The Canonization of Bicycles and Bicycling on Philippine Social Media

Art Stud 1 - Summer 2013

2 The bicycle in various forms has been around longer than the motor-car and any other motor vehicle. A bicycle, often called a bike (and sometimes referred to as a "pushbike," "pedal bike," "pedal cycle," or "cycle"), is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century in Europe and now number more than a billion worldwide, twice as many as automobiles. They are the principal means of transportation in many regions. They also provide a popular form of recreation, and have been adapted for use as children's toys, general fitness, military and police applications, courier services, and bicycle racing. The word bicycle was used in English print in the London The Daily News in 1868, from the French term bicyclette which had been used as an adjective in 1847, and as a noun by 1868. Before that, and in some places thereafter, bikes were known primarily as velocipedes.
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In the Philippines, there is no online record of the definite origin of the bicycle, such as who introduced it to us, when, and the like, but a record of the first official cycling event can be found. This event is currently called Le Tour de Flipinas, which is an annual professional road bicycle racing stage race held in Luzon since 1955 as part of the Union Cycliste Internationale, an Olympic body organized to supervise and help direct the growth of the sport worldwide, Asia Tour. It is held in April every year. While the course changes every year, the tour traditionally ends at Rizal Park, Manila. Its previous names included the Tour of Luzon, Marlboro Tour, Tour of CALABARZON, Tour Pilipinas and Padyak Pinoy, before carrying the current name.
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Nowadays, there is a continuous rise of bicyclers and biking events in our country, which is very observable even in the urban city, and by the implementations of various bike lanes, bike parks and bike ordinances as reported in the news. Thats why this study was conducted to find the canons of bicycles and bicycling as portrayed on online media, which for this study, pertains

3 to the use of online blogs as the major reference, but also covers other online sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr and the like (which in other words comprise the social media). Furthermore, bicycles (of the bloggers) studied also only concerns the non-electronic or the human-powered ones, and though the detailed [world] history and technicalities of bicycles and bicycling were not thoroughly studied and discussed, various questions were aimed to be answered which served as the main focus of this study. For the aesthetic part, the bases or criteria of beauty and/or ugliness of a bicycle exhibited by the bloggers (and in turn bicyclers) were identified and were later on analyzed. But the focus of the study did not stop there for it tried to recognize and categorize the canons of as to how the bicycle is integrated into the lives of the Filipino bikers, and in effect into the people around them. It is important to take note that the words bicycles and bicycling were used as an interdependent notion, and not as separate things. This is due to the association of bicycles as static things or the bicycle as it is, an end product of display, fixed and immobile. But when the word bicycling is mentioned, it is perceived as bicycles in motion, with a person riding it as an inseparable image (the biker). These points are crucial to the scope of the research mentioned above. Another important point that needs to be established is the definition of canons, or as used in this study - canonization. This should not be confused to the Roman Catholic Churchs canonization or the process of making a saint. Rather, it was used figuratively in this study, moreover, the canonization refers to the ongoing and dynamic act of establishing the canons in the world of bicycles and bicycling as portrayed by the bloggers and then as interpreted by the

