Results open mic night Philippines

Hey Guys,

I wanted to share with you the result that I got from my open mic night performance.

I went on after a number of musical acts- there were lots of genres of music but almost every performer was singing. Mostly people didn't pay too much attention to performers and it seemed that only friends filmed each other.

I was first introduced as "coming all the way from England", which seemed to prompt more attention as almost everyone seemed to film me as I began to recite the lyrics to the songs. I started with the song "Born a Girl" by the Manic Street Preachers and the audience seemed to be listening intently to the words. I did not get much of a reaction out of saying "I wish I had been born a girl" perhaps because they knew I had not written the piece. After finishing the first song I got a bit of applause, but I feel like most people were confused by what I had said. The second song I recited was James Blunt's "Youre Beautiful", the audience was mostly silent and listening to the words. When I was done I was met with less applause which could have been because of the confusion of what I was doing or that they thought I was just doing something weird.

Following my three points previously stated in my rationale (see previous post) it is clear that 1) the reaction of the audience was that of respect and inclusion even though perhaps of confusion (in my video you can see the comparison of my audience to another performer) 2) Those who attend live music events do value both lyrical compositions as well as the music itself 3) Venue does play a role to the degree in which the event is framed, which ultimately manages expectations and reactions 4) I did feel included in the nightlife event -even if i did feel a little bit like a spectacle with most people filming me.

I felt a little bit nervous so I did look down at my paper quite a lot but they seemed to respect what I was doing and the fact that they let me preform "poetry" despite most acts being singing showed their willingness to accommodate a different kinds of acts which was inclusivity in all in all.

Here is my video of my Open Mic Night- note the difference between the reaction I received and someone else who preformed. Mine was more of neutrality-which may be because it was unfamiliar. Where as someone else's was met with applause and enthusiasm. I was still included regardless of my performance, but this comparison can show the depth of reaction.

Comparison

In comparison to Emile's Open Mic it seems that there are some stark differences but mostly similarities.

Emile began his performance with James Blunt's "Your'e Beautiful" our control variable in this case, which led some individuals to enjoy the words, where as others saw it as a mockery of the rock and roll open mic. In comparison when I performed "Your'e Beautiful" individuals were silent and listened intently to the words. A few factors may have affected the different reactions we experienced here. 1) Emile's open mic night was more geared to the Rock and Roll genre which may have thrown people off but it is still apparent that it is individual expectations that ultimately dictate behaviour. My Open Mic night in comparison was more general which may have been why they were more accepting of what I was doing as a diversity in acts can be expected. Filipino's are also known to be very polite and encouraging- So even before doing this I doubted that I would have any negative reactions.

With Emile's second song "Excuse me Mr" by Ben Harper, individuals were more silent and willing to listen to the lyrics of the song. This was the same reaction I had with my first song "Born a girl" which I had originally picked to see if it would incur a reaction. This demonstrates that even across different cultural nightlife scenes, people who attend open mic nights and live music do value words as well as music itself. This prompted us to both feel included in the nightlife event despite doing something out of the norm.

The fact that we were both allowed to preform in this way displays the "diversity of acts" and ultimately shows inclusivity in nightlife which goes beyond borders. The reaction we had varied in our control- but was similar in our serious politically charged songs. It is therefore apparent that peoples reactions vary according to their own expectations of the events.

All in all we can come to the conclusion, that despite doing something out of the norm we felt like we were included. The difference in reaction does not seem to lie between differences in regard to nightlife in Manila and London but may seem to be in the particular settings of a rock and roll pub and a more general Open Mic night.

Hope everyone is well

Charlotte

Rationale for open mic Philippines

Hey Guys,

So I spoke at length with Emile about the kinds of things I could do for my intervention here in Manila that would compliment our project, and we came to the conclusion that a direct comparison of two open mic features would be best.

I originally wanted to do something related to Karaoke as it is a key feature in Manila's nightlife. If you want to relax after work-you go and sing. However, the main issue with that was that most karaoke bar's are booked by individual parties, so the audience would not be general. Therefore we decided that a direct comparison would be the way forward.

Following Emile's line of thought, I planned say the lyrics of two politically charged songs, this would be done to 1) Gage the reaction of the audience, as Im doing something out of the norm 2) View whether individuals who attend open mic nights do so for just the music oe the lyrical composition and meaning of the songs or both 3) to see if the venue affects the way individuals act and 4) to see if I am included in the nightlife scene. Finally there will be a comparison of both our nightlife features, to determine if there is any striking culturally differences between nightlife scenes in these 4 areas.

After a great deal of research to find an open mic venue, I found one at a bar which catered for a more general audience-unlike Emile's pub which featured mostly rock and roll.




