International audienceComment comprendre que des ascètes aient développé en Inde une tradition ma... more International audienceComment comprendre que des ascètes aient développé en Inde une tradition martiale extrêmement élaborée, tout en ayant fait des voeux stricts de "non violence" ? Et comment se fait-il que des leaders syndicalistes à poigne puissent se réclamer avec conviction des mêmes idéaux que Gandhi, ou encore que des brahmanes hésitent aussi peu à manier le bâton tout en affichant haut et fort leur foi dans la non-violence ? De telles façons d'agir, souvent paradoxales à nos yeux, sont susceptibles cependant de renouveler notre compréhension des notions de violence et de non-violence dans la société indienne, contredisant en particulier l'idée que l'on s'en fait habituellement depuis le gandhisme. Douze études, portant sur les périodes, des lieux, des protagonistes fort divers, montrent que, bien souvent, la non-violence est ce au nom de quoi la violence se légitime, ce qui lui confère du sens. Mais la valorisation de "la" non-violence repose sur des interprétations en réalité très variées de cette expression, et sur des rapports de force qui relativisent et hiérarchisent des points de vue distincts tout en permettant leur maintien. (Résumé d'auteur
On ne compte plus aujourd’hui les appels à repenser l’innovation. Il y aurait urgence écologique.... more On ne compte plus aujourd’hui les appels à repenser l’innovation. Il y aurait urgence écologique. Et certains n’hésitent pas à prédire la fin du monde à moins d’une rupture radicale de nos modèles de croissance. Alors que chaque nouvelle génération de téléphone ou d’ordinateur est célébrée comme si elle constituait un progrès décisif pour l’humanité, le low tech à l’inverse, cet ensemble hétérogène de techniques, de modes de composition alternatifs, définis tantôt négativement (pauvreté ou économie des moyens) tantôt positivement (faire beaucoup avec peu de choses, faire avec ce qu’on a, faire plus local et plus participatif, etc.), viendrait partout ébranler la toute puissance du high tech. Avec lui, ce ne sont pas seulement une autre lecture des techniques et d’autres façons de concevoir qui se donnent à voir, mais des populations entières d’hommes et de procédés, dont le rôle a bien souvent été sous-estimé, de l’Inde à l’Afrique en passant par l’Asie. L’objectif de ce numéro n’es...
Arts and Aesthetics in a Globalizing World investigates arts and aesthetics in their widest sense... more Arts and Aesthetics in a Globalizing World investigates arts and aesthetics in their widest senses and experiences, from a variety of perspectives branching from the metaphysical to the political. Moving beyond art as an expression of the inner mind and invention of the individual self, the volume bridges the gap between changing perceptions of contemporary art and aesthetics, and maps globalising currents in a number of contexts and regions. The volume includes an impressive variety of case studies offered by established leaders in the field and original and emergent scholarly talent covering areas in India, Nepal, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Rwanda and Germany as well as providing transnational or diasporic perspectives. From the contradictory demands made on successful artists from the south in the global art world such as Anish Kapoor, to images of war and puppetry created by female political prisoners, the volume compels creative and political interpretations of the ever-changing ...
The permeability of the boundary between religion and politics in India has already been highligh... more The permeability of the boundary between religion and politics in India has already been highlighted in many studies. In reality, ever since Independence, the separation established by the Indian constitution between these two central domains of social life has always been rather tenuous. But it is only during the last two decades that a large-scale movement openly questioning the principle has emerged. In effect, political parties appealing to Hinduism have been making a concerted attempt to turn it into the more or less explicit basis for a national state culture. which would replace the purely secular ideals prevailing until now.' The separation between religion and politics is not, however, the most decisive factor in defining our modernity. A more fundamental distinction is the one which has been progressively drawn between beliefs in all their variability on the one hand and, on the other, the scientific approach, which in contrast bases its legitimacy on both its universa...
Is it possible to imagine that one may feel morally right to kill and decapitate an old man in th... more Is it possible to imagine that one may feel morally right to kill and decapitate an old man in the middle of the night who is completely defenceless andwho had been particularly kind to you when you were a child?According to cultural relativism, this a distinct possibilityif you belong to a culture where such behaviour is effectively acceptable and you have been socialised in it and interiorised its values.But if you strongly believe in the universality of moral values, you will no doubt consider that any one who is not perverse would spontaneously find such behaviour completely abhorrent, whatever his or her culture, his or her educationand the sort of legitimacy which may be claimed for such an act.Finally, if you are following some of the recent researches taking place in the anthropology of morality, you will probably judge that both perspectives are not necessarily contradictory; you may consider that much depends, from a methodological point of view, on the level of analysis t...
