Re-Presenting Art History

Can reenactment both as reactivation of images and restaging of exhibitions be considered an alternative way of tackling the critical task to re-present art history (i.e., to present it anew) in the here and now, over and over and over again? The gesture of restoring visibility to something no longer present, reactivating or reembodying it as an object/image in and for the present, is here proposed as a (political) act of restitution and historical recontextualization. Examining the boundaries between past and present, original and copy (as well as originality and copyright), repetition and variation, authenticity and auraticity, presence and absence, canon and appropriation, durée and transience, the paper focuses on remediation, reinterpretation, and reconstruction as creative gestures and cultural promises in contemporary art practice, curatorship, and museology.

A relação entre texto literário e peritextos: uma análise do romance O meu amante de domingo, de Alexandra Lucas Coelho / The Relationship Between Literary Text and Peritexts: An Analysis of the Novel O meu amante de domingo, by Alexandra Lucas Coelho

Resumo: Por muito tempo, o trabalho intelectual, público e artístico foi feito majoritariamente por homens. É sabido que, às mulheres, foi relegado o ambiente doméstico e a vida privada. No entanto, o mundo está em processo de mudança – ainda que lenta e gradual. Atualmente, não só a nossa sociedade, mas também os estudos literários estão atentos às produções de outras vozes que foram silenciadas durante grande parte da História e que agora se levantam com uma força arrebatadora e irrefreável: vozes de mulheres, negros, indígenas, homossexuais, transexuais, dentre outros corpos que foram alijados da possibilidade de se ins(es)creverem no processo histórico, político, social e artístico. Nessa esteira, contemporaneamente, é, sobretudo, um ato político estudar textos não só escritos, mas também protagonizados por sujeitos que foram historicamente subalternizados. Concebendo o trabalho acadêmico como uma prática política, este artigo tem como objetivo realizar uma análise de alguns elementos peritextuais presentes no livro O meu amante de domingo (2014), da portuguesa Alexandra Lucas Coelho, enfocando nas suas relações com o texto literário. Para isso, utilizaremos, principalmente, como aporte teórico, a obra Paratextos editoriais, de Genette (2009).Palavras-chave: Alexandra Lucas Coelho; O meu amante de domingo; paratexto; peritexto.Abstract: For a long time, intellectual, public and artistic work was done mostly by men. It is known that women have been left out of the home environment and private life. However, the world is in the process of changing – albeit slow and gradual. Nowadays, not only our society, but also literary studies, are attentive to the productions of other voices that have been silenced during much of History and that now arise with an overwhelming and unstoppable force: voices of women, blacks, indigenous people, homosexuals, transsexuals, among other bodies that were excluded from the possibility of write in the historical, political, social and artistic process. At the same time, it is, above all, a political act to study texts not only written, but also carried out by subjects who have historically been subordinated. Conceiving academic work also as a political practice, this article aims to carry out an analysis of some peritextual elements present in the book O meu amante de domingo (2014), by portuguese Alexandra Lucas Coelho, focusing on their relations with the literary text. For this, we will use, mainly, as a theoretical contribution, the work of Genette (2009).Keywords: Alexandra Lucas Coelho; O meu amante de domingo; paratext; peritext.

Reseña del libro A Transnational History of the Internet in Central America, 1985–2000: Networks, Integration and Development / Book Review A Transnational History of the Internet in Central America, 1985–2000: Networks, Integration and Development

“In an era in which the need to protect borders has often been defended, remembering a historical moment that sought to overcome them is also, in essence, a political act in itself” (Siles, 2020: 10). Ignacio Siles, catedrático en la Escuela de Ciencias de la Comunicación de la Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), nos presenta un acto político hecho libro que contextualiza lo que ocurría en Centroamérica durante los años en que se fue facilitando la conexión a internet en la región. Siles es doctor en Medios, Tecnología y Sociedad por la Universidad de Northwestern, tras una maestría en Comunicación por la Universidad de Montreal, y una licenciatura en Ciencias de la Comunicación por la Universidad de Costa Rica, donde actualmente es profesor.

