The first of 3 Close Readings

So one of the tools that I've developed over the past 4 plus years of graduate school work has been how to read an object, image, building, or a text really closely. In fact, one might say that a distinguishing feature of my dissertation will be the way I balance close readings with other types of analytical work and historical research. That said, I'm uploading three images to our blog today and will offer some close readings of each.

First is the Jeepney. Colleen has a

lready written a bit about what transportation on one of these looks and feels like, but this image gives you a bit more to go on in terms of the flair with which these odd vehicles are adorned. Spray paint, stencils, and a range of posters, horns, metallic siding, and certainly stickers festoon the jeepneys of Manila in ways that make each machine incredibly unique and yet there's a strange uniformity here as well.

Let's take a step back, looking to the left, what do you see here?

A burst of red and white color along the side of a long bus/jeep-like car that functions as cheap public transport throughout Metro Manila. What's uniform about the decorations, so far as I have observed, would be the invocation of a few well-known ideologies all of which are intimately connected to the workings of Manila and also the world. Two in particular that come to mind are Christianity and Democracy. So, you might see images reminiscent of the American flag or Optimus Prime (a well-known transformer character and toy for children from various parts of the world) which might be the theme used to structure the Jeepney's "message," and also incorporated with this message just as readily would be bible verses, images of Mary or Jesus, or both, and sometimes the more basic (but usually in bold): God Bless You.

So these are machines that rock n roll, they blare loud music, they use colorful lights and a range of well-known images to attract the attention of potential riders. They also usually have a driver's helper, a woman or man sitting in the front passenger's seat who leans out the window and signals to possible customers that the Jeepney is there and ready for them. There's a performative discourse here that makes all these jeepneys appear to be similar in their difference, and thus, shaped by a shared cultural logic (which I can never fully understand). The dominant part of this logic that we've been told about is that Jeepneys don't tend to go anywhere without a minimum number of passengers, and if it's rush hour or inconvenient to drive, they don't go anywhere then either. Thus, the rider is at the whim of the driver to some extent and they can decide to drive or not as easily as they might decide how to decorate the exterior and interior of their Jeepney.

Almost hidden amidst the color, flash, and hoopla is the substance of what you (as a rider) really need to know: the destination/route of this vehicle. On the sides of the Jeepney, written in what looks like a huge sharpe marker are usually the From and To locations for the Jeepney or the main Road that it travels. Interestingly these can vary quite a bit and may need additional interpretation in order to unravel the transportation system at work, but indeed it is a system and I'm happy to say Colleen seems to be mastering it for traveling on two different Jeepneys to get from where we live to her archives housed at UP.

We'll hopefully capture more images of Jeepneys before our time is through and post these to the blog as well.

Next time: the Pentecostal Church in our Neighborhood and the Marquinton Residences (our Condo Community) I did upload these images too, but they seem to have disappeared somewhere, so next time I'll upload them again.