Project Kisame releases full documentation of Visayan colonial churches

The Philippines has a rich cultural heritage—and when a powerful earthquake tore down several Spanish-era churches and cathedrals in Bohol last year, many felt an overwhelming sense of loss.

But from it arose an overpowering need to document and preserve what is left. In the case of heritage conservationist Joel Aldor, it led to the creation of Project Kisame and in applying for a P500,000 grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts that would allow him and his team to thoroughly document the remaining colonial churches in Bohol, Cebu, and Siquijor.

Last Monday, one year after applying for the grant and fresh off a four-month, 15-church excursion in the Visayas, Aldor and his team presented their findings at the NCCA. What he showed the audience was arguably a perfect marriage between historical documentation and modern technology.

“We are pleased to announce the launch of the Project Kisame website,” Aldor said. “In it, we are releasing to the public the full documentation of the last five months. It's a game changer for the movement.”

The files on the website are available for viewing and downloading on mobile phones, desktops, and tablets. They include hi-res photos of the churches—particularly the religious ceiling art that got Aldor started—2D and 3D models, architectural plans, historical accounts, and schematics: all any student, professional, and hobbyist would ever need regarding the colonial churches of the three Visayan islands.

Best of all, these photos and documents have been made available to the public under Creative Commons 4.0, meaning that all content can be used, reproduced, shared, and modified for any purpose as long as the source is attributed. Aldor only cautioned patience, as the file sizes run to the gigabytes.

One other feature of the site is how it aims to engage a community—there are comment boxes and links to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Flickr.

What's next for Project Kisame?

“We've taken the very first steps, but we're far from over,” Aldor said as the presentation wrapped up.

The Project Kisame team is working toward the official declarations for the ceiling paintings in order to move forward with conservation management plans.

They're also working on an information dissemination campaign, which will include exhibits, seminars, talks, a coffee table book, and articles in scholarly journals.

They also hope to do a similar documentation of the churches in Luzon and Mindanao.

“We realized we won't be here forever and we cannot do this all the time,” said Aldor. “We want to do something for the youth. We'd like to start a Katekismo sa Kisame project for schoolchildren in order to safeguard this heritage future generations.

He added, “That way, we can get to experience Heaven as painted here on Earth.”

And what did the NCCA think of Project Kisame's presentation?

“Nahiya ako sa half-million na binigay namin,” said OIC Executive Director of the NCCA Adelina M. Suemith. “We will try to lobby for more funding for this project.

“Ito na ata yung pinakamahusay na group na nakita namin,” she added.

Indeed, there were jolly cries from the crowd of “Where have you been these last five years?!”

The Project Kisame team was asked on the spot for permission to upload all of their data into the Virtual Sentro Rizal, a digital collection for Filipinos abroad who do not know or no longer know their culture. — BM, GMA News