‘Strengthening community from the inside out’: Transformative possibility for climate change resilience and adaptation in Te Awa Kairangi-Hutt City

<p>How do we organise society and adjust our human relationships with the natural environment to adapt to a changing climate? How do we decide to make these adjustments? These questions shape Aotearoa-New Zealand climate change discourse across adaptation research and central and local government policy. A resilience approach to adaptation is one conceptual response that has gained popularity over the past decade. However, some critical geographers argue that the dominant typologies of resilience have been normalised as neoliberal capitalist strategies and positioned as ‘neutral processes’, and that these strategies can perpetuate inequity and unsustainability. Critical geographers therefore suggest focusing on addressing the root causes of inequity and unsustainability through transformative resilience and adaptation. This research builds on critical geography work by exploring how Common Unity Project Aotearoa (CUPA), a charitable trust located in Te Awa Kairangi-Hutt City, is fostering a community that understands and performs transformative possibilities for resilience and adaptation. For community members of CUPA, ethical actions of a community economy, a process of collective learning and an ability to make sustainability accessible contribute to transformative adaptation and resilience. Exploration of these themes provides a grounded example of how communities can adapt to climate change in ways that also seek to transform inequitable and unsustainable capitalist relations with one another and with the natural environment. CUPA’s transformative work poses implications for councils and decision-makers seeking to build resilience and the capacity to adapt in community, offering alternate possibility for discourse, decision-making, participation and engagement. I approach this project as a scholar-activist in recognition that research is a performative, political act. Through a scholar-activist methodology I use participant observation and interviews to gather insight and information. I ground my critical geography lens in care in order to contribute to a knowledge-making around climate change based in possibility and multiplicity, rather than of authority and judgement.</p>

DEMOLITION AND RELOCATION OF HINDU TEMPLES IN MALAYSIA: PRAGMATIC RESPONSES OF INDIAN HINDU COMMUNITIES IN PENANG

<p>This thesis examines the pragmatic responses of Indian Hindus when their century-old Hindu community temples face threats of demolition by the Malaysian government. I argue that their compliance with the demolition is a subtle and pragmatic political act that manipulates their political standing as a minority community in order to safeguard their temples. I analyse the effectiveness of such pragmatic acts of compliance by the Indian Hindu communities, and the implications of their compliance for the political and social significance, as well as the sacredness of their demolished temples. My ethnographic data is derived from in-depth interviews of the management committees and community members of three Hindu temples in Penang, and field observations of the rituals and ceremonies in these temples. During my fieldwork, these temples have either been demolished or are in the process of demolition. The management committees of these temples have relocated the statues of the deities into temporary buildings. My findings show that the Indian Hindu communities acquiesced to government demolition of their community Hindu temples to make way for development. In return for their compliance, the Hindu communities expected that the government is obligated to find new locations for them to rebuild their community temples. Their attempts to ensure the temples continuously exist in the area suggest that these temples, regardless of their shapes and sizes, have significance for the local Hindu communities. This significance it true both for members of the temple committee and the local Hindu community. Their compliance also suggests that the portability of these temples as sacred places. The importance of the thesis is in its insistence that Malaysian Indian Hindus as minorities are not necessarily powerless in the face of dominance of the government. Instead, these Hindu communities are actively engaging with their political and social realities with pragmatic and subtle political actions such as demonstrating compliance. By complying with the demolition of their community temples, the Hindu communities are not only able to manoeuvre their ways through the dominance of the government, but they can also Hindu communities.</p>

‘Strengthening community from the inside out’: Transformative possibility for climate change resilience and adaptation in Te Awa Kairangi-Hutt City

