Hypotheses on Decolonial Anthropology from Multimodality to Astromusicology
What constitutes an effective decolonial praxis for anthropology? This talk addresses this question through a reflection on a series of experiments in my work to push the boundaries of conventional forms of anthropological knowledge production. The first of these focuses on the creation of artificially-intelligent virtual social agents modeled on ethnographic fieldwork with improvising musicians in Berlin, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area and subjecting these systems to the critique of those they are based upon, a practice which creates an ethnographic feedback loop that serves as a potential avenue for decolonial anthropology. The second of these deals with astromusicology, an experimental performance art and installation practice that takes after jazz musician Sun Ra’s claims that he was born on the planet Saturn in order to explore the notion of ethnographic fieldwork (and representation) as discursive modes that generate alienness alongside alienation. I do not contend that these experiments constitute necessary forms of decolonial praxis; instead the talk takes them as hypotheses that may further clarify how we might think about the field’s ongoing work towards decolonization.
About the speaker:
Dr. Ritwik Banerji is an experimental ethnographer, interactive media artist, and improviser. He is currently as Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Iowa State University. His writings appear in diverse venues such as New Directions in Third Wave Human Computer Interaction, Anthropology in Action, the Oxford Handbook of the Phenomenology of Music Cultures, Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, and Jazz Perspectives. As an installation artist and performer, Banerji has presented his work at Elastic Arts (Chicago), Experimental Intermedia (NYC), La Maison des Chapitres (Forcalquier, France), and Khoj Artist Studios (Delhi), among other venues, and has collaborated with artists such as Ben Lamar Gay, Rob Frye, Axel Dörner, Joel Grip, Theresa Wong, and Liz Allbee.
Location: Queen's College, QC 4028
Date and Time: Monday, Oct. 6 at 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM (NDT)