4 researcher. Now, what do these canons refer to? As Patrick Flores explained in his book Art and Society, given an ordinary urinal in a public toilet as an example is not art, but it becomes a work of art as it was exhibited in various museums, making it not just for urinating anymore but for the aesthetic sense, thus changing its value. Or simply put: The agencies of the art world-academe, media, the gallery/museum network, the art market, state cultural bureaucracies, connoisseurs and collectors, publicists and dealers, culture industries-send off to their publics the signals of art, locating them within the proper institutional scheme, and ingraining in them the appropriate aesthetic reception, disposition, or attitude to accept and include some things as art and reject and exclude others as anything but art. It is in this context that our notions of art are constructed, validated, reproduced, and disseminated to others whom we think must be guided by the same principles.
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Therefore, canons refer to the accepted body of principles, rules, standards, norms, criterion or standard of judgment, which may be written or unwritten, official or unofficial, obvious or implied within a society. Canonized Aesthetics (The Mimetic Plane) In scrutinizing the blogs, the following questions were kept in mind: What are the bases of a good/beautiful bicycle? What makes a bicycle beautiful? Why/How do these bloggers consider a/the bicycle beautiful? These things are what comprise the canons on the aesthetic sensibility, and as Flores further discussed in his book, it is to be distinguished from other pleasures and as that which is disinterested. Aesthetic disinterest is a result of disciplining the senses, of perceiving something not as a means but as an end and achievement in itself, of
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5 grasping something for its own sake and not for any other purpose . . . In other words, aesthetics is how appealing or attractive a bicycle is; how the bloggers enjoy looking at it; how it fills them with excitement and pleasure; how they feel compelled to touch it, to ride, etc. The visual elements of the bicycles considered by the bloggers (line, color, value, texture, form and shape, composition in space, movement) belong to the non-mimetic plane. But as signifiers they are capable of conveying concepts, values, feelings, and attitudes, and are constituted to form the mimetic plane, hence, the first part of the main study. Before enumerating the canons identified by the researcher, the blogs studied may be divided into the following categories: personal bike diaries (bike rides, bike collection etc.) such as the Pinoy Bike Blog (http://www.bisikleta.ph/) and 32by18 (http://32by18.blogspot.com/); business/advertisement blogs (guide/tour-thru-bike, bike shops) like the Life Cycle Bicycle Shop (http://lifecyclebicycleshop.com); organizations/advocacies/movement (environmental, charitable, competitions, etc.) for instance The Firefly Brigade Philippines (http://www.fireflybrigade.org); random blogs but post bike-related things; combination of all (bike forums) such as the Philippine Mountain Biking Forum (http://philmofo.org). Skimming all the archives of more than 30 blogs, looking at the pictures and videos posted, reading significant manifestos of canons (whether they are aware of it, or they intended to, or not) and making sure that the blogs are made by Filipinos, the canons observed on the mimetic plane are: The more unique or unusual the bike, the more beautiful and intriguing it is. This refers to the exoticism of either the bicycle design as a whole or of its body parts.
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6 Only branded bikes are quality bikes. Or in other words, the notion of only branded bikes are authentic bikes is dominantly visually shown in the blogs. An example of this canon is the statement of a bike business blog named the Life Cycle Bicycle Shop, . . . we are the first company to introduce branded bicycles and accessories in the Philippines. Quality is on the top list of Life Cycle Bicycle Shop . . .
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Only imported bikes are branded bikes. This is the conclusion that can be gotten from the previous canon, which are enthymematically observed. Therefore, getting another canon which is only imported bikes are quality bikes, and implicitly stated, except bikes that were made in China and were poorly mass produced (wherein China represents all the things that are unbranded). The contrary of the previous canons is hence unbranded bikes are cranky bikes, wherein these are conventionally agreed upon as untrustworthy and inferior bikes. This is clearly stated in one particular personal bike blog entitled Bisikleta.PH Pinoy Bike Blog, in his post How I got into mountain biking?, he wrote the following, [T]hen I finally bought one. We got it from Genasco, a shop in Batangas City near the old market. My mom bought it for me. It was an unknown brand (Ijufa, I think) with unbranded parts and a crank arm that wouldn't stay in place.
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The more expensive the bike, the better in quality. This seems to be the general notion of the bikers-bloggers who in return give evaluation or general overview of bicycles to other people who are interested in buying the bicycles they review. The more bike gears and/or accessories your bike has, the more beautiful and unique it is. These refer to the additional components of bike such as the reflectors, the gears, the pedals, the saddle etc.

7 Bikes are beautiful for its simplicity. The idea of it being a simple machine that does not need gasoline or fuel makes it the simplest mode of transportation. Bikes are also beautiful for its utility and practicality. It needing only a person to move and nothing else helps you save money in commuting. Bikes are machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man, hence the errorfree invention of man. This is another way of stating the previous canon, claiming that bikes are purely good things, thus making it more beautiful. Bikes are rideable art. This canon supports the idea that bicycles are great tools for selfexpression. As Caruncho said in his article The Art of a Bicycle in The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Depending on their inclinations, riders may strip their bikes down to the bare minimum, or more likely, weigh them down with accessories and upgrades jeepney-style: The more, the many-er.
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Bikes that have scientific, mathematical or precise numerical description are technically more advanced than the average bikes. This type of bike presentation is not only done by bike business blogs, but by also bikers that are extremely attached to biking. The biker and the bike are interconnected since the physical gears and accessories of the biker either elevates or degrades the beauty of the bike. This means that it is not only the bike that must be aesthetically beautiful, but the biker too. The more bike collections the biker has, the more die-hard or quasi-professional they are. This has great influence to the readers perception towards the bikes presented in a certain blogs, thus making several blogs known to the blog community about bikes, as shown in their blog rolls, which have become connected with each other. This also make the label trusted blog, hence a blog with quality bikes.