<p>How do we organise society and adjust our human relationships with the natural environment to adapt to a changing climate? How do we decide to make these adjustments? These questions shape Aotearoa-New Zealand climate change discourse across adaptation research and central and local government policy. A resilience approach to adaptation is one conceptual response that has gained popularity over the past decade. However, some critical geographers argue that the dominant typologies of resilience have been normalised as neoliberal capitalist strategies and positioned as ‘neutral processes’, and that these strategies can perpetuate inequity and unsustainability. Critical geographers therefore suggest focusing on addressing the root causes of inequity and unsustainability through transformative resilience and adaptation. This research builds on critical geography work by exploring how Common Unity Project Aotearoa (CUPA), a charitable trust located in Te Awa Kairangi-Hutt City, is fostering a community that understands and performs transformative possibilities for resilience and adaptation. For community members of CUPA, ethical actions of a community economy, a process of collective learning and an ability to make sustainability accessible contribute to transformative adaptation and resilience. Exploration of these themes provides a grounded example of how communities can adapt to climate change in ways that also seek to transform inequitable and unsustainable capitalist relations with one another and with the natural environment. CUPA’s transformative work poses implications for councils and decision-makers seeking to build resilience and the capacity to adapt in community, offering alternate possibility for discourse, decision-making, participation and engagement. I approach this project as a scholar-activist in recognition that research is a performative, political act. Through a scholar-activist methodology I use participant observation and interviews to gather insight and information. I ground my critical geography lens in care in order to contribute to a knowledge-making around climate change based in possibility and multiplicity, rather than of authority and judgement.</p>

DEMOLITION AND RELOCATION OF HINDU TEMPLES IN MALAYSIA: PRAGMATIC RESPONSES OF INDIAN HINDU COMMUNITIES IN PENANG

<p>This thesis examines the pragmatic responses of Indian Hindus when their century-old Hindu community temples face threats of demolition by the Malaysian government. I argue that their compliance with the demolition is a subtle and pragmatic political act that manipulates their political standing as a minority community in order to safeguard their temples. I analyse the effectiveness of such pragmatic acts of compliance by the Indian Hindu communities, and the implications of their compliance for the political and social significance, as well as the sacredness of their demolished temples. My ethnographic data is derived from in-depth interviews of the management committees and community members of three Hindu temples in Penang, and field observations of the rituals and ceremonies in these temples. During my fieldwork, these temples have either been demolished or are in the process of demolition. The management committees of these temples have relocated the statues of the deities into temporary buildings. My findings show that the Indian Hindu communities acquiesced to government demolition of their community Hindu temples to make way for development. In return for their compliance, the Hindu communities expected that the government is obligated to find new locations for them to rebuild their community temples. Their attempts to ensure the temples continuously exist in the area suggest that these temples, regardless of their shapes and sizes, have significance for the local Hindu communities. This significance it true both for members of the temple committee and the local Hindu community. Their compliance also suggests that the portability of these temples as sacred places. The importance of the thesis is in its insistence that Malaysian Indian Hindus as minorities are not necessarily powerless in the face of dominance of the government. Instead, these Hindu communities are actively engaging with their political and social realities with pragmatic and subtle political actions such as demonstrating compliance. By complying with the demolition of their community temples, the Hindu communities are not only able to manoeuvre their ways through the dominance of the government, but they can also Hindu communities.</p>

Back to the Drawing Board: Creative Mapping Methods for Inclusion and Connection

The most well-known representation of the globe, the Mercator Projection, often provokes surprise for its considerable distortions: despite appearances, Greenland is almost five times smaller than Canada, and Russia is, in fact, approximately half the size it appears. Since the oldest civilizations, maps have relied on shifting knowledges to become more accurate and efficient, a process accelerated with science and technological development. But the unrealistic proportions of the Mercator map point to a critical reflection: maps show no absolute truths, nor are they neutral. Maps tell stories; they represent ideas as much as spaces, and exactitude is no synonym for neutrality. On the contrary, mapping is a cultural and political act. In the 1990s, geographers started to defy the power relationships of mapmaking with critical cartography. This critique, strongly supported by activists, opened new debates and representational possibilities in which scientific principles started to matter less than social and environmental justice, political participation, and storytelling. Within this framework, this chapter reflects on two alternative mapping methods used in the humanities and social sciences: social cartography and deep mapping. Each section introduces origins, theoretical frameworks, reception, and applications. Because these methods aim to rectify the abuse of power often enabled by scientific mapping, they use non-prescriptive mapmaking to legitimize neglected perspectives. Social Cartography is intrinsically participatory and uses mapping as a collaborative and critical practice. It challenges the role of traditional cartography in socio-political spheres, creating opportunities for new narratives and communities to be heard and understood. Deep maps represent abstract characteristics of a place. They can transcend the boundaries of bi-dimensional and pictorial representation, and consequently, reach different publics. The method is flexible, combining literature and immersive experiences to convey personal or subjective qualities of a place. Other expressions of deep mapping include audio and performative documentations. Social cartography and deep mapping operate against traditional mapmaking by reinforcing the notion that non-institutionalized maps are just as valid in guiding public actions and projects. As participatory practices within communities, these methods promote dialogue, empowerment, and transformation. Therefore, they are indispensable in ensuring democratic research and decision-making.

