Contributor profile: Jana Perkovic
Jana Perkovic
photo courtesy of the author
Jana Perkovic
Bio
Biographies are hard. I moved to Australia from Croatia, via Italy, in 2005. I have studied languages, philosophy, literature, theatre, have half a degree in Japanese (language and culture) and I’m a trained classical pianist. By profession: urban designer and geographer. I teach and research at the University of Melbourne on issues ranging from spatial clustering of creative industries to why children no longer walk to school on their own. I proudly sit on the Green Room Awards panel for performance, hybrid forms, circus and puppetry. As any emigrant, my life is full of inexplicable fractures of logic.
Exposé
I’ve been writing since about the age of three, but I think of language as a form of communication, not a fetish object. I like things that are not words, that cannot be words: dances, places, experiences, emotions. My engagement with RealTime comes out of this interest in writing about the unwriteable. One thing I try to instill into my students is that reflection of this sort is painful, but necessary, if one is not to be a typing (or dancing, designing, or singing) monkey. This year, I am also hoping to create some space for that long overdue conversation about performance and live art in Melbourne—but I will say no more.
I am also hoping for a break from language, and more space for designing: spaces, projects, events. This year, I will be going to Japan to study Japanese cities, and perhaps to Croatia to work on restoring socialist-era hotels. And after a long stint writing academically, I am making room for imagination. Last year I saw a number of inspiring approaches in Europe—projects involving people in the thinking of their city in hugely stimulating ways, such as Urban Festival. There must be room for similar work on this continent.
Other writing
the sad truth about time travel, plotki
riding the next wave to half-baked theatre, crikey
‘goldilocks, or on disorder and dramatic virtue’ or ‘how to tell the difference between a good play and a poor one’ in seven easy scenes, emerging writers 2010 festival reader
These are diverse articles. The Plotki was an honest recounting of what moving to Australia felt like. The Crikey article I include because it generated heat that caught me unprepared: people stopped me on the street to congratulate or admonish me. The Emerging Writers Festival Reader one was the most fun to write.
There is also my blog, www.guerrillasemiotics.com. An eclectic place.
RealTime issue #103 June-July 2011 pg. web
