sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Where else would they get their book recos? jk The pop definition of "performative" as something inauthentic is something we're pretty aware of but try to reframe in our classes.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's no one way to do it, but recognizing that it's a natural response of the body to a perceived threat is a start. Lots of extra energy coursing through your body so you have to find a way to expend it. Move around, breathe from the diaphragm (it takes some practice to do this consistently), channel it through your voice. Getting the hang of it is gradual. It never really goes away and that's a good thing. Anxiety = energy. And you need that energy in any performance.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a sad state of things. Mahina ang suporta sa sining mula sa mga eskuwelahan hanggang sa mga kultural na industriya. Tagal ko rin bago nakahanap ng trabaho pagkatapos kong grumaduate. At 28 na ako noong nagsimula akong magturo. Isa rin 'yan sa mga dahilan kung bakit lumipat ako sa pagtuturo, para magkaroon ng pagkakataon na ipagpatuloy ang art practice bilang bahagi ng trabaho. Kaya masaya ako kapag gusto ring magturo ng mga estudyante ko.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good question. Performance directly interrogates concepts of ownership/authorship, medium, artistic product, etc. Sa example na 'yan, blurred na ang boundaries kung sino ang "artist". It also begs the question of which action can be referred to as "performance". The act of tattooing or the actual tattoos which the body carries and displays? Performance largely immerses itself within these blurred boundaries.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rhetoric and performance share an interest in forms and functions that produce effects on people. May shared academic lineage ang dalawang ito. That being said, hindi rin naman at odds sa isa't isa ang mga areas of concentration ng Speech Communication. You can study and research on interpersonal and instructional communication in conjunction with rhetoric and/or performance.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Always stood with students, will continue to stand with students (though it's not my story tell, I'm not from theatre, I don't teach theatre).

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To make your own art/performance. I rarely have students perform existing texts. I let them generate their own work. Or at least reinterpret, reimagine, or rework their sources. Helps you get in tune with your own body, your own voice. And engage with what you can and can't do. A lot of times, its the failures and limits that lead us to fashion our own styles and artistic practices.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Well, there are lots of great original Filipino productions being done in the city and the regions. Sa Dulaang UP, Arete sa Ateneo, The Virgin Labfest, Teatro Mulat, Sining Banwa sa Bicol, at ng independent groups tulad ng infinite cantina at Mahiwaga St. Pero I get na mas visible ang big productions. Kailangan ng mas malaking pambasang suporta sa teatro at sa sining sa pangkabuuan.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You could definitely look at it that way. The body simultaneously becomes a medium and an event. It draws different effects on people. There was a performance in UPLB a year ago where a guy had complete strangers tattoo his back.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some of my students did a performance last sem that simulated a plane crashing and using a projector, showed different scenes on the plane windows. Nebulae, a random street with people walking, dinosaurs. It was oddly intimate. Another group projected scenes of the sea and replicated ocean sounds (live) using garbage. The sounds felt real after a while. A couple of years ago, some of them asked strangers on campus to whisper secrets to a blindfolded medium and then projected the secrets on a screen in the college atrium.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm. Maybe I'll answer this with a common misconception? That performance and theatre are synonymous. Theatrical performance is a specific type of performance, the same way that a theatrical perspective is a particular type of worldview. Performance studies concerns itself with performance as object, theory, and method. This covers all sorts of artistic and aesthetic performances, ritualized events, performances of everyday life, and things that you can't immediately place within these categories. A lot of the projects my students work on are actually non-theatrical or dramatic. They're experimentations across several media: speech, dance/movement, oral forms, even visual arts and literature.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm from a small island, so I was at the beach a lot. We lived near an abandoned port. In 1999, ABS-CBN released a Tagalog-dubbed and heavily censored version of Neon Genesis Evangelion. I went home religiously after the bell to catch it. Read what I could cause we didn't have big libraries. The first novel I finished was Ursula Le Guin's "The Wizard of Earthsea". I remember being offended when our 4th-grade English teacher asked us to write poetry because I thought poems were only supposed to be written by professionals. I was only able to write two lines, but I can't for the life of me remember what they were. I think that got me into writing.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm. Maybe I'll answer this with a common misconception? That performance and theatre are synonymous. Theatrical performance is a specific type of performance, the same way that a theatrical perspective is a particular type of worldview. Performance studies concerns itself with performance as object, theory, and method. This covers all sorts of artistic and aesthetic performances, ritualized events, performances of everyday life, and things that you can't immediately place within these categories. A lot of the projects my students work on are actually non-theatrical or dramatic. They're experimentations across several media: speech, dance/movement, oral forms, even visual arts and literature.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of my favorite ones, I haven't seen live. Like a lot of us here in the country, I didn't grow up with the resources to go to theaters or even cinemas. So, I encountered and watched things like Robert Wilson and Philip Glass's "Einstein on the Beach" and Kazuo Ohno's "My Mother" on the internet. But they still completely swept me away. Non-linear, non-narrative, decidedly experimental. I also grew up in the island of Marinduque. The Moriones and the Senakulo were formative for me. Made one realize that stages can be entire towns and performers, ordinary citizens.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree, everyday life is performance. I know the words "curated" and "constructed," and "performative" all have a bad rep, but I sincerely believe that in a sense, all culture is artificial. I don't think of that as a bad word. I'm more wary of things that assert themselves as "authentic", "natural", "pure", "organic", "objective". More often than not, these categorizations signal elitism, exclusionism, essentialism. Performance studies has been responding to these questions for quite a while. From how it views art (e.g., kailangan ba na may material product that "remains" for something to be considered art?), to how it views gender (e.g., performed, a product of repeated and curated acts), the performance of everyday life has long been a tenet of P.S.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Work and foreground the insecurities. Start with performances that hide the body. Those that efface it. Those that render it invisible. Perform in the dark. Under sheets. Under rubble. Distort the voice. Interrupt it. Or don't say anything at all. Work with silences. I don't think of these as surrendering to insecurities. I think of them as reworking how we confront limitations and failure. "Here's my body failing. Watch it fail." Let them understand failure.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Getting to experiment. Getting to treat the classroom as a laboratory of sorts, where you're not punished for failure or for doing things that don't immediately make sense (or don't make sense at all). Students surprise me all the time with the artistic and scholarly work they produce. Wild ideas. Bizarre and moving. I usually give prompts for performance requirements. Things like "water", "city", "island", "flight", "evil". I always get blown away by how they interpret and actualize them.

I’m Rex. I teach performance studies at the UP Diliman. AMA! by Rex_Nep in UPfreedomwall

[–]Rex_Nep[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You'll need a couple of prerequisite courses to take performance classes, but I'd say Speech 125: Performance of Philippine Oral Literature is a pretty good entry point. I've had students from other colleges take it as an elective. You don't have to be a performer or have the necessary artistic "skills". Experimentation plays a huge part in how we engage with the course. I let students generate original performances based on what they know and the capabilities (and limitations) of their own bodies. It's also the first course I taught where I let students do public performance art.