Samten Yeshi| Fall Ends, Keeps a Topic

As the fall term of 2017 take leave, I have a topic to begin. Yes! it is about my thesis as usual and the good news is, I have a topic.

Having gone through a well-designed thesis shaping exercise disguised as ‘Presenting Culture’ everything gradually fell into line, like the branches of streams narrowing down into one running river. I was able to negotiate between my two special areas of interest, one paving way to another.

I am going to write on the Bhutan’s monuments in ruins, which I call it the Bhutan’s Memories in Ruins. Well I am sure you want to know why? First of all Bhutan is a small country, which was never colonized by any country, with rich cultural heritage and historical narrative, a powerful and inimitable value of a sovereign independent kingdom. But I realized that half of the memories; the evidences of sovereign independent nation’s historical narratives lie buried.

THE WAY UP IS DOWN: THE FINAL EPISODE!!! BY HILDA ANDOH

It has never been an easy journey through the land of dilemma, trying to figure out a focus area for my thesis work. Before arriving at the topic am currently working on, I had several sleepless nights, cried, felt lost in my new field of studies and thought it was a wrong decision I made coming to have a Master’s degree with no ambition. But until I shut the doors of discouraging voices and miserable thoughts, I came to the realization that I needed to know who I was, what I wanted to do, my purpose of being in this 2 years master’s program and the overall decision was to know what my passion was. For me to strive confidently and comfortably towards my goal in my research work, I needed to have a driving force which would push me out of my comfort zone amidst all the challenges and difficulties I would encounter during this academic journey of mine. This driving force is my passion because I believe with my interest and academic zeal working together, I would be able to attain my goals. This self-discovery I made has helped me have a focus area in my thesis work, hadn’t not been that it would have been much tougher for me.  

Now to the point of my thesis topic, someone might ask what at all am I working on? Yes, I am zealously working on an idea which will be feasible and very beneficial to non- popular sites with locals living around in Ghana. What do I mean by non- popular site? From my point of view, non-popular in this context is referring to sites which are not really recognized and mostly not visited because of its low publicity and the noninvolvement of the locals in the preservation of the site. This I think could be a factor which am yet to find out. Even though my idea is still in the processing machine my focus point in my thesis work is to make emphasis on the role locals of a community need to identify, understand and actively participate in the preservation, management and the promotion of heritage sites in Ghana. There are several heritage sites in Ghana, but we mostly hear about the few which are popular. But I always ask myself this question, why are the popular ones given much more concentration rather than the non-popular ones, most of the sites? Is it because of their location, poor developmental project or what? Well am yet to find out.

I intend to have a comparative study between four different heritage sites in Ghana where locals are situated thus The Mole National Park which is in the northwest of Ghana, Lake Bosomtwe in the Ashanti region, Gwollu and Nareligu defense wall are situated in the northern part of Ghana. With this idea in mind, I turn to find out if the locals living within these four heritage sites have specific roles they actively execute in the preservation of the site. If they do, how do they go about it, are they given the needed supervision and assistance in executing their roles? If they don’t, what is preventing them and lacking from the local’s point of view?  Are there restrictive rules from managers of the site which makes these locals not feel a part in the preservation? Well, these are some few questions I have been pondering about ever since I came up with my new proposed topic on how locals can actively participate in site preservation through the roles they have.

Coming to think of it, heritage sites cannot be in its proper state without the involvement of these locals. Because I believe if these locals are made to own these sites as their own and feel a part of it, they would really make conscious efforts of keeping the sites alive. Anyways, this is my opinion from a realization I made. I intend to conduct an in-depth interview with local representatives of these site, locals of the community and any other person who would be willing and available to answer my question. A participatory research approach is another medium through which I will use during my data collection in the respective sites. These two are not going to be the only way I will use in my data collection. Since my idea is still in the processing machine, there can be new ideas which can be added, and others taken off. It’s a work in progress even though the focus area is clear to my understanding for the time been. Also, two of the sites I will be working on are on the tentative list of UNESCOs thus: Mole National Park and Lake Bosomtwe, the other two are also not recognized. With this, I see it as a very good opportunity to advocate to popularize Gwollu and Nareligu Defense walls as tourist attraction site. I therefore, envision to have a documentary on my research of the sites with more emphasis on the two non- popular sites, Gwollu and Nareligu Defense walls to help promote the sites with the involvement of the locals at these sites to the populace of Ghana. This doesn’t also mean I will neglect the other two sites, they will also be on the documentary. Even if this idea of advocating for these sites in the whole of Ghana seems too unachievable, with this I intend to start from smaller towns and gradually extend my tentacles to other part of the regions. Why this documentary? This is because I don’t want to be a researcher without results. My questions, findings, and results should practically reflect at these sites and beyond. This at the end will tell the credibility of my research.

