Investing in the Philippines Would anyone want to invest in an Earthquake and Media Museum?
Would anyone want to invest in an Earthquake and Media Museum? By Art Tibaldo I first came up with the concept of establishing an earthquake museum in Baguio City based on the July 16, 1990 experience of Luzon that generated a magnitude of 7.8 in the Richter scale. During that period, I was able to document the massive damages with hundreds of printed photos and slides and I even thought of putting up an installation depicting some scenarios during the great quake. I also designed a mechanical earthquake simulator where museum goers can experience various intensities from mild jolts to that which can topple tall buildings. But, in order to make this into a reality, I need an open space of roadside with a minimum land area of 500 square meters. My first design even integrates four 40ft container vans that can be retrofitted to form the core structure of the earthquake museum. One component of said museum is a cyber hub where visitors especially the younger generations can play a rescue the damsel-in-distress type of interactive media. The prototype to this concept including its simulator is now lodged at one compartment of my media museum and it can be presented to any investor or interested corporate sponsor.
In 2006, I started to build my media museum concept at my roof deck that is partly adjoined by our garage. It covers an area of approximately 80 square meters combined with a portion that is partly garage. In Baguio, like in other places in the mountain region, most houses are built in slopes thereby only the upper part of built structures are seen from the road. My place is within the city’s university belt and although it is accessible to students, visitors who come in cars will have a hard time looking for parking space. I have had many visitors ranging from walk-in local tourists, communication and electronic engineering students and occasional personalities from artists to public officials. Worst happened in 2011 when an event organizer based in Manila scheduled a tour of about two hundred ECE students who came in three buses. Since, the nature of the media museum or newseum is interactive where visitors can simulate or mimic a newscaster, disc jock or a rock band singer, a tour time of at least 40 minute is ideal. Part of the introductory part of the tour introduces visitors to the ancient forms of communication such as the totem poles, clay tablets and papyrus during ancient times to the early period of modernity. For about 10 minutes, the evolution of modern communication is presented and discussed from Samuel FB Morse, Thomas Alba Edison, Alexander Graham Bell to Guglielmo Marconi’s development of the telegraph, motion picture, telephone to wireless telephony. In my briefing, I call it the four horsemen of the information super highway and I explain that we are communicating better and faster because of their innovations.
I then decided to go slow on my online promotion and treat my media museum as the prototype, show window and main office of my Media Museum concept. Over the years, I have accumulated hundreds old cameras that includes a bellowed 8x8 film camera and Brownie Kodak cameras. I constructed an imitation of Benjamin Franklin’s old press and I have corners for printing, television studio, radio announcer’s booth, DJ station, library on media and communications, display of Egypt’s papyrus art, an atelier or art studio and a reception hall full of media exhibits.
Generally, museums are really meant to function as an educational institution and facility for understanding and knowing certain things that has to do with history, science, arts and others that can generate interests to many. Most museums are run by foundations, corporations, government and private individuals who has a particular interest about certain things.
I may be rich in terms of acquired material things like collectible items but I go with the Code of Ethics for Museums which states that everyone who works in museums and galleries should treat collections as cultural, scientific or historic assets, not financial assets. I welcome partnership with entities that are interested in the dynamic world of human communication and interaction and I am likewise open to exploring the business part of it once the museum is up and going. The media museum as part of its envisioned goals and effort to provide quality education on media matters is to have a world class curators and technical assistants trained in the various quad-media applications. It is the end goal of the media museum to be self-sustaining capable of generating enough resources and revenue for its expansion just like any educational facilities that needs to continuously upgrade.
Believing in private public partnership as ventilated in many Philippine investment forums that can avail privileges under the Built Operate Transfer, Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Board of Investment of the Department of trade and Industry, I believe that the media museum originally set in Baguio City will find its footprint elsewhere. The Media Newseum café which is also being piloted as its satellite franchise is also being studied in my drawing board. For particulars, please send emails to Art Tibaldo at cnatelevision@gmail.com About the proponent: Art Tibaldo is a Filipino artist, media specialist and teacher who was involved in print, broadcast and public information for over three decades. While working with the government as media specialist of the Philippine Information Agency and Department of Trade and Industry, he manages a private media museum where he discusses media, methods and techniques. His book on “Being Filipino” is now being reviewed by an international publisher that specializes in academic researches. Below photos shows Tibaldo presenting his Earthquake Museum scale model to a visiting American writer who checked on him in 2008.