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，文化遗产和性能之间的关系，特别注意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，音乐和舞台设计，以及这些做法是如何想象的，体现和理解这些社区作为印度文化遗产的重要组成部分。研究开始的前提是，共享印度文化遗产的表演性表征，无论是在印度和印度与印度侨民之间，构思和感知，这将导致更好地了解这些概念如何有助于形成的身份和主体性在两个选区。当民族主义以及种族和宗教陈规定型观念的浪潮席卷地球仪时，这一点变得至关重要，因为它们强调身份、文化和遗产在空间和时间上是固定的，导致对“他者”的简化和本质主义概念。为了避免这些固定性的概念，该项目采用了Arjun Appadurai在Modernity at Large（1996）中对“文化”一词的首选形容词应用，将其理解为“差异，对比和比较的领域”（12）。我们也理解遗产具有时间流动的意义，虽然经常与空间和地点有关，但它并不受它们的影响。在这种情况下，该网络将寻求调查的主要问题是：在多大程度上是afhistoricised，抽象的，印度的殖民幻想，通过在散居地的印度文化遗产的表演性代表延续，以及我们如何才能煽动更好的方式，通过这些“小说和幻想”在大众传播的时代阅读？第二个目标将是测试的有效性，以实践为导向的性能研究作为一种知识生产模式与文化遗产，与印度侨民带来了一个新的关键和分析的透镜，这一领域，可能开辟新的调查方法，更广泛的流散研究。面对印度和印度侨民之间文化遗产的单一和同质化表现，表演艺术可以重新加强这种霸权话语，也可以提供替代观点。为了实现这一目标，我们首先需要发展更批判性的方式来看待和阅读印度文化遗产在这两个选区之间被可视化和体验的方式中所固有的意义。该网络将启动TrAIN研究中心（UAL），Sarojini Naidu艺术与传播学院（海得拉巴大学）以及关注次大陆和英国文化遗产，身份和社区形成的艺术和社区组织之间的合作伙伴关系和互访。透过一系列的工作坊，学术机构、艺术团体和社区团体将以创新的方式互相联系。两个多学科专题讨论会将进一步扩大和背景化的研讨会的结果。研讨会分别在伦敦和海得拉巴举行，将围绕三个关键主题组织：文化遗产代表中的陈规定型观念;跨国主义固有的地方特性的不可见性;进一步合作和讨论使更有效参与成为可能的方法。成果将通过在线、临时展览和公共领域的表演以及在相关国际期刊上发表的文章传播。

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.