This is a general idea for my research work. Until, I finally submit my final research work, decisions are still going to be made, diverse ideas will crop up from the suggestions of my professors, colleagues and courses I sign up for. This I believe will guide me have a very credible thesis work at the end of my 2years academic journey in Cultural Heritage Studies, at the Central European University (CEU).  This is because the way up is down!!!

HYBRIDITY IN ARTS: AN OF ANALYSIS ADINKRA SEMIOLOGY
BY CYNTHIA ADJOVI MAWUL

“Hybridity, in its most basic sense, refers to mixture. The term originates from biology and Its contemporary uses are scattered across numerous academic disciplines and is salient in popular culture” (Ashgate 2007 p.77). The concept of hybridity can be applied to aspects of art today. Many contemporary artists have experienced movement between and among cultures in their lives, and their work often explores issues of personal and cultural identity. Hybridity in Adinkra semiology, demonstrates how the culture of the Akan of Ghana came to be represented by processes of semiotic and communication through which their meanings convey the philosophical stance of Akan of Ghana.

Hybridity in arts, is for artists working with and responding to new technologies and, the hybridization of physical and digital elements has become a reflexive reaction to this strange separation not only on a formal level, but as a subjective enquiry into the impact of its growing presence. This hybridity in art practice is about transcendence, beyond the visual logic of the digital or material (Amy knight 2012). Hybrid therefore, involves a mixed composition that adds variety or complexity to a system. In science, a hybrid is the offspring of genetically dissimilar plants or animals, especially produced by breeding or grafting different varieties or species. In language, a hybrid word is one whose elements are derived from different languages. In an automobile, a hybrid combines an electric motor with a gasoline engine. “In art forms, … hybridity could mean the blurring of traditional distinct boundaries between artistic media such as painting, sculpture, film, performance, architecture, and dance. It also can mean cross-breeding art-making with other disciplines, such as natural and physical science, industry, technology, literature, popular culture, or philosophy” (Walker 1927).
Given this definition, Barlow said, “Hybrid art forms expand the possibilities for experimentation and innovation in contemporary art. Today’s artists are free to make art with whatever material or technique they can imagine. This freedom creates new opportunities to express ideas and concepts. It also opens many challenges, choices, and decisions for artists: How can I define myself as an artist if I am shifting, combining, and recombining techniques from inside and outside the worlds of art? Blurring boundaries, breaking rules, and creating hybrids occupies much artistic work today. However, making meaning in art whatever tools, materials, or techniques are used remains central to artistic practice”.
Culture therefore, includes "knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (E.B. Taylor 1871)”.
Thus, the cultural norms of a specific group can be traced back to its origins and early development. Although there are gradual changes in these cultural elements as times passes, humans incorporate their cultural values into updated norms that reflect changes hence the symbols of Adinkra. The symbols showcase the rich, distinctive culture of the Ashanti’s.
According to Jasmine Danzi “…Adinkra are often defined as symbols which through stylized pictures convey the philosophy of life of the (Akan) of Ghana. The symbols are styled representation of objects, plant, animals, natural shape or buildings and their meaning convey messages”. In Africa a great deal of philosophical material is embedded in the proverbs, myth, and folk-tales, folksongs, rituals, beliefs, customs, and traditions of the people. Many of these designs draw on aspects of nature, and they often incorporate elements of geometric transformations such as reflection, dilation, rotation, and translation. (Robert Sutherland 1927).

These symbols have become a choice of branding the modern on traditional clothing in Ghana. Artisans who make local footwear like sandals have also included these symbols in their designs. “For instance, a locally made sandal ‘Ahenema’ has a careful design of the Adinkra symbol of three concentric rings encircling each other, known as ‘Adinkrahene’ at the nose of each slippers. The symbols have formed part of the fine and visual arts used for decorative purposes into which these symbols have be designed into”. The creativity of artist using symbols affect how symbols communication affects human behavior and how the mind of identity shifts in relation to innovation.
“The adinkra symbols are mostly used communicatively during religious activities like festivals, depicting the culture, philosophy, values and beliefs of the people. ‘Nkra’ in the word adinkra means message. Hence, the symbols were used to convey specific messages to people”. When you make art, you are capturing a moment or a story. Victoria contends that, if people connect with your improvised piece of art, regardless of if it’s a huge audience or not, they’ll remember you and your artwork forever. We are in a state of turmoil and artists practicing hybrid art are responding by using the tools that are most easily accessible and understandable using communication technology that is ubiquitous and connecting everyone in good and bad ways (Victoria Vesna 2011).

