TEDxADMU: Project i |
14 December 2013 |
Saturday |
Henry Lee Irwin Theater, Ateneo de Manila University |
Last week, Saturday, I ditched my accounting class to attend TEDxADMU.
I’ve
seen a couple of TEDx videos in the past. It’s totally inevitable—in the midst
of monotonous selfie poses of “friends”, they have been adorning my feeds since
I can’t remember when. With that, of course,
I couldn’t help but formulate expectations on how the thing will push through.
For one,
I thought that speakers would just randomly walk in and do their speaker business
when it’s time for them to. Man, it would have been so interesting to see how
the speakers would have dealt with the transition amid the awkwardness!
But nej
Butt
The
emcees’ presence didn’t make the experience less enjoyable, though. I felt comfy
with Angel Aquino around because I have sat just right next to her during the Cinemalaya
2013 special screening of Bwakaw.
Excuse me
for having such high friendship standards.
I’ve
also enjoyed Jethro Tenorio’s perpetual reference to pop culture, which I think
was his way of helping us the audience visualize the concepts presented by the
speakers.
The
speaker-randomly-walking-in deal sort of happened, too, actually. Just, sort of.
Once the
emcees were off the stage, Father Javy—Father
Rene Javellana (just hopping onto the Fr. Javy bandwagon since that’s how
the people who come in contact with the microphone addressed him) appeared out
of the void and started flashing pictures of paintings and sculptures ranging
from prehistoric to modern times. He pointed out how man has always been taking
“selfies” way even before the term itself was conceived. We’ve seen self
portraits littering the grounds of archaic social media sites such as
Friendster and Multiply, so that knowledge isn’t at all new to me.
Well, partially.
I didn’t
realize that works of art such as the Lascaux cave paintings, the Venus of
Willendorf, and Michelangelo’s David
could also have been selfies too! Cool.
Thing
is, he expressed disgust at the fad’s narcissistic nature right after affirming
that selfies have been part of human expression ever since who knows when
(well, he just gave a visual crash course on the history of selfies). Quite
ironic, no? He taught us stuff, but I didn’t really get what he was trying to
point out. Could I have missed something? Ewan.
Project
i seemed to propel the thought that the selfie
is a huge part of the “project of the self to the world” deal, because the next
speaker, balisong-wielding Czarina Medina, talked a bit about and
flashed a bunch of her own selfies.
She claimed that she hates taking selfies and that she wouldn’t do so unless
there’s a story behind it.
And I
think that that’s something we oughta preach.
The need
to take a photo of one’s face when on the way to The Fort or to SM Aura or to
any burgis location for that matter,
is a bit too superficial, don’t you think? Instead of submitting to one’s, erm,
narcissistic urges, why not snap a photo of that dirty kid selling flimsy but
pretty jasmine wreaths you saw on the way to insert burgis spot here? Make your
audience wonder. Be the instigator. I don’t know. I just think that you’d get
more pogi points of you gave the impression that your brainy wainy is wearing a
nice tuxxy wuxxy.
Lol.
Okay. On that note, I’d like to compliment balisong girl’s very brainy wainy
for sporting a fancy Giorgio Armani gown (nope I do not know who that designer
is I just saw his name on Oscars Fashion Police). She quoted characters from
two of the most awesome films (slash film series) I’ve seen!!!
Do... or do not. There is no try.
–Yoda, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
(1980)
We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.
–Tyler Durden, Fight Club
(1999)
The project of the i is the project of “my
world”, she said.
Developing one’s i must not be inward. Okay. I get it. But I’m not quite happy
with it yet. How does one’s i affect the world—or, okay, on a smaller scale, one’s
immediate environment—anyway?
The
screen flashed this TEDxMalibu (Adam
Leipzig) clip about knowing your life purpose. It didn’t absolutely address
my concern, but hey, it’s getting there, I think.
According
to that guy, during their high school (?) reunion, only 20% of them old folks were
happy or content with their lives. They were because they apparently did what
they really wanted to do with their lives. According to that guy, it is very
important to know your life purpose. To do so, you’ll have to know who you are,
what you want to do, what thing you’d want to impart to other people, who you’d
be doing it for, and finally, how you would be transforming other people as a
result of what you’ll be imparting to them.
Pretty
simple, huh?
Nej. Not
everyone can easily conform to this dude’s ideology. There’s always the issue
of constraints, of deciding whether or not to break out of those constraints.
There’s
always the issue of making sacrifices. What about that chap who has to pursue a
career that’d get him a few more bucks to ensure that his sibs would get to eat
three times a day? And what of that irritating raggity kid begging you to give
her a share of your Baconator the moment you walk out of Wendy’s? Would their
going on a journey to find their life purpose be worthwhile? Forget the lower
socioeconomic strata—what about that rich chic who has been pressured by her
parents to take up law when she just wanted pursue music for the rest of her
life?
Life is
not fair. At least, not to those who are not very privileged to think so. People
should have known that by now. Swerte nalang ng mga taong may resources at
malakas na support group.
The next
magical creature that graced the stage was Jetro
Rafael, the tophat-wielding bipolar who carried, I don’t know, at least
four bags onstage? One of the cool things I like about him was that he made an
effort (I think) to speak in Filipino throughout his talk. To me it’s a gesture
of honesty, and that’s really nice. He is the owner of the famous Van Gogh is Bipolar, one of the coolest
go-to places at Maginhawa Street.
He’s a
pretty weird chap. He talked about how he sees things—as in literally see things—colors and shapes morphing
into pretty things, creatures coming out of the darkness. All that crazy stuff.
Think Doctor Who episode of Van Gogh.
He closed
his talk with quite a colorful message: Kahit sabihin ng buong mundo—buong
kalawakan—na hindi ito para sa iyo, basta ito yung nasa puso mo, gawin mo lang.
(Also,
he rang his newly bought bell because he just felt like it.)
Not
surprisingly, he was the only one to receive a standing ovation (I do believe
he was the only one. Ewan. Got too focused on the speakers that most of the
time I forget to look around and see how
the rest of us is doing). He made Kristian, one of my chums, have second
thoughts of turning (nonclinically) bipolar. I don’t even know if that’s
possible. Lol.
Then
came intermission. My chums and I indulged ourselves in coffee and burgis food.
We made new friends, too. Sort of.
*Intermission*
*Because this has been too long a post*
*I'll have to cut it. Lol*