8 The more bike runs, adventures, mountaineering a biker/blogger has done/has posted, the higher the level of intensity of bike addiction. Here, addiction is perceived positively and is associated with bike dedication and expertise, thus reassuring that the bikes of that certain biker are tried and tested, thus making it more beautiful. Bikes make you more awesome than the general population. Since the bikes are believed to be good and beautiful, these qualities are translated to the biker too. The beauty of bike determines the road or the general treatment youll get in bicycling. Aesthetically pleasing and/or unique bikes create an aura of respect thus making the passersby or the other people follow the bikes with their gaze, evoking a feeling of jealousy and/or curiosity to the bike and the biker. The quality of pictures greatly affects the beauty of the bikes. This part may also be called the bike-sports/shot-passion or the bike-shoot-bike syndrome where in the bike, the biker and photography has become inseparable in the biking world. It turns out that the better the pictures, the more beautiful the bike, therefore making the ride seem more beautiful and memorable when portrayed in the blogs. The canons stated above, however, are based on the readings of the researcher of the Filipino blogs alone, therefore, it may or may not represent the overall canons of bicycles and bicycles in the Philippines. Canons on the Thematic Plane Bicycles and bicycling exhibit multiplicity of meaning, which the mimetic plane cannot cover alone, thus we proceed to analyzing as to how they have been used as instruments for social realism, as they are being continuously incorporated into the lives of the Filipino bikers-

9 bloggers, and consequently to other members of the society to which they belong. Citing as to how Flores define the thematic plane: Beyond proving the documentary identification of the work, these data make it possible for us to situate art in a particular period and social milieu. To arrive at the full meaning of the work, one should necessarily view it in its social and historical context as indicated by text, symbols, and allusions or references.
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It is necessary now to look back at the different categories of the blogs presented by the researcher before, and from there, the existence of the thematic plane in bicycles and bicycling can be proven true. First, the researcher would like to enumerate the integration of the concept of bicycle and bicycling in the music and movie industries. Going by the oldest, as far as the available data on the internet is concern, songs by the 1973 Le Tour de Filipinas champion Jesus Garcia are the Buhay Siklista and Bisikleta depict the hurdles a cyclist endure in their training and professional life experiences just to become the best cyclist and win.
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The next prominent song is entitled Bisikleta too, sang by Rico J. Puno which this time tells the life story of an ordinary and poor man who through joining a bicycle race contest was able to change his economic and social status. The researcher decided to put the lyrics in this study for better appreciation and analysis since no other relevant data as to the released date and such were found on the net: Ang bisikleta ni pare'y kay raming sumasabit| 'Pag nagdaraan sa kalye'y sumasagitsit| Ang bisikleta puno ng diyaryo at pandesal| 'Di pumapalya si pare sa arawaraw| Kahit hirap kayod pa rin ng kayod| Parang hindi nagdaranas ng pagod| Bisikleta'y mahalagang bahagi| Sa buhay niya'y naghihirap ng laging| Madalas ay sinasabing buhay ay bigo| Wala nang pag-asa sa hirap na mahango| Bisikleta na lamang ang tanging aliwan| Laging kinakausap at binabantayan| Dumating ang pagkakataon ni Pareng Juan| Karera ng bisikleta

10 nung kapistahan| Ang bisikleta'y muling napakinabangan| Nagtamo ng unang gantimpala sa laban| Di lamang 'yan kani-kanyang nakamit| *Ang koponan maagang nilalangit| Kaya't sa ngayon ang pangalan ay Don Juan| 'Pagkat asawa niya'y ubod ng yaman| Ang bisikleta ni pare'y ubod ng swerte| Nagdala ng kayamanang napakalaki| Ang kanyang hawak ngayo'y isang bagong kotse| May tsuper at alalay sa magkabilang tabi| Si kumpare ngayo'y iginagalang ng bayan| Bisikleta'y naging hagdan ng kanyang tagumpay| Ang kapalaran ng tao'y talagang ganyan| Minsan nasa ilalim, minsan nasa ibabaw.
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The next song which used the bicycle for their social and political satiric song was Radioactive Sago Projects song entitled Bisikleta. RSP is a Filipino jazz rock band formed in 1999 in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines and is fronted by award-winning poet Lourd de Veyra. The band's sound is a fusion of spoken-word poetry, bebop jazz, and punk. Their main topics are mostly politics, alcoholism, drugs, and any other issues today. The song was included in their album TMANSMFKPR* - Tangina Mo Andaming Nagugutom sa Mundo Fashionista Ka Pa Rin Terno Recordings, released on 2007.
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The following is the lyrics of their song: Bakit ganun, ang Storck piso na| Ang Marlboro dalawang piso na| Pero ang tanong| Bakit wala pa ring nagbabago sa aking panahon| Kung bakit ganun, wag ka ng magtanong| Wag ka ng makulit| Wag ka ng mag-isip, wag ka ng magisip| Bakit ganun\ Ang presidente ko nage-aerobics na naman sa telebisyon| Pero ang tanong Bakit wala pa ring nagbabago sa aking panahon| Kung bakit ganun, wag ka ng mag-isip Wag ka ng magtanong| Wag ka ng mag-isip, wag ka ng mag-isip| Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, bisikleta ang kailangan| Ang pangit mo| Bakit ganun| Pinag-aral naman ako ng nanay ko| Ng tatay ko ng apat na taon| Pero bakit sa utak ko wala pa ring bumabaon| Kung bakit ganun, wag ka ng magtanong| Wag ka ng makulit| Wag ka ng mag-isip, wag ka ng mag-isip| Bakit ganun|

