14. Before this, they did a test run at the Santiago Apostol Parish Church in Betis, Pampanga.



Their first stop is Cebu, where they will be documenting six churches, before moving on to Bohol and Siquijor.

Aldor explained that they will be coming to each church with the intention of recording the original building materials; calculating the expenses; determining the original construction timeline, the people responsible for the construction, and the causes and preventive methods against deterioration; and coming up with a survey for architectural plans.

He eventually hopes to come up with a digital archive full of hi-res photographs, a 3D architectural plan, and a Google sketch.

The team will also eventually come up with a report for the NCCA, with their recommendations.

“The National Museum and every parish will be furnished with copies,” he said. He also explained that Project Kisame will integrate its results with Wikimedia Commons, making the photos they will take on the trip available for commercial, personal, and educational use.

Widespread access to information

While waiting to hear news of the grant, Aldor worked with Wikimedia Philippines on a nationwide cultural heritage mapping project. He is now the Project Lead for the 2014 Philippine Heritage Volunteer Project; in fact, GMA News Online caught up with him in the lull between two sessions of the Philippine Cultural Heritage Mapping workshop.

“[Typhoon] Yolanda destroyed the Inmaculada Concepcion Parish Church in Guiuan,” said Aldor, referring to the Eastern Samar town devastated by the super typhoon. “That's when I saw that we needed more open and accessible documentation of cultural landmarks.”

The three-day workshop aimed to equip the 56 participants “with the necessary knowledge, skill-set, tools and resources” needed to enrich Philippine-related content on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Academic reliability was also a goal.

Aldor left his corporate job as an IT project manager to pursue this advocacy. He acknowledged that there were many personal risks involved in the pursuit: his name, his future.

“But I just let go and let God,” he said. “If you're doing it for him, hindi ka niya pababayaan.”

Indeed, he is so passionate about the project—and so busy—that he has not yet told his mother about it. He said that he intends to tell her while they are backpacking in Cebu.

'We never lost hope'

The Project Kisame and The Extra Mile Productions teams in the Santiago Apostol Parish Church in Betis, Pampanga. Photo courtesy of Joel Aldor