Marlon Hacla is a poet, programmer, writer and photographer based in Quezon City, Philippines,who also creates GAN-generated visual art under the name sintang_ligalig.He created the poetry-generating robot Estela Vadal, the first such robot to write in Filipino, merging his work as a computer programmer with his poetic practice.
His first poetry collection, May Mga Dumadaang Anghel sa Parang, was published by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2010 as part of the UBOD New Authors Series II. His second book, Glossolalia, published by High Chair in 2013, was translated into English by Kristine Ong Muslim and released by Ugly Duckling Presse in 2023. Muslim's other translations of his work include Melismas, published by Oomph Press in 2020, and There Are Angels Walking the Fields, published by Broken Sleep Books in 2021. In his introduction to Glossolalia, Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III writes that Hacla's poetry “eschews the spare language, subtle imagery, and quietism featured in most contemporary Philippine poetry”.
Under that name, one of his pieces, how_far_can_the_soul_swim_out_through_the_eyes_004.gif, uses a GAN to produce a constantly morphing, doll-like face with expressions that shift between blank and anguished, in colours ranging from cold blues to warm oranges. The piece was included in Electric Artefacts' Tezos Halloween Special, a monthly selection of NFT picks, in October 2021.