11 Isang| araw nagpakita sa akin ang Panginoon| At sinabi nya| "Kailanma'y walang mababago sa iyong panahon| Kung bakit ganun, wag ka ng magtanong| Wag ka ng makulit| Wag ka ng magisip, wag ka ng mag-isip| Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, bisikleta ang kailangan| Ang pangit mo| Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, bisikleta ang kailangan. On the same year, 2007, the band GoodMorningTowels released a song entitled Bisikleta in one of their album. Three years after, a band called Sandwich released their own song with the same title Bisikleta, among the many other previous songs with the same title, included in their album Contra Tiempo. Also, Jimmy Bondoc had his own song released entitled Mahiwagang Bisikleta on 2010. Aside from the music industry, the bicycle had also its own share of limelight on the recently produced movie Asiong Salonga: Manilas Kingpin, wherein during an encounter between the two gangs when Asiongs body was about to be buried, his funeral was attacked by the enemies, but to their surprise the coffin was full of weaponry instead. Here, one of Asiongs undermen entered the fighting scene in a semi-dramatic, slow motion, yet funny way for hes riding a vintage bicycle while on the other hand, hes holding a gun. The last scene was depicted on a close shot of the bicycles wheels rotating with a bloody and chaotic background, thus giving a nostalgic overall feeling of resolution. Furthermore, the bicycles have been the constant tool for a lot of environmental advocacies here and around the globe. One prominent non-government organization is the Firefly Brigade Philippines which advocates not just the use of bicycles for basic transportation in the Metro Manila, but the establishment of various bicycle parks, bicycle lanes and the making and promulgation of bike ordinances. For instance, last 2010 National Elections, Firefly made a visual advocacy poster with a slogan, I vote to bike. On 2011, their slogan used the catching

12 phrase, Bicycle Revolution 2011: The 13 Tour of the Fireflies with illustrations of bicyclers in a Filipiniana and Barong attires, with one flag in resemblance to the flag of KKK and one bicycle being held high up in the air, giving a very revolutionary sentiment. Last year, they went back to their environmental approach of advocating by using the BEST: Bicycles for Environmental and Sustainable Transportation. On the other hand, the technique of coming back to basic mode of delivering amidst the advent of technological innovations was used by the Pedala, a delivery services around Metro Manila which uses only the bicycles in their deliveries. In the blogging community, they have been gaining rising popularities as they are being supported for their unique combination of business and advocacy of using bikes. Another type of business using bicycles aside from shops and the one stated above, are the blogs of tourist/guide groups which advocate the use of bicycles as transportation to foreigners in visiting tourist spots and provinces in the Philippines. Also, there is one variety of zip lining which incorporated the bikes, this has been known as Anicycling. Lastly, the researcher would like to point out the aspect of bicycling which these canons in the virtual bike communities have excluded, or have not been acknowledge at all as existing in the current realms of our societal conditions. Rigorous researched has been done to find these neglected, ignored or simply unexposed bike aspects in our country, though no blog made by Filipinos have been found. Instead, blogs by foreigners who have either visited our country or have done studies here are what acknowledge these aspects. A case in this point is the blog made by Hannah, an American whose brother has married a Filipina, and in her first visit here, they have done a three-week cycling trip. Her blog named Cycling Touring in the Philippines is composed of mostly pictures of their trip with short
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13 description each. Among these pictures, the conditions of bicycles owned by the ordinary Filipinos have been given artistic sense of beauty, as to not just the way they were photographed, but as to how they were kept and maintained by the people who own them. Here, the resourcefulness and creativity of these people have been highlighted, and implicitly oppose the established canons the researcher has observed and have identified in the mimetic plane of bicycles and bicycling. The Ideological Plane In reading and analyzing the blogs, various ideologies can identified which may be inferred as the reasons behind as to why these canons reign or persist and have been translated in the virtual community of bike bloggers. The researcher would like to think that this study of canons cannot be done on the aesthetic plane alone, for the bicycle as an art does not exist in a vacuum, thus making it possible for outside forces to affect it, and in return, it can also affect the outside conditions existing beyond its realms of existence. The canon indeed operates according to the inclusion/exclusion principle. if there are certain texts, discourses, knowledges, and practices that are included and epitomized, there are also certain texts, discourses, knowledges, and practices that are excluded and preempted. It must be insisted that the canon exercises this dominative role from a position of power. The existence of the canon, undoubtedly, spawns a network of problems.
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One thing that the researcher has observed is the reality of the cult of the professional ego which is clearly a manifestation of the materialistic individualism of industrial society. Society becomes splintered into the ruthlessly competing self-interest tribes of experts (each with its own god or king celebrity figures), church or temple (convention hall, museum) holy book

