This workshop forms part of my ongoing practice-based research within the PG Cert in Creative Education at the Royal College of Art and the development of Lynda Lorraine Studio as a relational, culturally grounded creative learning space.
Designed for the Filipino diaspora the session explores how filmmaking can operate as a process-led, embodied and relational practice rather than a technical or product-driven outcome. It sits within a wider pedagogical inquiry into how creative education can move beyond extractive models of authorship and instead centre shared experience, cultural specificity and embodied self-agency.
The workshop is rooted in Sikolohiyang Pilipino and the concept of kapwa (shared self) which frames identity as fundamentally relational rather than individualised. Within this framework creativity, confidence and self-agency is understood as something that emerges through connection, mutual recognition and co-presence, rather than individual performance or output.
A key methodological influence is Andy Warhol’s screen test format, developed within his studio practice. Where participants were placed in front of a static camera with minimal instruction. While historically associated with visibility, persona and the production of cultural “icons,” this project reclaims the screen test as a decolonial and relational practice.
In this reimagining, the emphasis shifts away from performance, authorship and Warhol’s notion of “15 minutes of fame” towards presence and embodied being. Participants are invited to exist in front of the camera without scripts, expectations or technical pressure, reframing the camera as a witness rather than an extracting or judgemental gaze.
The session combines embodied warm-up exercises, contextual discussion and continuous unedited portrait filming. Creating a space where participants can explore identity, cultural memory and self-representation in a grounded and accessible way.
The workshop was met with profound engagement in both the call-out for participants online and in the workshop itself. With participants responding not only to the creative process but to the relational and cultural framing of the space itself. Many described the experience as unusually safe, affirming and expansive in contrast to their experiences of more conventional creative environments. Reflections highlighted a release from the pressure to perform or conform to institutional expectations, allowing participants to engage more authentically with their own cultural identities and creative instincts.
A key outcome of the session was the depth of reflective insight generated within a short timeframe. Participants articulated shifts in how they understood creativity, identity and belonging. Often describing a renewed sense of confidence and validation in their own ways of being. The shared viewing of each other’s screen tests further enabled a sense of collective recognition, where participants were able to witness multiple forms of Filipino diasporic identity without hierarchy or comparison.
These reflections reinforced the importance of relational and embodied pedagogies in creative education, particularly for communities navigating cultural fragmentation and institutional exclusion. The workshop demonstrated how non-directive, process-led structures can create significant space for self-agency, connection and meaning-making.
This approach is also situated within my broader role as an educator and creative practitioner. Where teaching, research and studio practice are understood as interconnected rather than separate professional domains. Within this model, facilitation becomes a form of creative inquiry and in turn directly informs artistic and research development. This reflects the ethos of portfolio practice within contemporary creative education. Where roles such as artist, educator, researcher and facilitator are not siloed but exist in partnership as a continuous dialogue.
Rather than separating teaching from creative production, this cyclical relationship allows each to feed the other: insights from the workshop directly shape ongoing studio work, while creative practice informs pedagogical approach and most importantly the daily lives of participants and the diaspora as a whole. This integrated model is a defining feature of the PG Cert framework and distinguishes it from more traditional educational structures that position teaching and practice as distinct career paths, which is why I have found that this course has particularly suited my way of embodying my creative and visual practice as an artist.
As part of the emerging direction of Lynda Lorraine Studio, this workshop represents a developing framework for culturally responsive, relational creative education. It informs my wider studio practice committed to rethinking how learning spaces can centre diaspora communities, embodied knowledge and collective forms of creative agency.
Photography by Melanie Issaka
