Telepathic Visions: On Alvin Yapan’s An Kubo sa Kawayanan (2015)

• Main Author: Benitez, Christian Jil R
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2021
• Subjects: Philippine contemporary (eco)cinema; Alvin Yapan; vibrant matter; telepathy; spectatorship; Creative Writing; Film and Media Studies; Modern Languages; Modern Literature; South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/filipino-faculty-pubs/82; https://archium.ateneo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=filipino-faculty-pubs
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

This article considers the practice of encouraged gazing in Alvin Yapan's An Kubo sa Kawayanan (“The Hut in the Bamboo Grove”) (2015) as a possible exercise on revering things. As such, it is wagered to be instructive towards a reunderstanding of vision as a form of material encounter with things beyond their mere objectification. Sense of sight is argued to be a human telepathic ability, that is, a distance (tele) feeling (pathein) with and for thigns, despite and because of their indeterminate materialities. Through looking closely at the rhetorical engagements of Yapan's Kubo with its various viewers and critics, the essay attempts to articulate that such telepathic work can be an instance of enchantment with things, wherein one becomes most permeable to the vitalities of others. At the same time, this is also deemed as a consequence of one's active practicing of careful atttention to these materialities performing their own vitalities in the same ecology, no matter how seemingly imperceptible.