![\"Quote](\"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Famous-Last-Words-Ng-Anak-ni-Nostradamus-2021-Photo-courtesy-Mirjam-Dalire-1024x574.png\")
As \u201cFamous Last Words\u201d plays, a fake Bible quote flashes on the screen: \u201c\u2018Children, take the vaccines, take me inside you, for I am the vaccine.\u2019 \u2014 Deuteronomy 9:2\u201d There is already distrust in institutions and we\u2019re not sure to what extent that fact-checking matters to netizens navigating bottomless feeds of hot men, constant crises and political theater. In the attention economy and a permanent state of war, what can we gain from stealing weapons? In this conversation with Mirjam, I am seduced by the potential of an artist-in-combat and the question of becoming: a real enemy of the enemy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
MAC ANDRE ARBOLEDA: How did your practice begin and how would you describe internet culture coming from the Visayas and Mindanao regions as opposed to so-called Imperial Manila? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n MIRJAM DALIRE: I started when I was studying in Siliman [University]. When Duterte got elected, it was in 2016. It was also the same year that I started studying. I am originally from Davao, Duterte\u2019s home turf. Before going to Siliman, I didn\u2019t really like Duterte but I wasn\u2019t that political. Because there\u2019s no space to be like that in Davao and I think school radicalized me [laughs]. I started noticing on Facebook it became worse and worse with the fake news and I also learned about the Cambridge Analytica scandal and it was really interesting. I kind of questioned the narratives that they created when I was a child, I think I grew up from that, how Duterte came into power. I\u2019m not sure when he was elected as a mayor, but I think I was a child then. I actually met him and I was blessed by him at some point1<\/a><\/sup>, when I was a kid. It just didn\u2019t feel right to support that way of making a city safe. Fast forward to Cambridge Analytica, it was interesting that people can just make narratives and I see my family members believing in them. This information, they became worse and worse. Especially when the Marcos narratives seeped in. It was like, what the fuck is this editing (laughs), with the voice. And I think I\u2019m just fascinated by this honestly, as a person that also loves memes. It was also the same era of these offensive memes. I also started researching about QAnon and how it\u2019s so the same and I wanted to make one for myself. This video was like a second part of another video I made entitled \u201c2012 Was An Inside Job By NoSTrAdAmUs_420\u201d (2019). In this work it was also connecting the virtual space. So I took out soil samples and took screenshots of the sand and grass textures. And this one petri dish, it broke and some of the grass fell. It was like a virus that infiltrated the real world. Like this grass has infiltrated us, or like the internet has completely infiltrated us. It was also the time when my parents started using Facebook religiously. Before they weren\u2019t there, and what posts are this?! <\/p>\n\n\n\n MA: Now I remember how Cambridge Analytica and Trump\u2019s first eventual election win, that they called Duterte\u2019s election win the petri dish for the US election so that\u2019s really interesting. What inspired you to make the sequel, \u201cThe Famous Last Words of Nostradamus\u201d (2021)?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n MD: I wanted to revisit the work and it was around the time that the Marcos stuff was crazy. And I remember we were watching these videos with the Tallano gold and it was just outrageous how everything they throw in to these people (points to mom in the room), they just believe it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n MA: One context, within the crisis was the vaccine in the middle of this militarized, global health crisis. A Reuters investigation released just last year reported that the Pentagon released a secret anti-vaccine campaign in the Philippines to undermine the Chinese vaccine called Sinovac. They identified 300 accounts on X (formerly Twitter) that matched descriptions shared by former US military officials familiar with the operation. They used accounts saying #ChinaAngVirus and that was the slogan of the campaign. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n MD: Yeah, <\/strong>I wanted to dissect how these narratives are created, and I think I also wanted to dissect it visually. That\u2019s why I emulated that style of reporting or Maharlika aesthetic, Maharlika type beat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n MA: In the video it\u2019s a really good mix of the symbolic devices that\u2019s appropriate for the material. You used conspiratorial sepia-colored rendering of stock videos, sensationalizing texts and emojis, my personal favorite was the ping of the subscribe button. Bible quote-forms, and even the insertion of the McDonald\u2019s foldabots, 3D-animated highways and chickens, including the Photoshopped image published by the Philippine police in a press release of alleged New People\u2019s Army surrenderees. Tell us about that.