In  analyzing Adinkra semiology, hybridity gives artist new perspectives of representing their culture in a different cultural context . This opens up for further analysis as to how culture can be used inter-contextually. Forms that have developed from hybridity of symbols can lead to negative suppression of culture of its people. The blending of ideas makes the artist superior and has a potential or increasing value in the market business.

Reference
1.Thomas Barlow walker, “Art today,” walker art center (1927)
2.Amy Knight, “New Hybridity in Arts,” (2012)
3. Vesna Victoria, “Hybrid Category Arts,” (2011)

The Journey continues- Nyararai Mundopa

Domboshava National Monument

 In my previous post I indicated that I am interested in coming up with suitable case studies to discuss the management disparities which exist in Zimbabwe to the benefit of my thesis. For now I have settled for Chibvumani and Ndongo heritage sites but I am still widening my search for the most appropriate examples. 

STRUGGLING SETTING UP THE ROUTINE

 November 25, 2017 By stanzin Dazang Namgail

Most of us might be struggling with the writing routine. Everybody has different circumstances and different amounts of time available, so however you setup your writing routine you’ll need to adapt different writing routine. It is always taught to every Indian by their parents from childhood to make a routine chart being obedient we use to make one  and work  accordingly for a day or two and forget it. But coming up here to the CEU i was making the routine chart and had a nostalgic feeling of the past memories, where I was told to make my first routine chart. Here you can´t escape from it if you make it you have to go accordingly otherwise you will find yourself  under the loads of many assignments. I usually find myself in the second situation. So i want to share a bit of my idea and experience how you can formulate your routine or may be most of you might had much more great ideas to share.

As for me while it is possible to write some content before doing the research, sooner or later you will hit the limit of what you can say with confidence. So if it’s a choice between writing for the sake of writing or doing the actual work the writing is supposed to present, do the research.

Of course, in some fields writing is a crucial part of the research itself, and for those writing in a second (or third or fourth…) language then it’s important to practice writing and make a conscious effort to improve.

The most disturbing element in the routine are the internet, I had the same weakness. So its better to turn off the internet Or at least the parts of the internet that distract you. If you reach a difficult point in your writing and your first instinctive response is to check email (then facebook, news headlines etc), then you will be at your most distracted when you need to be at your most focused.

studying cultural Heritage studies is not an easy  and at points we need the help of internet but somehow being accessed to internet we all sometimes gets distracted by the internet and end up ourselves in a group chat or watching movies (for me its always movies) For those unable to do this, try using software to block sites during your writing time. sometimes it works for me but not for long.

The important thing I usually say to myself is to settle. At first, my brain is just racing through countless ideas, so I try to relax into the writing rather than rushing to produce words as fast as possible.

One useful technique is to turn the screen off and spend a few minutes with pen and paper to decide exactly what you want to communicate or what points you need to cover. Try to narrow your focus, slow your brain down a little, and just work on one idea at a time. But with the loads of so many assignment it doesn´t work for me always as doing one assignment I keep thinking of the other and sooner or later find myself behind the screen of my phone and laptop again.

its very important to know while making your routine as for Some people find it easiest to get up early and write while they are fresh. Personally, I find it easier to write not till late night and giving a rest to my small brain and wakeup early with some fresh ideas in my head. some has the insomnia so if they can and think better its good for them to stay awake till late and write like most of you at dorm does. You don’t have to copy somebody else’s routine if it doesn’t work for you. Figure out what writing routine works for you, then try to write during the same hours each day.

Another thing we do is when we take a break we just go deep into our phone or computer, try to  avoid this during breaks you will feel bit relax before you go back to your scheduled routine. Get away from the computer and leave your phone turned off, make a cup of tea, go for a walk around the block anything that gives you a break from staring at the screen.

In this digitalized world it will be hard to convince you all to turn the screen off and take 10 minutes with pen and paper to write down any thoughts you have and tasks you still need to do.But you can try keeping your phone switched off or at least the wifi to be off. I know you can´t, take it as a challenge.

Good luck for those who has a set routine and those who doesn´t have think of making one it helps a lot…….

