I’m currently at the Creative Arts Programme held in the National University of Singapore.
I’d say the stay-in camp has been quite interesting so far, but that adjective is probably inappropriate given the high level of literary skill I’m supposed to exude - not to mention (1) it’s ambiguous and (2) it sucks.
Well, let me start by telling you what a pain in the ass the Internet connection at Eusoff hall is. For some reason my room does not allow for strong enough a signal to access this unsecured generic ‘linksys’ wireless network - something some boarder set up, I assume - that Patrick and Gen can. It’s more than acceptably speedy… what a pity. Thankfully, I can receive a (weak) signal from the campus-wide NUSOPEN network, but that required me to borrow a student login to get it working. I’m now positioning myself with respect to the notebook computer, which I have precariously placed in a particular position on the table for fear of losing the two out of five bars that tether me to the life-sustaining World Wide Web.
I would ramble on and on about the activities I’ve had so far - but I’m lazy, so I’ll cut it short for my future self who will be reading this. We had a session with four young artists of different art forms: Alfian Bin Sa’at (the famous local playwright), Brian Gothong Tan (film and installation art), Boo Junfeng (film) and one more who dabbles in set design whose name escapes me. Mr Boo’s film Katong Fugue is pure genius: subtle and powerful both at once. I think it’s based on a play by Mr Alfian. In either case, both of them are great artists in their own right. Mr Tan’s pieces are on the whole somewhat flashy, witty, playful, novel - a reflection of his offbeat personality, perhaps. I love his parody of Memoirs Of A Geisha. Truly funny. I think I’ve seen an installation art piece of his during the Singapore Biennale last year - I should probably pay more attention the next time round. The unnamed set designer, or scenographer as it is correctly termed, is pretty amazing, too, considering his tender age of 22 years. He has a knack for creating beautiful and flexible sets out of tight budgets. Makes me wonder if I’ll ever develop my own artwork to anywhere close to their level in the near future. The session was inspiring if nothing else.
The Poetry Slam workshops are impossibly fun. They are a tad long at three hours per, but enjoying myself immensely while grasping the skills involved in performance poetry more than made up for the long session that, if replaced with any subject lesson from a regular schoolday, would be a sure cure for my chronic insomnia (incidentally, my room is too darn noisy for me to sleep soundly - or at all). Anyway, we had a group performance today, and due to the enthusiastic efforts of my three teammates and I in choreographing and practicing a dance-inspired little show in all of thirty minutes, not to mention abandoning stage-fright together, we did fairly well (coming in first), at least in the eyes of the judges. Satisfying.
I wish I could write a weblog post straight from my head, because the current level of technology is clearly incapable of capturing the multitude of fleeting thoughts zipping along in the depths of my mind. I do hope other CAPpers (I did not coin that!) publish weblogs too… my incoherent words aren’t doing justice to the documentation of this programme. I hope CAP gets even better as it progresses.
Oh, before I forget (shit, it’s twelve minutes past already): a very Happy Birthday to you, Cielo!
