Cultural Heritage and Representation: (Mis)readings between India and the Indian Diaspora

拟议的多学科网络将侧重于印度侨民、身份形成、文化遗产和表演之间的联系，并特别关注在日益全球化的视觉文化中的代表性问题。它的重点是表演、舞蹈、戏剧、讲故事、音乐和编剧，以及这些社区如何将这些做法想象、体现和理解为印度文化遗产的重要组成部分。这项研究的前提是，分享在印度国内以及在印度和散居海外的印度人之间是如何构思和感知印度文化遗产的表演性表现形式的，这将导致更好地理解这些概念如何有助于在这两个群体中形成身份和主观性。当民族主义以及种族和宗教刻板印象的浪潮席卷全球时，这一点变得至关重要，这些民族主义以及种族和宗教刻板印象伴随着对身份、文化和遗产的强调在空间和时间上固定，导致了简化论和本质论的“他者”概念。为了避免这些固定的概念，该项目采用了阿尔琼·阿帕杜赖(Arjun Appadurai)首选的形容词应用，在整个现代性(1996)中使用了术语“文化”，将其理解为“一个由差异、对比和比较组成的领域”(12)。我们还将遗产理解为具有在时间上流动的意义，虽然经常与空间和地点联系在一起，但它并不以它们为锚。在这种背景下，该网络将寻求调查的主要问题是：在一个大众传播的时代，通过对散居海外的印度文化遗产的表演表现，对印度的历史化、抽象化和殖民幻想在多大程度上得以延续，以及我们如何才能鼓励人们以更好的方式阅读这些“虚构和幻想”？第二个目标是测试实践引导的表演研究作为一种与文化遗产相关的知识生产方式的有效性，散居海外的印度人为这一领域带来了新的批判性和分析性的视角，潜在地为散居海外的研究开辟了新的探究方法。在中介文化中，图像的激增是维持权力叙事的手段之一。面对印度和散居海外的印度人之间文化遗产的单一和同质化表现，表演艺术可以重新强化这种霸权话语，也可以提供不同的视角。为了实现这一点，我们首先需要发展更具批判性的方式来看待和解读印度文化遗产在这两个群体之间可视化和体验的内在含义。该网络将在TRAN研究中心(UAL)、Sarojini Naidu艺术与传播学院(海得拉巴大学)以及次大陆和英国关注文化遗产、特性和社区形成的艺术和社区组织之间建立合作伙伴关系并进行互访。采用创新的方法，学术机构、艺术组织和社区团体将通过一系列实践工作坊联系在一起。两个多学科专题讨论会将进一步扩展讲习班的成果，并将其与背景联系起来。一次在伦敦，一次在海得拉巴，研讨会将围绕三个关键主题组织：文化遗产表现中的陈规定型观念；跨民族主义固有的地方特殊性的隐蔽性；进一步合作和讨论使更有效参与成为可能的方法。成果将在网上、通过弹出式展览和在公共领域演出以及通过在相关国际期刊上发表文章来传播。

The proposed multi-disciplinary network will focus on the nexus between Indian Diasporas, identity formation, cultural heritage and performance, with special attention paid to questions of representation in an increasingly globalised visual culture. Its focus is on performance, dance, theatre, story-telling, music and scenography, and how these practices are imagined, embodied and understood across these communities as vital components of Indian cultural heritage. The research begins from the premise that sharing how performative representations of Indian cultural heritage, both within India and between India and the Indian Diaspora, are conceived and perceived, which will lead to better understanding of how these conceptions contribute to the formation of identities and subjectivities in both constituencies. This becomes critically important when a rising tide of nationalisms as well as racial and religious stereotyping sweep across the globe, which carry with them an emphasis on identity, culture and heritage as spatially and temporally fixed, leading to reductionist and essentialist conceptions of the 'other'. To avoid these notions of fixity, the project adopts Arjun Appadurai's preferred adjectival application of the term 'cultural' in Modernity at Large (1996), understanding it to be 'a realm of differences, contrasts, and comparisons' (12). We also understand heritage as having meanings that are temporally fluid and, while often associated with space and place, it is not anchored by them. In this context, the primary question the network will seek to investigate is: to what extent are ahistoricised, abstracted, colonial fantasies of India perpetuated through performative representations of Indian cultural heritage in the Diaspora, and how can we instigate better ways of reading through these 'fictions and fantasies' in an era of mass communication? A secondary aim will be to test the efficacy of practice-led performance research as a mode of knowledge production with relation to cultural heritage, with the Indian Diaspora bringing a new critical and analytical lens to this area, potentially opening up new methods of enquiry for diasporic studies more widely.The proliferation of images in a mediatised culture is one of the means by which narratives of power are maintained. In the face of unitary and homogenised representations of cultural heritage between India and the Indian Diaspora, the performing arts can either re-enforce this hegemonic discourse or offer up alternative perspectives. In order to achieve this, we first need to develop more critical ways of seeing and reading the meanings inherent in the way Indian cultural heritage is visualised and experienced between these two constituencies. The network will initiate collaborative partnerships and exchange visits between the TrAIN Research Centre (UAL), the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication (University of Hyderabad), and arts and community organisations concerned with cultural heritage, identity and community-formation across the sub-continent and in the UK. Adopting an innovative approach, academic institutions, arts organisations and community groups will be linked through a series of practical workshops. Two multi-disciplinary symposia will furthermore extend and contextualise the findings of the workshops. The symposia, one in London and one in Hyderabad, will be organised around three key themes: Stereotypes in the representations of cultural heritage; the invisibility of local specificity inherent in transnationalism; further collaboration and discussion of methodologies that make more effective engagement possible. Outcomes will be disseminated online, through pop-up exhibitions and a performance in the public domain, and through published articles in relevant international journals.