I chose to stick with the one of the same songs Emile preformed which was "your'e beautiful" by James Blunt. This was done because we discussed that controlling the variables would lead to a more direct comparison between the reaction in London to Manila. Emile's recitation got a particularly interesting reaction and we wanted to see if it could be replicated in similar conditions.

For the second song, I originally wanted to do "light up ya lighter" by Michael Franti, which is a protest song about war. However, I was informed that it would be misconstrued as me being critical of President Duterte, which would have had a very bad reaction and it is actually against the law here in the Philippines to show an inclination toward one political candidate.

So my second choice was "Born a Girl" by the Manic Street Preachers. I chose this song as transgender issues have been at the forefront of nightlife politics in recent years in Manila. A club called "Valkyrie" closed down because they had refused entry to a transgender individual. The bouncers claimed they could not enter the club because "cross dressing" was against the dresscode of the club. There was a huge backlash, which prompted the club to close as there is a huge amount of effort to include transgender people in nightlife activities.

I also chose this song, because I felt that the lyrics especially "I wish I had been born a girl instead of what I am" would propel the individuals to listen to the words I was saying. I also chose to switch the order of the songs to start with something serious to see if that also had an impact.

My research displayed that the community of people who attend open mic nights are generally very encouraging and respectful so I predicted that me reading poetry would not be an issue and they would include me in this nightlife activity.

However, there was yet another point of contention as being a foreigner would I be accepted and included as a fellow entertainer in Manila's nightlife scene.

Results to follow,

Hope you are all well

Charlotte

Transcription of make-up and clothing chat

Hi again everyone,

I've cut out the bits of us talking about where and when to meet...

Kim:

We need to make sure we look like a group n standout if this even has a chance. A few us can't have the make up and a few not

Jyoti:

we should work on a dance routine and grab some sandwiched maybe for the picnic


Time passes...

Clare: In terms of clothes, I can dress normally or find stuff me and my house mates have that is the most out there... which isn't much

Jyoti: just whatever u have thats most out there i guess??


Emile: I think unless you have a rationale behind your clothing dress how you want

Clare: I'm gonna think of what the opposite type of person who would go to this night would wear and see if I've got anything

Emile:

I think that's a good idea

Jyoti: cocktail dress!!

something smart or businessy

A line also of mention is Clare's: We need to feel the vibe then have a team meeting. 

It was of course difficult to expect what was the come as this was a new event for all of us bar Jyoti. Judging the environment and surroundings can allow for more nuanced intervention, using all of our ideas in past discusssion

Transcription of intervention discussion

Hello everyone,

Bit of a long blog this but it's of the discussion between Patrick, Jyoti, Clare and I about the intervention from the facebook chat. I will do one following this about the make-up/clothing which involved Kim and Clare more heavily as well. Once again apologies for my absence last night- thankfully my housemate kept his finger after hours in A&E.

Patrick is red, Jyoti yellow, Clare green and I'm blue as that's what facebook gave me

Patrick:

But there's ideas on what to do

Just got to make sure we do it

Emile:

That's why I suggested to run a little conversation which we can film and use- discuss with people about exclusivity and inclusivity

And we can push limits in that too

Patrick

How about wearing headphones and dancing to our own music? Yeah interviews are good but still not really an intervention as such

Emile:

yeah it is an intervention- if we run it like a forum theatre

Patrick

We could each dance to our own music and that would relate to the inclusivity of different subcultures stuff too. What's a forum theatre?

Emile

But if we're not playing our own music out loud what do we get from it? Forum theatre is traditionally having 4 people in an ongoing chat and when someone on the periphery has a conflicting opinion they can join in the conversation and another person leaves. So, we can do it as come and go for other people and it will include all of us

Patrick

People dancing to a complete different rhythm to everyone else ha-ha. Ah okay

Jyoti

should we put together a quick dance, just 4 steps or something then break it out

also, I’ve been thinking of what is acceptable in other venues

Patrick

Yeah

Jyoti

e.g. metal gigs n mosh pits

let’s start one there and see how it goes down

Patrick

Ha-ha does sound fun

Emile

Sorry to go all Bernadette on you but where does the politics rationale come into that?

Jyoti

Because we're putting the conventions and codes of behaviours from other subcultures into the wrong event maybe?

from other *

Patrick

Well its testing out where the boundaries of inclusion and lay

And exclusion*

By seeing what behaviour the people around us will tolerate

Jyoti

especially when it’s a thing that’s accepted in certain arenas*

we're taking it out of context

Emile

But in terms of politics... she's kept hinting to us to make it more political

Patrick

That is political? It’s the politics of everyday life

Finding out the social codes that constrain your behaviour 24/7

Jyoti

that is political though right because we are challenging the covert codes of behaviour that how people should act in their leisure time

even though it should seem apolitical

Patrick

Yeah, the whole point is to look at the kind of politics that isn't obviously political

