Vitality Code Inference: On Art Practicing, Curatorial Services, and Teaching in the Age of Free Access and Friends’ Loss Expectations
Vitality Code Inference: An Critical Essay (Philippine Context) February 15, 2026 Introduction What is vitality, if not the stubborn refusal of art to die even when its practitioners are starved, its curators unpaid, and its teachers mocked for their syllabi? What is code, if not the invisible scaffolding of rules, ethics, and whispered promises that structure the art world’s precarious economy? The document that frames this inquiry insists that “The vitality code inference, then, is the act of deducing—through satire, anecdote, and rhetorical questioning—the hidden logic that governs art practice, curatorial services, and teaching.” (Attached document, February 5, 2026). These two propositions—vitality as refusal and code as scaffold—anchor a critical, frank, and esoteric interrogation of how meaning and subsistence are braided in the Philippine art field. This essay advances a thesis: the Philippine art ecosystem encodes loss as a functional principle of vitality. Loss—financial, tem...