Propaganda and art history do not separate as we might think. As we know, Aby Warburg and many ot... more Propaganda and art history do not separate as we might think. As we know, Aby Warburg and many other art historians (such as Emile Mâle, Ernst Gombrich , or Kenneth Clark) have not hesitated to put their knowledge in the service of propaganda for their homelands when circumstances required doing so. At a more fundamental level, the problems of analyzing propaganda force us to investigate some of art history's key postulates. This article focuses on the very beginnings of documentary films in the British Empire and India.
Carlo Severi, directeur d’etudesDenis Vidal, directeur de recherche a l’IRD Alfred Gell a recemme... more Carlo Severi, directeur d’etudesDenis Vidal, directeur de recherche a l’IRD Alfred Gell a recemment attire l’attention sur le fait que les artefacts qui se trouvent dans nos musees classes sous le label « art primitif » ne sont pas seulement des temoignages d’un instinct universel qui presiderait a la creation artistique. Bien que dependants d’une esthetique indigene, beaucoup de ces objets sont, dans les societes ou ils ont ete concus, traites comme des etres vivants, le plus souvent a l’int...
Propaganda and art history do not lie as far apart as we might think. As we know, Aby Warburg and... more Propaganda and art history do not lie as far apart as we might think. As we know, Aby Warburg and many other art historians (such as Emile Male, Ernst Gombricht or Kenneth Clark) have not hesitated to put their knowledge in the service of propaganda for their homelands when circumstances required doing so. At a more fundamental level, the problems of analyzing propaganda paradoxically force us to investigate some of art history's key postulates. This is shown by focusing on the very beginnings of documentary films in the British Empire and India.
Universitas-monthly Review of Philosophy and Culture, 2011
Since the 1980's, the reflection concerning meeting of cultures, cultural transmission, and i... more Since the 1980's, the reflection concerning meeting of cultures, cultural transmission, and inter-culturalism usually concerns domains all linked with post-colonial, trans-national, and cultural diasporas questions, but also exile, hybridity, etc. In such a context, the methodological approach of contemporary art is mostly founded on sociology and history of art methods. The paper thus proposes an aesthetic approach of this problem, through the practical study of what we have chosen to call the "new figures of universal artists." It seems interesting to study these artists that refuse, even in an indirect way, an appreciation of their art based on an identity, or on a specific culture, approach. Their attitude as well as their creativity forces us to re-examine the validity of usual appreciation categories and of art evaluation. More than that, a number of them express on their artwork and on artistic creation even more pioneer ideas than any avant-garde theories. Ther...
In this work, we study how learning in a special environment such as a museum can influence the b... more In this work, we study how learning in a special environment such as a museum can influence the behavior of robots. More specifically, we show that online learning based on interaction with people at a museum leads the robots to develop individual preferences. We first developed a humanoid robot (Berenson) that has the ability to head toward its preferred object and to make a facial expression that corresponds to its attitude toward said object. The robot is programmed with a biologically-inspired neural network sensory-motor architecture. This architecture allows Berenson to learn and to evaluate objects. During experiments, museum visitors’ emotional responses to artworks were recorded and used to build a database for training. A similar database was created in the laboratory with laboratory objects. We use those databases to train two simulated populations of robots. Each simulated robot emulates the Berenson sensory-motor architecture. Firstly, the results show the good performa...
According to Rashed Araeen, the well-known contemporary artist and a fierce critic of the contemp... more According to Rashed Araeen, the well-known contemporary artist and a fierce critic of the contemporary art world, 'the problem with the policies of multiculturalism, or theories of cultural diversity, is that they have failed to address the main issues of art as an individual practice rather than an expression of community as a whole, or of
This book, as the editors suggest, is concerned with challenging the conventional images of a cap... more This book, as the editors suggest, is concerned with challenging the conventional images of a capital city that 'nobody loves', offering alternative images of Delhi originating from less predictable perspectives, alternative social dynamics and from other less conventional life ...
