Chia Amisola (b. 2000) is an internet & ambient artist from the Philippines devoted to the internet's love, loss, labor, and liberation. Through websites, tools, gatherings, and performances, their (web)site-specific practice posits creation as synonymous with liberation. Their internet ambient weaves the internet's ecologies in its territory, infrastructure, and intimacies.
They are the Organizer of Developh, a critical technology institute based in the Philippines they founded in 2016, and stewards the Philippine Internet Archive, stewarding Philippine networking cultures. They graduated with a BA in Computing & the Arts with distinction from Yale University in 2022, receiving the Sudler Prize for the creative arts. They currently are a NEW INC Art & Code member, were a Fellow of the Processing Foundation, resident at Gray Area (US), Yale Center for Collaborative Arts & Media, and the Internet Archive's DWeb Camp. They have spoken internationally at the Grace Hopper Celebration (US), Causal Islands, UX+ (Philippines), Naive Yearly (Denmark) have been internationally exhibited at /rosa (Germany) and Now Play This (UK), performed at CultureHub (NYC), panke.gallery (Germany), and 98B (Philippines), recently published in Runway Journal (AUS),Runway Journal (AUS), The HTML Review, and Rappler and have been featured in El País, Frieze, and The New Yorker.
In form of websites, hypertext, performance, installations, games, archives, & tool, their work posits self-preservation as communal preservation, creation as synonymous with liberation, and identity as a source of infrastructure-building. With practice dating back to 2006, including writing & software (such as gamemaking tools as games), digital intimacy ( whenwe.love), placemaking & territories (their manifesto, thesoundof.love, on domain naming), religion & ritual (Visita), folk archival (Philippine Internet Archive), teaching & organizing (including pro-bono organizing 100+ events across 7+ years of programming with Developh), artifacts & performances (the performance of the browser, the browser as performance), amongst others.
( Simply, I dream of gathering all the people I love in one place, and build an internet that might be that place. )
Education
2022 BA Computing & the Arts, YaleExhibitions
... Kakakompyuter Mo Yan (+ curatorial)2023 Artist Showcase, Gray Area (CA)
2023 Website as Subject (Dual with yehwan song), panke.gallery (Germany)
2023 All machines watched over by loving grace, InterAccess (Canada)
2023 Plural Prototypes, Gray Area (CA)
2023 Now Play This, Somerset House (UK)
2023 Soft Narratives, /rosa (Germany)
2023 Swords & Kisses, Staffordshire St (UK)
2022 Endnotes, Yale School of Art (US)
Professional
NOW Prototyping, Figma2021 Design Systems, Spotify
2020 Design, Kumu
2019 Tech, Rappler
Selected Talks & Performances
2023Screen Walk, Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH) & Photographers' Gallery London (UK)
Internet ambient, 98B (PH)
If you knew me..., panke.gallery (DE)
On domain naming, Naive Yearly (DK)
On mythology & computing, Casual Islands (CA)
On sites & sights, Processing (US)
On cyberfeminism, The Lab (CA, US)
On prototyping, Figma (CA, US)
Concrete Form, CultureHub (NY)
Artists' talk, WordHack (NY, US)
On (web)sites, Software for People at Yale (CT)
EARLIER
On design as fantasy, UX+ (PH)
On worlding, Batangas State University (PH)
Speaker, Hopper Down Under (AU)
Speaker, Grace Hopper Celebration (TX, US)
Selected Residencies & Honors
Art & Code, New Musem's NEW INC x RhizomeMedia Arts Residency, Kala Art Institute
Microgrant for net.art, Rhizome
Cultural Incubator, Gray Area
Residency, Welcome to my Homepage
Fellow, Internet Archive/DWeb Camp
Sudler Prize for Creative Arts, Yale University
Availability
I'm always interested in speaking, making, writing, exhibiting, and talking about my practice. Would you have me perform?
Creative & artistic collaborations are highly welcome, especially with institutions / individuals from the Philippines.
I would love it if you write about the work I deem urgent.
I'm not available for any paid or full-time opportunities outside of creative/artistic work.