Creation as pedagogy

the case of Integrated Scenic Creation Projects at Unicamp

Abstract

As an artist, teacher and researcher in the area of Latin American Performing Arts, I frequently work connecting three fields: creation, [trans]formation and research. I believe that the processes of creation as pedagogy are very powerful in what refers to the formation of the theater artist. These processes configure a space of [trans]formation in which one learns by doing and where several fields of the performing artist's work in an academic context are intertwined. This pedagogical task demands an artistic practice in which records, debates and exchanges are important before and during the creation, as well as afterwards, based on the experience of creation as pedagogy as a whole. To exemplify how this proposal has worked in a specific context, I will cite the case of the Integrated Projects of Scenic Creation (PICCs), which are compulsory subjects in the Department of Performing Arts of the Institute of Arts of the State University of Campinas, Brazil. In these projects we can see how creation, [trans]formation and scenic research are intertwined in a pedagogical space.