Philippine Indigenous Games: Luksuhay And Bato – Lata
Luksuhay and Bato – Lata, a term from Eastern Samar, It is commonly known as Luksong tinik (jump over the thorns) and Tumbang preso (knock down prisoner) which started during the Spanish Items somewhere in Tagalog regions and spread out all over the Philippines and bore varied names or title. Luksuhay is played by two teams with equal numbers of players. Each team designates a leader, the nanay (mother), while the rest of the players are called anak (children). The players chosen to be mother are usually the ones who can jump the highest.
The game involves players sitting on the ground and other players jumping over parts of their body by stacking their hands and feet, placing one on top of the other. The opponents try to jump over the “hurdle of thorns” without being touched in any part of their clothes or body. If a child touches any part of the hands while jumping, the seated player who touched his clothes or body shouts, “Nasaling” (touched) and the mother comes forward to save the touched child. The mother jumps again on behalf of the child touched. If the mother fails, the two teams exchange places and the game starts over again. (Study of Philippine Games, M. L. , Lopez) Whereas, Bato – Lata is played with an empty can and slippers; it was originally played with stones but was later replaced by slippers. The game starts with drawing a circle around the can and was guarded by the taya.
The players tries to topple over the can by throwing their pair of rubber slippers at the can as the players stands on the tag line while the taya stands and gets ready to retrieve the can. Once the can is toppled the taya will quickly return the can inside the circle as fast as he can, while the other kids will try to retrieve their rubber slippers as they try to avoid being caught. If the taya tags one of them, he will be the one who will be watching over the tin can and the other kids will get to try to topple the can again. These two games are a part of Philippine indigenous games and played by ancient Filipino folk and are commonly played by Filipino children. With the Philippines having limited resources of toys, they came up on inventing games without the need of anything but the players themselves and props that are commonly seen anywhere. In the book ‘A study of Philippine Games’ (1980), author Mellie Leandicho Lopez noted that Laro is a generic term used by Filipinos for all forms of recreational play. Filipinos say “laro tayo” whether they wish to play for fun without concern for consequence or engage in a highly competitive contest. Filipinos love to play games; it is intended primarily for amusement whenever suitable opportunities arise (Traditional Games in the Philippines, A. Barbosa, 2003).
Filipino games builds friendship strengthens family relationship and creates enjoyment among individuals. Through our games, we develop the way we socialize and communicate with other people. It strengthens family relationship for it only involve the children in playing, but the parents as well who are responsible of teaching these games and passing it unto the next generation. Our traditional Filipino games don’t only bring amusement to the person playing it but also has an important role in the learning process and it greatly influence the mental, physical, and moral vitality of an individual. The educational influence of these games to a child is a factor why games in the country are still being practiced and observed by the general public. In spite of these games as being part of our culture and the benefits that we acquire a lot of benefits from playing it, Filipino Indigenous games are slowly vanishing in the local scene of gaming and were evidently showed in a study by Barbosa, where he surveyed the different Filipino indigenous games being played by high school students. As television and computers arises, the amount of time children spend indoors has increased, while time spent outdoors has decreased.
As a result, urban children of today do not play outdoor games and have started to play indoor games alone with their gadgets as playmates. Aside from Electronic Devices, Urban cities have been also a great part of the factor why children today are less interested to play outside. The pace of life today in urban areas does not often allow parents to play outdoors with their children, and many parents fear to allow their children to play outside unattended due to dangerous things that may happen to their child. Number of accidents can be counted in the streets of urban areas and many incidents can happen to a child if unattended. In addition, many barangays struggle to provide the resources to build and manage purpose – built playgrounds. As much as outdoor games are important to the physical, intellectual, and social development of a child, the everyday access to safe, stimulating, and social places to play is vital to sustaining healthy urban communities. This Study will show Luksuhay and Bato – Lata being traditionally animated in 3D Zoetrope. Using 3D Zoetrope as an interactive and interesting way to catch children of age’s 6 – 11 attention of using moving sculptures.
According to Shaaron Ainsworth study of how does animation influence learning, animations are now found so widely is that many people believe that animations can help learners come to understand complex ideas more easily. This level of explanation focuses on the interaction between the form of representation and an individual’s capacities, knowledge, and skills. Zoetrope, invented by William George Homer, is one of the several pre – film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of motion. The term Zoetrope coined by Homer, was composed from the Greek word Zoe means “Life” and Tropos which means “turning” is a transliteration of “Wheel of Life”. The Traditional Zoetrope or referred to as “Cylindrical Zoetrope” consist of a cylinder with cuts vertically in the sides while the inner surface of the cylinder is a band of images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the viewer looks through the slits at the picture across. The scanning of slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together and the viewer sees a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion.
In the late 19th century, devices working on similar principles have been developed, named Linear Zoetrope and 3D Zoetrope. The Variation of 3D Zoetrope suggested by several inventors including Etienne Jules Marey, apply the same principle to three dimensional models. In 3D Zoetrope, the animation is using a rapidly flashing strobe light to illuminate the models, producing much clearer and sharper distortion free results. The models are mounted on a rotating base and light flashes on and off within an extremely small fraction of a second as each successive model passes the same spot. The stroboscopic effect makes each seem to be a single animated object by allowing the rotation speed to be slightly out of synchronization with the strobe, the animated object can be made to appear to also move slowly forwards and backwards, according to how much faster or slower each rotation is than the corresponding series of strobe flashes.
In this study, the researcher or the artist proponent was highly influenced by the 3D animated movie called RPG Metanoia a 2010 Philippine 3D computer-animated adventure film produced by Ambient Media, Thaumatrope Animation and Star Cinema. It is the Philippines first full length 3D – animated film and an official metro manila film festival (MMFF). Thomasian multimedia artists introduced a breakthrough in Philippine cinema among the alumni who showcased their animation expertise were led by animators from UST’s Industrial Design program and Designers from UST Advertising Arts program. The idea of the film sends a message that there is more to childhood than just playing computer games. . The researcher is influenced by Filipino artist Luis Ac – Ac a wood sculptor based on Paete, Laguna. Aside from being fascinated by his outstanding anatomy of creating his sculptures, she is also inspired by his subjects of Children playing traditional games, hardworking rural families at work, idealized image of local heroes, familiar tableaus taken from native folklore and old Manila characters in refine pose are just some of his sculptures that inspire emulation and the best way to describe it is “Art imitating life, life imitating art”. He is known for his dexterity and talent and his approach to art has been respected by both local and international art communities.
Moreover, she is inspired by Edwin Tres Reyes a Filipino painter and sculptor, a UST Fine art alumnus, who has won several awards. He is well known for his dream factory with a unique vision and a technique to realize it visually; these pocket narratives are in the form of a canvas and resin sculptures. His creations are mostly kids with large eyes, which promote the dreams, passion, and innocence of a child. The researcher is highly influenced by these two foreign artists and was known for their famous Zoetrope Creations, a British Artist Mat Collishaw and was known for his 3D Zoetrope, whereas he created his famous “All things fall” inspired by a painting by Ippolito Scarsella and was presented during his solo exhibition “black mirror” at Galleria Borgehese in Rome.
Lastly is Eric Dyer is an artist and educator who brings animation into the physical world with his sequential images, sculptures, installations, and performances. He continues to innovate with new tools and applications, moving his work off the screen and into real spaces. He views the zoetrope’s resurrection as a manifestation of universal desire for tactility and physical presence amidst our increasingly disembodied existence as we work, play, and socialize in virtual environments.