14 (professional journal/manual), sacred language (jargon), and religious attire (business suit, lab gown etc.)
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The persistence of Western ideologies, such as the concept of beauty, has been passed down even to these communities of bikers. Hence, our notion of beauty has been distorted and this resulted to the exclusion of the bikes of the mass, the other realms which may still be further explained as the effect of the ideology of classes, which divides the rich and the poor since if you look at the bloggers background, they are the economically and intellectually rich people who have access to the internet, and cameras, and who have so much time of their life to dedicate it greatly to bicycles and bicycling. Because unlike the excluded poor and sometimes educationally deprived and economically challenged people, who may have no constant access to the internet and have no cameras at all, these tribes of experts have been self-sufficient and established members of the society. Another thing is the gender biases still present in the virtual worlds, and more evidently in real life. The researcher has observed that the dominant sex here is the male sex, and this is a proof of the existence of the patriarchal system we have in the society. Though the existence of women is not totally absent, they are still a minority in comparison to the male bikers, and they themselves may not be even aware of its implications, for they themselves help in the contiinuum of this patriarchal system, for they are not aware of the threats it impose upon them, here and in the future. Next is the concept of capitalism, commercialism and consumerism which are very evident in the mass production of bicycles, the existence of the notion of branded and unbranded bikes creating a dichotomy, and the promotion of certain types of bicycles as the in now, thus excluding the others.

15 Conclusion There are various other manifestations of these the canons in the virtual community of bikers and bloggers and the coded messages behind it, but the researcher want to further investigate the matter by studying a larger number of blogs. For now, this research has reached its limit and end, but the following must be reiterated: The mimetic plane is appropriate as the first level of analysis since the present is just the imitations and representations of the past, hence there is a mimicry but it is noticeable that there is a stray from it (the past) as the advent of changes, be it economical, political, technological etc., is inevitable. Now after being part of that continuous cycle of mimicry, being part of a community that has its own culture of signs and conventions of for instance beauty, it is natural to have its imprints which can be proved on the socio-historical context of it. That is the thematic plane studied in this research. But the study did not stop there, for the reasons behind the things must be analyzed too, and that is where the ideological plane exist. In the end, the bicycle and bicycling has become indeed a very powerful art that have been canonized, and will continue to be, in the cultural and socio-historical planes of our society.

16 Notes

1. Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 1982). 2. "Bicycles Produced in the World, Worldometers Real Time World Statistics, accessed May 10, 2013, http://www.worldometers.info/bicycles. 3. Peter Oliver, Bicycling Touring and Mountain Bike Basics (W.W. Norton & Company, 1995). 4. Le Tour de Filipinas, accessed May 10, 2013, http://www.letourdefilipinas.com. 5. Patrick Flores, Art and Society (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1987), 19. 6. An Encyclopedia Britannica Company Merriam-Webster, accessed May10, 2013, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/canon. 7. Flores, Art and Society, 13. 8. Ibid., 111. 9. Life Cycle Bicycle Shop, accessed May 11, 2013, http://lifecyclebicycleshop.com. 10. Bisikleta.PH Pinoy Bike Blog, accessed May 12, 2013, http://www.bisikleta.ph/. 11. Eric S. Caruncho, The Art of the Bicycle, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 2, 2009, http://www.inquirer.net/. 12. Flores, Art and Society, 124. 13. Bisikleta MTV, Youtube, accessed May 13, 2013, http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=sUZodl_ZBaQ. 14. Mukano Filipino Blog and Forum, accessed May 13, 2013, http://forums.mukamo.com/opm/23841-bisikleta-rico-j-puno.html. 15. Castpel, accessed may 13, 2013, http://band.castpel.com/radioactive-sago-project. 16. Flores, Arts and Society, 17. 17. Felipe M. De Leon Jr., Cultural Identity and Development (Quezon City: UP Press).