Chia Amisola (they/them) is an internet / ambient artist. Their practice explores worldmaking on the internet to construct spaces, systems, and tools for communal care โ imagining a world where creation is synonymous with liberation. Their work is constructed with constraints, compression, & tool defaults to simultaneously dwell within & reinvent technologies as a Filipino tech worker. Through (web)site-specific art, they subvert the platforms and spaces they have lived within and now take part in building. Chia is the Founder of Developh, a community of practice for Filipino technologists to engage with technology critically since 2016.
Simply put, they are interested in gathering all the people they love in one place, and how the internet can be one of those places. ( More on my thinking about this is outlined in 'On Ceilings' and 'Theophany'. )
I work as a Product Designer on the Figma Prototyping team. Beyond, my main community is spread all over the internet. Like with Developh, nurturing intersectional Filipino technologists through classes & engagements and net art pursuits under an institute I call Website Website (Website) or WW(W). I run a small net label & press called Maybe playing with experimental sound.
I engage with sound art & field recording, handmaking cassettes and zines, teaching and writing on websites, blogging, and making net art and archives. You can support my practice on Patreon.
My practice spans sound, design, writing, worlding, and archival. Creation is largely an act of self-preservation and survival — I dream of making worlds for the people I love that they can continue building for whom they love as well. I'm interested in poeisis, making making, communal creation, collaborative creativity, and making the act of creation ubiquituous โ for if we all have the imaginary, spaces, and tools to see and then create the worlds we need, we persist.
Before, I worked at Spotify, Kumu, Rappler, and a lot of other tiny startups. I founded the largest lore community of Genshin Impact, designed for non-profits & progressive politicians, managed Yale's design studio, organized shitty underground raves, made a game maker that is a game in itself for my thesis, query & archive Filipino design, collect cloud pics and cassettes.
Longer-term, I'd like to run a product studio with friends doing both collaborative client projects and releases of our own technologies and literature. I want to find a physical space for Developh in Manila, Philippines where we can foster a safe space to engage in the present & future of technology, ethics, and culture. Here, I want to print/press media, hold classes, provide community resources, be a little distro, and exhibit work.
I am trying to ask better questions, be more present, and wonder about the humanity in the machines and technologies we build โ for they are all just cariers of human desire and will.
About
Chia Amisola (b. 2000 in Tondo, Manila) lives in San Francisco.
They are a designer and internet + ambient artist.
Producing site-specific art.
Other Websites
chias.website chias.blog chia.pics ifyouknewmewouldyoulove.me hotemogirlfriend.com hotemogirlfriend.blogspot.com engine.lol chia.neocities.org chia.audio chias.computer& many more ephemeral ones
Availability
Full-time work: No.
Part-time work: Yes.
Teaching/Speaking: Yes.
Particularly interested in net art commissions, speaking, and artistic collaborations. (As of Jan 2023)
You should talk to me
I'm slow to respond (slowly working at this), but love connecting with people and talking broadly or precisely about love, technology, life, and whatnot. Feel free to email or DM me (Twitter is best), or text if you have it โ just let me know if you want my number, too.