An interesting position

I went to a lecture on leadership yesterday and I left feeling ill.

The first question the lecturer asked us was if the lecture was being recorded. We told her no.

She asked us what we were studying and we told her we were arts students. She implied that artists were notoriously bad at planning for the future. She spoke about money and the necessity of investing in shares and a managed fund so that if life problems arose, one could comfortably walk away.

"No problem is too big that you can't walk away from it," she said.

She said that many of us would get divorced if we got married, and that she could tell just by looking at us. She said that when that happened, it was a good idea to have money in the bank so we could just "walk away". She said that if we got divorced, to make sure it was worth our while financially; that it was one way of getting rich; and that signing a prenuptial agreement was a must.

She implied that because women were relational and "listen to people", they made better managers than men, but fortunately, some men were seeing the light and were learning how to "listen to people" and manage like women.

She spoke about how she had been divorced multiple times, about her numerous trips to financial advisers, the fact that her son had been diagnosed with a terminal illness but was now in long-term remission and was successful working as a labourer, the fact that every man she married had been an introvert. I could hear all the bitter undercurrents.

She did talk about leadership. However, she spoke about everything else for so much of it. I felt so distressed by having to sit through all of that. I felt as though she'd forcibly grabbed me by the shoulders and vomited on me, spewing her bitterness and angst. As a lecturer, she had everyone's attention and I felt she had really abused her power.

An assignment for a drama subject

One of my assignments in a drama subject is to create a manifesto.

I'm resisting the very idea. I don't mind defining what I stand for and what my values are. But I hate the idea of attempting to describe how I hope my product, as an artist, should be received, or what I think it looks like. That seems rather egotistical, and I resist definition.

A Manifesto about a Manifesto

I hereby declare that I do not create manifestos!

Actual performance studies ramblings

This started out as a blog about performance studies, but it has been a long time since I've written anything performance-related.

Today in a tutorial, the tutor asked why there was so much cultural wealth in a town like Glasgow and why Brisbane was such a "cultural desert". Both towns have similar populations. But while one is filled with a vibrant arts scene, the other has a quiet art scene in comparison.

Sometimes I think Australia is a nation that is afraid of putting up a mirror to its identity, to own up to the uglier parts of its history. And so we potter along with this notion of who we think we are, when the truth doesn't match the reality. Cultural self-reflection is written off as artistic wank.

I know I'm speaking in general terms, and I do intend to eventually justify what I write in this post.

The tutor said that apartheid exists in Australia. That gave me something to think about.