JOURNALS

Liminalities: a journal of performance studies.

2025. Volume 21, issue 5. ISSN: 1557-2935 [Video essay]

PUGNA: A Video Essay on Digital Gestures

PUGNA is a video essay that forms part of a research project in film acting direction, developed through a practice-based methodology. This work explores how postproduction and image-compositing techniques transform our relationship with the cinematic medium. Through an acting rehearsal filmed with a group of performers, the piece investigates what happens when the actor's gesture partially loses its form. Where is the boundary between the physical gesture and the digital image? Rather than illustrating a predefined hypothesis, the video proposes an experimental approach in which the line between performance and visuality is deliberately blurred.

In parallel, the sound dimension was developed as an improvisation: the music was composed live by Vincenzo Germano and Trinidad Jiménez, in dialogue with the performers' bodily actions. This simultaneous interplay between body, image, and sound consolidated a device in which the boundaries between gestural creation and digital generation enter into conflict. At what point does the actor become completely alienated from the representation? How far does the gesture persist?

For the recording of the rehearsal, depth-sensing cameras (Kinect devices originally developed for the Xbox 360 console) were used, enabling the capture not only of the external image of the body but also of its volumetric silhouette. These signals were processed live by postproduction technician Manuel Pita-Romero, who applied digital effects in real time as the actors performed. These digital interventions aimed not to erase the gesture, but to transform it. Even the most abstract representations preserve the original movement of the performers at their core.

Tecmerin. Revista de Ensayos Audiovisuales.

2024. Volume 13, issue 1. ISSN: 2659-4269 [Video essay]

Miradas en el abismo / Gazes into the Abyss

This research examines, through the study of acting gestures, the transition between classical narrative and mannerist cinematic narrative. It proposes a critical contrast between three performances by Deborah Kerr: Separate Tables (1958), The Innocents (1961), and The Naked Edge (1961).

PhD Thesis.

2025. Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Juegos actorales para un tiempo fijado / Acting Games for a Fixed Time

This applied research thesis explores the relationship between the actor and the cinematographic medium. It proposes a theoretical approach focusing on the principles of gestural creation within the context of film montage. Subsequently, a methodological proposal for actor training and direction is developed from a series of experimental acting workshops.

Finally, a collection of audiovisual works is showcased, offering different interpretations of the working process and the implementation of the systematized acting games. Ultimately, this research study inquiries into the actor’s encounter with film temporality, paying attention to the performative phenomena that shape their figurative impulse.

THESIS

Master Thesis.

2021. Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

El gesto latente en la pausa. Sobre el pensamiento actoral en el cine de Tsai Ming-liang / The latent gesture in the pause: On acting thought in the cinema of Tsai Ming-liang

The current research project focuses on the situation of conflict between the actor and the cinematographic medium. This study focuses on the willingness of the actor to create, as well as the theatrical origin of his acting technique. The composition of the cinematographic image is questioned based on the actor’s experience, paying attention to the particularities of his thoughts.

These premises are developed in an analytical journey centered on Tsai Ming-liang’s cinema, which provides a purified gaze over the cinematographic scene and the possibilities it offers to the actor. A primitive form of the cinematographic representation, that concentrates on the thinking of the actor.

CONFERENCES

ARSAD (Advanced Research Seminar on Audio Description)

Live Audio Description During a Film Shooting (2025, SV Flys, E.; Villalba, A. M.)

II Congreso AIE (Arte, Investigación y Educación). [Workshop]

Orientar el cuerpo en el tiempo (2023, Villalba, A, M.)

Congreso Internacional VIII CIJIET (Congreso Internacional de Jóvenes Investigadores en Estudios Teatrales)

El gesto del actor contra el corte cinematográfico (2023, Villalba, A. M.)

5th Interdisciplinary and Virtual Conference on Arts in Education

Improvisación musical e improvisación actoral, un camino en dos direcciones (2023, Villalba, A. M.; Batán, D.)

I Congreso AIE (Arte, Investigación y Educación)

Juegos actorales sobre la discontinuidad cinematográfica (2022, Villalba, A. M.)

Congreso Internacional Reescrituras, lenguajes y públicos de las artes escénicas en el siglo XXI

La escuela invisible. Sobre la fundamentación diarística del teatro contemporáneo (2022, Villalba, A. M.)

I Congreso Internacional "El estrellato cinematográfico en España": Actrices bajo el franquismo.

Geraldine Chaplin, modernidad temprana (2021, Villalba, A. M.)

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0591-312X