In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Vargas Museum
University of the Philippines Diliman
Quezon City, National Capital Region, 1101
Philippines

Leeroy New

Leeroy New (b. 1986, General Santos City) is an artist-designer whose practice overlaps and intersects with film, theater, product design, and fashion. Originally trained as a sculptor, he tried everything from production design for film, to working with fashion designers, to creating 3D mock ups for commercial purposes. He was able to integrate this inclination to move from one mode of creative production to another as the spine of his creative practice. As a response to the issue of art and art practitioners’ (in)visibility in the Philippines, New decided early on that cultivating a language for large scale public art was the challenge he had to take on. Through his persistence, despite the initially limited support and resources, what resulted were immersive installations that use a variety of found objects directly sourced from the immediate material culture of his current environment. Through collaborations with local performance artists, he is able to transform these same materials into set pieces and even wearable sculptures culminating in a cyber-site series called Aliens of Manila, which documents alien characters inhabiting Manila’s often harsh yet colorful streets. His most recent project, a floating performance space/garden, a collaboration with urban designer Julia Nebrija and funded by the Burning Man Global Arts Grant, was floated down Manila’s central and most polluted waterway: the Pasig River. The mobile installation is the first phase for this long-term project that explores ecological heritage and challenges local perspectives of urban space, and revives the Pasig River as public space, transport corridor, and sustainable environment through creative intervention.

Veejay Villafranca

Veejay Villafranca was born in Manila. He started out in journalism as a staff photographer for the national news magazine Philippines Graphic. After becoming a freelancer in 2006, he worked with several international news wire agencies before pursuing the personal projects that later paved the way to his career as a full-time documentary photographer. He has tackled issues such as changing Filipino cultural and religious practices, the transformation of Filipino gang members, and climate displacement and other environmental issues. In 2008, he was awarded the Ian Parry Scholarship and a residency at Visa Pour l’Image for his project on the lives of former gang members in Manila and in 2013 attended the prestigious Joop Swart Masterclass program of the World Press Photo Foundation. His first book co-published with MAPA Books, SIGNOS, garnered the 2018 Invisible Photographer Asia first photobook award. In addition, Veejay has mounted over a hundred print shows since 2006 in exhibition spaces in New York, France, Netherlands, Rome, Portugal, Japan, Singapore and his work is collected by institutions and private collectors in Asia, Europe and the U.S. Veejay continues to work around the Asian region and collaborating with different organizations to show his personal work to engage a wider set of audience.