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n MD: I think I also find these\u2026the Tallano gold videos [are] fascinating because of the juxtaposition of images. Even the text it\u2019s just really absurd, and I\u2019m kind of jealous (laughs). And it also reminds me of old internet I think. At that time I was also wondering what if, how do we combat this? Do we combat this the smart way? Of course, fact-checking matters but I don\u2019t know if they respond to that. Because there\u2019s also this distrust with institutions already. But yeah, it was a fascination with the images and it\u2019s kind of what Midjourney generates now, it\u2019s just weird pictures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MA: It\u2019s interesting that you brought up Midjourney. You talked about being fascinated by the juxtaposition of images and it reminded me how a lot of people describe Filipino vernacular design as maximalist. I think about how this growing distrust of institutions is the same feeling with our entire ecosystem in journalism that\u2019s interested in smooth, clean images: stock photos that could be used almost anywhere and design is WordPress, stale, a couple of ads here and there. In the advent of AI, at least with corporate uses, it tries to achieve the smooth, clean images where there\u2019s enough action. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n MD: Mmm\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n MA: How do you look back at the work especially with the recent happenings now both in the Philippines and the US? One issue that\u2019s especially relevant right now is Duterte\u2019s arrest at the International Criminal Court. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve seen the varied social media reactions where at the surface, there\u2019s a lot of people celebrating but there\u2019s also a lot of people defending him, and even manifesting in in-person protests in support of the former president in the Netherlands, Japan, and Manila. It\u2019s actually his birthday tomorrow!<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n MD: It felt nice to get some justice because we didn\u2019t see this coming actually. It\u2019s just crazy how [the opposite] is so normalized, everything was so normalized. Even with the ICC, during the first hearing, what I felt was, \u201cwow, this happens somewhere?\u201d And what I\u2019ve been seeing [for so long] is the dramatic trials in the Philippines. To connect that with the context now, it\u2019s just so difficult to fight it with the people that are still supporting him. Like I said, I just got back from Davao\u2026when the news broke, I was [in Davao] celebrating quietly. I feel like I don\u2019t wanna fight also. These are people, too. I remember someone saying, these are Filipinos too. It\u2019s different for people in Davao, really, compared to supporters elsewhere. That\u2019s like decades of brainwashing. I wanted to say that the world is just crazy. I think in the end, I think they just implode. I don\u2019t know if that makes sense. What\u2019s happening now, I\u2019m in a hopeful place. [Because] eventually, they will just implode. They\u2019ll fight each other. I feel like inside those systems, there\u2019s so many people fighting for power and I feel like it doesn\u2019t work long-term. Example, [current Philippine President Bongbong] Marcos and Duterte they end up eating each other. I feel like I also see that in the context of what\u2019s happening in America. It\u2019s just crazy. I don\u2019t know how it will happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MA: This can be a speculation or a feeling, but\u2026now that Big Tech oligarchs have tightened their grip on US administrative power, what do you think now will become of us?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s fucked up, right? I recently rewatched All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace and it explains there how Silicon Valley, they\u2019re all like Ayn Rand stans. It kind of made sense just watching that\u2026was it Bill Clinton? He had this finance, Silicon Valley guy and was one of Ayn Rand\u2019s biggest supporters. And Bill Clinton gave him his job. And then he was very into computers. And it kind of paved the way for Wall Street power. Like Peter Thiel\u2019s company investment into software in Wall Street to analyze stock markets. It\u2019s just sad that it was one of the first dominos to that prompt of making a government position. Like DOGE. But at the same time it\u2019s a caricature of that, and it\u2019s in our faces now. It used to be secret and underground but now it\u2019s there and it\u2019s Elon Musk. I don\u2019t know how we\u2019ll fix it moving forward. I just think that we should just mobilize already and that\u2019s the only way. Because Ayn Rand was responsible and we should just do the opposite of what Ayn Rand is as a brand (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n MA: Any famous last words?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n MD: I don\u2019t know if I made sense. I just woke up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MA: Is it important to make sense?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n MD: (BLOW HORN SOUND EFFECT) <\/p>\n\n\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Photo-courtesy-Mirjam-Dalire-864x1024.png\")