Shifting Narratives, Recognizing Resilience: New Anti-Oppressive and Decolonial Approaches to Ethnobotanical Research with Indigenous Communities in Canada

Revitalizing Indigenous land-based practices are acts of resurgence and resistance. The presence of Indigenous bodies occupying land to nourish and strengthen themselves through ancestral practices is a political act. These cultural systems of knowledge and practice are in opposition to historical and ongoing colonial attempts to dispossess Indigenous Peoples of their connections to land. Indigenous People have undergone changes in diet and land access, including cultivating and harvesting plants for health and wellbeing. Recognizing and understanding the impacts and implications of colonization on land-based knowledge is fundamental in carrying out meaningful work within Indigenous communities in the field of ethnobotany. Much of the literature and media on Indigenous issues continue to uphold trauma narratives. When working with Indigenous communities on projects, it is essential to understand the history, impacts and ongoing struggles related to colonization and genocide in America in order to not cause harm and to contribute positively to those communities. Furthermore, by taking our responsibilities one step further, we can carry out research in trauma-informed ways while prioritizing anti-oppressive, decolonial and strength-based approaches to our research and collaborations with Indigenous communities. We illustrate these points through a community-based case study from the Squamish Nation in British Columbia, Canada.

Blood, Sweat and Tears: Women as Nurses Nursing Women in the Gynaecology Ward - a Feminist Interpretive Study

<p>This feminist study is an exploration of the subjectivity of women working as nurses within the gynaecological ward. Gynaecology has a long history as a unique area of concern to the health practitioners of any given period. However, recently with the development of modern gynaecology, this specialty has become based on male knowledge and male texts, women either as patients or nurses appear voiceless within this canon. Major texts within nursing mirror a medical construction of gynaecology, with the women involved in the discourse again absent from the literature. To explore the nurses' reality within the gynaecological ward I have undertaken a feminist interpretive study. Feminist research is gaining recognition within nursing and the contribution that such research can make to the development of nursing knowledge is acknowledged within the profession. However, it is within the work of nurse-scholars from Australia that feminist and postmodern ideas are most commonly debated. Their work provides an innovative approach to the exploration of nurses' work. To contribute to this debate I drew on certain specific notions from feminist and postmodern epistemologies to inform my work. These notions of the Other, difference, the body and discourse provided a unique way of viewing the practice of the nurses in this gynaecological setting. These epistemological concepts were then interwoven with feminist strategies to undertake my research. Through the process of feminist praxis, which included my working alongside the nurses and conducting in-depth interviews, three areas of general concern to the nurses emerged. Firstly the relationships, that is their relationships with each other as nurses and with their women patients. Secondly, the difficulties inherent in nurses' practice in this setting due to the nature of the experiences of the women they were nursing. These difficulties arose in relation to two particular situations, nursing women experiencing a mid-trimester termination and nursing women with cancer. Thirdly, the relationship with/in the medical discourse and individual doctors which, according to the nurses, had a major impact on their work. This study contributes to nursing knowledge by providing a forum for the voices of women as nurses, who nurse women in the gynaecological ward, to be heard. Using concepts from both feminist and postmodern theorising enabled the surfacing of the voices of nurses and interpretation of their experiences from a position of embodied reality. The diversity of the practice of nurses and the importance of recognising and working with this diversity became evident. Writing the text has been an important part of this research. Seeing writing as a political act in the way that many feminists do requires careful attention to the written word. Considering our fundamental nursing texts from a feminist perspective shows that many reflect a medical construction of gynaecological conditions and their treatment. Making explicit the voices of women as nurses is an important step in making women visible within the discourse of gynaecology. Nursing and feminism have much to offer each other and share an emancipatory goal of positive action to support and assist people in their lives.</p>