The Politics of Performance on the Urban Periphery in South India

该网络将进行三次专题讨论会和四次实地考察，以调查发展中的南印度城市周边的表演政治，并以四个节日作为案例研究。我们还将试点并分享绩效干预措施在包容性城市规划方面的应用。印度城市的发展给城市边缘的许多社区、地点和物种带来了危机，这些社区、地点和物种正受到快速再开发和变化的威胁。表演艺术直接参与了这一变化。例如，它们增强了大都市的文化认同，但也可能传播边缘化社区和受威胁遗址的遗产。传统的形式也随着城市的变化而发展和政治化，在这里，它们与当代行为艺术的美学有着共同的关注，后者经常参与城市空间的政治。动物和环境问题在表演中既有体现，也有牵连：例如，拥挤的城市环境加剧了对表演大象的照顾问题，导致越来越多的人呼吁禁止。理解这种表演的意义，离不开对不断发展的城市景观的欣赏，以及对它的想象方式的欣赏，无论是在新房产的买家中，还是在那些发现自己的生活方式受到威胁的人（人类或非人类）中。为了欣赏表演干预、评论和受城市扩张危机影响的各种方式，有必要结合来自一系列学科的专业知识，特别是与南印度文化景观有关的专业知识。我们的网络将跨越人文、社会和自然科学，包括表演、考古学、动物认知和城市研究。在印度，行为研究是一门不断发展的学科，但尚未建立起来，英国网络参与者将把这种专业知识和镜头带到工作中，而南印度的跨学科知识将由班加罗尔的学者、策展人、艺术家和规划专家提供。PI带来了表演、建筑和步行方面的研究专长，最近研究了印度的现场艺术和城市。我们的实地考察、专题讨论会和研讨会将于2018年2月（活动1）、2018年12月（活动2）和2019年2月（活动3）举行。更广泛的小组将参加在NIAS班加罗尔举行的研讨会，讨论和分享他们的相关研究以及实地考察的报告。2月，核心小组（PI, CIs, Von Damm （MOD）和Daboo）将进行实地考察，观察金奈的Urur-Olcott Kuppam Vizha，该组织与渔业社区和班加罗尔的Neralu（树木）节合作。12月，核心小组和城市大象专家斯里达尔·维贾亚克里什南（Sreedhar Vijayakrishnan）将参观特里普图拉（Tripunithura）拥有400年历史的Vrishchikotsavam，以及Kochi-Muziris双年展（Kochi-Muziris Biennale）。我们在班加罗尔国防部城市研究所的项目合作伙伴将借鉴他们过去的经验，在班加罗尔周边地区举办为期一周的研讨会/干预活动，以表演为工具，激发与城市扩张有关的对话、辩论和表达关切。方法和结果将在金奈、高知和班加罗尔的公开演讲中记录、分享、讨论和发展。闭幕公开会议将于2019年2月在NIAS举行。其他传播形式包括政策文件、学术出版物和网站。该网络建立在埃克塞特大学戏剧系与班加罗尔NIAS之间的关系之上。到目前为止，这主要集中在对研究生的共同监督上，因此这个网络使研究人员能够将以前的非正式讨论集中在具体的问题和产出上，并且将成为发展更广泛的研究合作的起点。

This network will undertake three symposia and four field trips in order to investigate the politics of performance on the peripheries of growing South Indian cities, with four festivals as case studies.We will also pilot and share the use of performance interventions towards inclusive urban planning.The growth of cities in India presents a crisis for many communities, sites and species that lie on the urban periphery and are endangered by rapid re-development and change. The performing arts are directly involved in this change. For instance, they enhance the cultural identity of the metropolis, yet may also communicate the heritage of marginalized communities and threatened sites. Traditional forms are also being developed and politicized in response to urban change, and here they share concerns with the aesthetics of contemporary performance art, which frequently engages in the politics of urban space. Animals and environmental issues are both represented and implicated in performance: for instance, the problematic care of performing elephants is exacerbated by congested urban environments, leading to growing calls for a ban. Understanding the significance of such performance is inseparable from an appreciation of the spectacle of the growing city, and the ways in which it is imagined, whether among the buyers of new property, or among those (human or non-human) who find their ways of life under threat.In order to appreciate the various ways in which performance intervenes in, comments on, and is affected by a crisis of urban expansion, it is necessary to combine expertise from a range of disciplines, particularly in relation to the cultural landscape of South India. Our network will move across humanities, social and natural sciences, including performance, archaeology, animal cognition, and urban studies. Performance studies is a growing discipline in India, but not yet well established, and the UK network participants will bring this expertise and lens to the work, while the interdisciplinary knowledge of South India will be provided by scholars, curators, artists and planning experts based in Bengaluru. The PI brings research expertise in performance, architecture and walking, recently researching Indian live art and the city.Our field trips, symposia and workshops will be held in February 2018 (Event 1), December 2018 (Event 2) and February 2019 (Event 3). The wider group will attend symposia at NIAS Bengaluru at each of the three events to discuss and share their related research alongside reports from the field trips.In February, the core group (the PI, CIs, Von Damm (MOD) and Daboo) will make field trips to observe the Urur-Olcott Kuppam Vizha, Chennai, which works with the fishing community and the Neralu (Tree) Festival, in Bengaluru. In December, the core group and Sreedhar Vijayakrishnan, an expert in urban elephants, will observe the 400-year old Vrishchikotsavam in Tripunithura, and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Our project partners at the MOD Institute for Urban Research in Bengaluru will draw on their past experience to lead a week of workshops/interventions in peripheral Bengaluru, using performance as a tool for stimulating dialogue, debate and expression of concerns in relation to urban expansion . Methods and results will be documented, and shared, discussed and developed at each of the network events in public presentations in Chennai, Kochi and Bengaluru. A closing public meeting will be held at NIAS in February 2019.Other forms of dissemination include policy documents, academic publications and a website.The network builds on the relationship between the Drama Department at Exeter University with NIAS in Bengaluru. This has so far been focused on co-supervision of research students, so this network allows researchers to focus previously informal discussions towards specific concerns and outputs, and will be a starting point for the development of more extended research collaborations.