Jyoti

dictate how people should act* oops

Emile

But, why is it? We need a rationale behind everything we do. I'm not sure it is as much political as the whole event is about inclusion. We aren't forced to go, if we were it would be a dictation. This isn't a mainstream event, we aren't exploring disabled access, race, gender etc. in big clubs. I don't think the politics here is about us; there are people who need a night out which they can feel accepted and this is meant to be one for them. I just feel a better way of making this productive is by talking to the people this night is designed for, exploring their own feelings of discrimination and the politics behind that. Influences of religion, politics and culture and how people were led to a night centred on inclusion

Jyoti

I thought the rationale was looking at the codes of behaviour that dictate self-expression in nightlife/leisure time, within different subcultures, and how that relates to inclusion/exclusion

Patrick

I don't think that, although important and helpful in supporting the rationale, is an intervention in the sense of the interventions Bernadette’s been showing us which usually involve people breaking norm to find out what the rules are rather than just asking people

Jyoti

inclusion is political

she even suggested to us to go dressed as the KKK

so, I feel like we must do something big

Patrick

Also, I think it is supposed to be about us, we're the ones going into an alien environment, not to try and just fit in which is a bit pointless but to find out what happens if we don't fit in

Jyoti

yeah for sure, we can still talk to people and film conversations but we must do some big actions as well that try to alienate us

SAT 16:26

Emile:

The reason she suggested the KKK is because it's political overtly; moshing is a bit different. It personally doesn't sit easy with me causing discomfort to people on their night out. See Patrick I really don't think it should be about us; we are going to a place where people seek to be included. We have literally a pool of people that have experience of what we are interested in; they know boundaries from first-hand experience. Why are we looking to provoke people? On nights, so much is about image and not substance- you identify people from clothing and make up. To stage and intervention and ask people about their identity is actually shaking the status quo of the night more

Patrick

If you're breaking any rules people are going to feel uncomfortable, that's what makes them social rules. I don't think the point of this module is to pick a topic and then just research it, we're supposed to get involved in a way that is disruptive to highlight the codes that dictate everyday life. We don't want to just provoke people but to intervene does literally mean to get involved directly in events, not just to document them

Patrick

Yes, the people there might have experiences of social boundaries but I think the point of this whole module is about us highlighting our own experience of them

Emile:

Yeah which we are! How many time have you come across a conversational forum a night club event? I just don't see any justification for provoking people in this situation. This is different to a posh bar in Chelsea, it's people who seek an open-minded audience. We can highlight our own experiences too. Let's be honest too, the event will involve drugs and alcohol, Jyoti said that perhaps people will be naked etc. is staging a mosh or listening to our own music that 'odd'??? 

Patrick

I get what you're saying about the mosh idea, I think doing anything physically to people who aren't involved is where the line is drawn. I don’t know if people are going to think much of a bunch of students asking questions. I think dancing in complete isolation or stuff like that would be quite jarring, and if not then it just serves to highlight how inclusive the night is. For me it kind of hinges on whether we're going to do the posh bar thing, if we do then we can afford to mostly ask questions and stuff tonight as we'll be doing something to highlight us being excluded but if not I think we need to do more tonight if we want a good mark

Patrick

Asking questions is that weird*

Emile: So, your suggestion is?

Patrick

I've said a few like the picnic thing and I think Jyoti’s ideas are good. Don't get me wrong I'm not criticising the conversational forum idea, we should do that, I was just wondering if that will be enough if we also don't do the posh bar thing

Emile: I just have ethical reservations of causing discomfort to people who are there to express themselves. Picnic idea I liked and I thought we could integrate it with the forum, we invite other people into it- I put that in the blog

SAT 18:34

Jyoti

We don't have to mosh with other people outside of the group maybe

Whatever we do here we must do at the posh place

So, if we think what would disrupt things there we should do the same tonight

Even if the reaction isn't as shocking tonight we can talk and compare to the other night

Emile: My issue here is that we are demonstrating rather than experimenting. If we start a mosh in a posh bar in Chelsea we will get kicked out- us doing it doesn't show anything new

Jyoti

the only reason I said mosh pit was because it takes a convention of the metal subculture and we are applying it elsewhere

but there’s other things we can do

if people aren’t comfortable

or we could film EVERY IDEA we have

then just in editing I can cut shit out

Clare

Can I just throw something out there?

Emile

Always

Clare

What if everyone is just f*cked and doesn't want to speak to us or be part of our intervention

The music is too loud

Nobody gives a shit about what we're doing

We can't speak to anyone

Do you know what I mean?

Jyoti

I think they're decent considerations to be fair, we can feel out the vibe when we get there

what do you suggest otherwise?

I did think that- but smoking areas and people taking stimulants I think we can do something

Jyoti

I think we should do that but not the ONLY thing we do

let’s just at least get footage of some of the more off the walls ideas too