La direction fait miroiter de faux espoirs pour les prochain-e-s licencié-e-s La direction, par l... more La direction fait miroiter de faux espoirs pour les prochain-e-s licencié-e-s La direction, par la voix de M. Daniel Simoneau, a communiqué avec nous en catastrophe cet après-midi afin de tenter de nous faire endosser les licenciements prévus demain de la moitié d'entre vous. Compte tenu du temps supplémentaire qui perdure encore. Compte tenu que nous ne pouvons être complices de licenciements alors qu'il y a du travail. Compte tenu qu'il y aura plus de 100 postes vacants sur les tableaux d'affichage dès lundi prochain et qui ne seront pas comblés avant plusieurs semaines. Il nous apparaît insensé que la direction procède à des licenciements demain, d'autant que celle-ci a toute la latitude d'arrêter cette hémorragie de perte d'emplois. Dès maintenant, nous contactons les supérieurs de M.Simoneau pour dénoncer les licenciements. Un pour tous, tous pour un! Les membres du Comité exécutif provincial
International audienceComment comprendre que des ascètes aient développé en Inde une tradition ma... more International audienceComment comprendre que des ascètes aient développé en Inde une tradition martiale extrêmement élaborée, tout en ayant fait des voeux stricts de "non violence" ? Et comment se fait-il que des leaders syndicalistes à poigne puissent se réclamer avec conviction des mêmes idéaux que Gandhi, ou encore que des brahmanes hésitent aussi peu à manier le bâton tout en affichant haut et fort leur foi dans la non-violence ? De telles façons d'agir, souvent paradoxales à nos yeux, sont susceptibles cependant de renouveler notre compréhension des notions de violence et de non-violence dans la société indienne, contredisant en particulier l'idée que l'on s'en fait habituellement depuis le gandhisme. Douze études, portant sur les périodes, des lieux, des protagonistes fort divers, montrent que, bien souvent, la non-violence est ce au nom de quoi la violence se légitime, ce qui lui confère du sens. Mais la valorisation de "la" non-violence repose sur des interprétations en réalité très variées de cette expression, et sur des rapports de force qui relativisent et hiérarchisent des points de vue distincts tout en permettant leur maintien. (Résumé d'auteur
On ne compte plus aujourd’hui les appels à repenser l’innovation. Il y aurait urgence écologique.... more On ne compte plus aujourd’hui les appels à repenser l’innovation. Il y aurait urgence écologique. Et certains n’hésitent pas à prédire la fin du monde à moins d’une rupture radicale de nos modèles de croissance. Alors que chaque nouvelle génération de téléphone ou d’ordinateur est célébrée comme si elle constituait un progrès décisif pour l’humanité, le low tech à l’inverse, cet ensemble hétérogène de techniques, de modes de composition alternatifs, définis tantôt négativement (pauvreté ou économie des moyens) tantôt positivement (faire beaucoup avec peu de choses, faire avec ce qu’on a, faire plus local et plus participatif, etc.), viendrait partout ébranler la toute puissance du high tech. Avec lui, ce ne sont pas seulement une autre lecture des techniques et d’autres façons de concevoir qui se donnent à voir, mais des populations entières d’hommes et de procédés, dont le rôle a bien souvent été sous-estimé, de l’Inde à l’Afrique en passant par l’Asie. L’objectif de ce numéro n’es...
Arts and Aesthetics in a Globalizing World investigates arts and aesthetics in their widest sense... more Arts and Aesthetics in a Globalizing World investigates arts and aesthetics in their widest senses and experiences, from a variety of perspectives branching from the metaphysical to the political. Moving beyond art as an expression of the inner mind and invention of the individual self, the volume bridges the gap between changing perceptions of contemporary art and aesthetics, and maps globalising currents in a number of contexts and regions. The volume includes an impressive variety of case studies offered by established leaders in the field and original and emergent scholarly talent covering areas in India, Nepal, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Rwanda and Germany as well as providing transnational or diasporic perspectives. From the contradictory demands made on successful artists from the south in the global art world such as Anish Kapoor, to images of war and puppetry created by female political prisoners, the volume compels creative and political interpretations of the ever-changing ...
The permeability of the boundary between religion and politics in India has already been highligh... more The permeability of the boundary between religion and politics in India has already been highlighted in many studies. In reality, ever since Independence, the separation established by the Indian constitution between these two central domains of social life has always been rather tenuous. But it is only during the last two decades that a large-scale movement openly questioning the principle has emerged. In effect, political parties appealing to Hinduism have been making a concerted attempt to turn it into the more or less explicit basis for a national state culture. which would replace the purely secular ideals prevailing until now.' The separation between religion and politics is not, however, the most decisive factor in defining our modernity. A more fundamental distinction is the one which has been progressively drawn between beliefs in all their variability on the one hand and, on the other, the scientific approach, which in contrast bases its legitimacy on both its universa...
Is it possible to imagine that one may feel morally right to kill and decapitate an old man in th... more Is it possible to imagine that one may feel morally right to kill and decapitate an old man in the middle of the night who is completely defenceless andwho had been particularly kind to you when you were a child?According to cultural relativism, this a distinct possibilityif you belong to a culture where such behaviour is effectively acceptable and you have been socialised in it and interiorised its values.But if you strongly believe in the universality of moral values, you will no doubt consider that any one who is not perverse would spontaneously find such behaviour completely abhorrent, whatever his or her culture, his or her educationand the sort of legitimacy which may be claimed for such an act.Finally, if you are following some of the recent researches taking place in the anthropology of morality, you will probably judge that both perspectives are not necessarily contradictory; you may consider that much depends, from a methodological point of view, on the level of analysis t...
