Religious times, media genres, technical implementation: an ethnography of audiovisual media practices among Shi'ites in Hyderabad

该项目致力于在印度海得拉巴的什叶派穆斯林中传播的宗教视频中对时间和时间性的审美生产。它将涉及对与这些视频相关的媒体实践的民族志研究。该项目旨在探索什叶派视频中明显的时间结构之间的相互关系，在图像和话语的技术再现中发挥作用的时间动力学，以及观看这些视频引发的什叶派对时间的解释和体验。这些部分是当地制作的视频的一个主要主题是对公元680年卡尔巴拉战役悲惨事件的仪式化纪念。侯赛因是先知穆罕默德的孙子，他和其他家庭成员一起在这场战斗中牺牲。对于修行什叶派来说，专注于对卡尔巴拉事件的痛苦和哀悼的仪式化和高度戏剧性的展示的视频可以激发人们在战斗中的亲身体验，使人能够以一种感官上的力量见证这场悲剧。这种深切的见证是什叶派虔诚的核心要素。另一方面，在海得拉巴等印度城市的什叶派穆斯林中也流传着其他类型的视频。这些都是对卡尔巴拉的记忆，暗示着目前的社会和政治改革，意味着未来的进步。该项目通过媒体流派的运作来调查不同时间感的产生，并关注适合技术媒体的操作模式如何影响在场体验，从而影响时间体验。媒体生产和消费嵌入了更广泛的媒体实践，而这些实践又是更大的社会和文化背景的一部分，远远超出了与媒体本身的接触。这就是为什么计划中的研究涉及对媒体实践的人种学分析。它将有助于揭示视频流派之间的复杂相互作用，技术上引发的时间轴操纵，宗教宇宙观的时间维度，以及印度大城市生活的日常时间性。因此，该项目旨在通过提供来自全球南方大城市的比较视角，并突出媒体-技术对时间感的调节，来丰富焦点计划ästhetische Eigenzeiten。

The project addresses the aesthetic production of time and temporality in religious videos circulating among Shia Muslims in Hyderabad, India. It will involve ethnographic research on media practices related to these videos. The project aims to explore the interrelations between the temporal structurations evident in Shia videos, the temporal dynamics at work in the technical reproduction of images and discourse, as well as the interpretations and experiences of time among Shia triggered by watching these videos. A main subject of these in part locally produced videos is the ritualized commemoration of the tragic events of the battle of Karbala in 680 CE. Hussain, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad was martyred in this battle along with other members of his family. For practicing Shia, videos focusing on the ritualized and highly dramatic display of pain and mourning over the events at Karbala can provoke experiences of being present at the battle, enabling a sensually powerful witnessing of the tragedy. Such deeply felt witnessing is a central element of Shia piety. On the other hand, there are also other video genres in circulation among Shia Muslims in Indian cities such as Hyderabad. These take the memory of Karbala to suggest social and political reform in the present, implying a notion of progress in the future. The project investigates the generation of different senses of being in time through the workings of media genres, and pays attention to how the modes of operation proper to technical media influence experiences of presence and thereby experiences of time. Media production and consumption are embedded in broader media practices that are in turn part of larger social and cultural contexts that reach far beyond the engagement with media proper. This is why the projected research involves ethnographic analysis of media practices. It will allow to shed light on the complex interplay of video genres, technically induced time axis manipulation, the temporal dimensions of religious cosmologies, and the everyday temporalities of life in a major Indian city. The project thereby aims to enrich the focus program Ästhetische Eigenzeiten by offering comparative perspectives from a megacity of the global south, and by foregrounding the media-technological conditioning of senses of being in time.