Propaganda and art history do not separate as we might think. As we know, Aby Warburg and many ot... more Propaganda and art history do not separate as we might think. As we know, Aby Warburg and many other art historians (such as Emile Mâle, Ernst Gombrich , or Kenneth Clark) have not hesitated to put their knowledge in the service of propaganda for their homelands when circumstances required doing so. At a more fundamental level, the problems of analyzing propaganda force us to investigate some of art history's key postulates. This article focuses on the very beginnings of documentary films in the British Empire and India.
Carlo Severi, directeur d’etudesDenis Vidal, directeur de recherche a l’IRD Alfred Gell a recemme... more Carlo Severi, directeur d’etudesDenis Vidal, directeur de recherche a l’IRD Alfred Gell a recemment attire l’attention sur le fait que les artefacts qui se trouvent dans nos musees classes sous le label « art primitif » ne sont pas seulement des temoignages d’un instinct universel qui presiderait a la creation artistique. Bien que dependants d’une esthetique indigene, beaucoup de ces objets sont, dans les societes ou ils ont ete concus, traites comme des etres vivants, le plus souvent a l’int...
Propaganda and art history do not lie as far apart as we might think. As we know, Aby Warburg and... more Propaganda and art history do not lie as far apart as we might think. As we know, Aby Warburg and many other art historians (such as Emile Male, Ernst Gombricht or Kenneth Clark) have not hesitated to put their knowledge in the service of propaganda for their homelands when circumstances required doing so. At a more fundamental level, the problems of analyzing propaganda paradoxically force us to investigate some of art history's key postulates. This is shown by focusing on the very beginnings of documentary films in the British Empire and India.
Universitas-monthly Review of Philosophy and Culture, 2011
Since the 1980's, the reflection concerning meeting of cultures, cultural transmission, and i... more Since the 1980's, the reflection concerning meeting of cultures, cultural transmission, and inter-culturalism usually concerns domains all linked with post-colonial, trans-national, and cultural diasporas questions, but also exile, hybridity, etc. In such a context, the methodological approach of contemporary art is mostly founded on sociology and history of art methods. The paper thus proposes an aesthetic approach of this problem, through the practical study of what we have chosen to call the "new figures of universal artists." It seems interesting to study these artists that refuse, even in an indirect way, an appreciation of their art based on an identity, or on a specific culture, approach. Their attitude as well as their creativity forces us to re-examine the validity of usual appreciation categories and of art evaluation. More than that, a number of them express on their artwork and on artistic creation even more pioneer ideas than any avant-garde theories. Ther...
In this work, we study how learning in a special environment such as a museum can influence the b... more In this work, we study how learning in a special environment such as a museum can influence the behavior of robots. More specifically, we show that online learning based on interaction with people at a museum leads the robots to develop individual preferences. We first developed a humanoid robot (Berenson) that has the ability to head toward its preferred object and to make a facial expression that corresponds to its attitude toward said object. The robot is programmed with a biologically-inspired neural network sensory-motor architecture. This architecture allows Berenson to learn and to evaluate objects. During experiments, museum visitors’ emotional responses to artworks were recorded and used to build a database for training. A similar database was created in the laboratory with laboratory objects. We use those databases to train two simulated populations of robots. Each simulated robot emulates the Berenson sensory-motor architecture. Firstly, the results show the good performa...
According to Rashed Araeen, the well-known contemporary artist and a fierce critic of the contemp... more According to Rashed Araeen, the well-known contemporary artist and a fierce critic of the contemporary art world, 'the problem with the policies of multiculturalism, or theories of cultural diversity, is that they have failed to address the main issues of art as an individual practice rather than an expression of community as a whole, or of
This book, as the editors suggest, is concerned with challenging the conventional images of a cap... more This book, as the editors suggest, is concerned with challenging the conventional images of a capital city that 'nobody loves', offering alternative images of Delhi originating from less predictable perspectives, alternative social dynamics and from other less conventional life ...
La direction fait miroiter de faux espoirs pour les prochain-e-s licencié-e-s La direction, par l... more La direction fait miroiter de faux espoirs pour les prochain-e-s licencié-e-s La direction, par la voix de M. Daniel Simoneau, a communiqué avec nous en catastrophe cet après-midi afin de tenter de nous faire endosser les licenciements prévus demain de la moitié d'entre vous. Compte tenu du temps supplémentaire qui perdure encore. Compte tenu que nous ne pouvons être complices de licenciements alors qu'il y a du travail. Compte tenu qu'il y aura plus de 100 postes vacants sur les tableaux d'affichage dès lundi prochain et qui ne seront pas comblés avant plusieurs semaines. Il nous apparaît insensé que la direction procède à des licenciements demain, d'autant que celle-ci a toute la latitude d'arrêter cette hémorragie de perte d'emplois. Dès maintenant, nous contactons les supérieurs de M.Simoneau pour dénoncer les licenciements. Un pour tous, tous pour un! Les membres du Comité exécutif provincial
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