Clearer Ideas,contemplation remains | Sanchari

As we near the end of the semester, I get a clearer idea of what I want to do in the course of my research and where I see my work being implemented in, though I yet am in conjecture as to the appropriate methods to be employed in order to achieve my desired outcome.
The focus area of my research is my hometown of Chandannagar,(French-Chandernagor) which is a former French colony in West Bengal, set up in 1673 primarily as a trading centre. As a teenager, I had always been told, by one of my neighbours, who was a historian, about the French history of the town and all the traces that had been left behind - the beautiful Strand road , an approximately 1 km pathway along the river Ganga, lined with huge old trees(planted in the French era) and lights,

The Chandannagar Strand Road ( Source- Google Images)

the Sacred Heart Church, designed by French architect Jacques Duchatz,

The Sacred Heart Church ( Source - Google Images)

the French Cemetery

The French Cemetry, Chandannagar (Source- Google Images)

, the Chandannagar Gate

The Chandannagar Gate ( Source- Getty Images)

, which was constructed in the year 1937 to symbolise the fall of the Bastille, and the list goes on, I was fascinated by and proud of the fact that my town stands unique and distinct from the rest of the region and the other towns as it was the only French establishment in the area. As I was introduced  to the study of the history of Indian colonisation in school, however, the first thing that struck me was how little representation my town had in the chapters of French colonial history in India. To be precise, there were only two short sentences stating the name of the town and that it was an eastern colony of the French. From what I understood then, the reason must have been the greater importance given to British colonies, and the fact that the town had long lost its glory as a trade epicentre. Either way, it was a mark of the historical significance attached to the town, which was sad, to say the least.

Gulnoza | Decoding signs and finding my way

Since my last entry I believe things have moved considerably. Not that everything was in fireworks and balloons, on the contrary, I started questioning my ideas even more often. Visiting the Museum of Ethnography gave me a clearer understanding of what I’m going to do. Nevertheless, I was not sure about how to narrow down my thesis topic. I realized that my initial research proposal was too big and ambitious to embrace. So, I was back into the land of doubts and concerns. The museum experience, however, prompted me to explore new ideas. Since then, I’ve visited Krakow, where I went to see the museum of Auschwitz and the Oscar Schindler’s factory. Words fail to express the emotions that filled me up. It is beyond my understanding why humankind does not learn its lessons. Why, after over 70 years, we are still witnessing cruelty, intolerance, inhumanity, whichever form and content it takes, towards ‘otherness’ all over the world? This unforgettable experience left me speechless and contemplating. Anyway, along with such deliberations, I was also paying attention to how the museum was set up. Besides the display of evidences of this horrendous crime against humanity, I was impressed with the audio-visual set-up of the halls, where one can feel being in the center of those events. Both museums managed to perfectly combine the use of digital technologies with the regular mode of showcasing history. It’s amazing that through time they have managed to adapt to fast growing technologies while safeguarding the most precious thing we could possibly have – memory.

Thus, overwhelmed with emotions and impressions, I was flying up in the skies in search of other sources of inspiration until suddenly, out of the blue we were told to have a meeting with the program director. We were supposed to talk about our thesis topic, whether we would stick to it or would like to make amendments, or whether we intended to change it drastically.  I panicked. A million questions were running through my head. Why do they want to see me? Isn’t it premature? Everything was going well, wasn’t it? What am I going to say? What am I going to do with my thesis? Is the topic going to be the same? But then isn’t it too generic? How should I digitize cultural heritage? Which heritage? I must narrow it down, do I? But how? God, my brain was desperately trying to give answers to each question it was generating. It felt like being back to school, when you come in the morning to a class to find out you are going to have...SURPRISE, a maths test.

The show time approached mercilessly. When it was my turn, another flashback was vivid in my head, this time from the high school times, when I was supposed to pick a question on the exam I was not prepared for. But all my fears and doubts vanished once I stepped into the room with József and Alice. Five minutes into our conversation, with their questions and encouragement, I realized there was nothing to be afraid of. I could have come and say “Look, I have no idea what the hell I’m going to do with my thesis”, and it still would be OK. However, I did have some ideas in my head, and even more of them hovering over me. For me they looked like candies in a piñata under the ceiling, I just couldn’t reach out to break it. I needed someone to hold on to for balance. And József and Alice were the ones. With their advice, guidance, questions and simply nods of encouragement, I saw a clear picture emerging in my head. I firmly decided I would narrow down my topic to intangible cultural heritage. I could focus my research on traditional music, musical instruments, traditional and ceremonial songs. I would continue collecting ideas and research best practices. I would visit even more museums and galleries. Oh, yes, I love doing it. For a museum freak like me, this sort of experience of mixing business with pleasure was meant to be. Eventually, I left their office on foot, but I was literally flying so inspired I was. Why the hell was I scared at first place? I don’t have to be perfect, do I? After all I’m here to learn and study, and our professors are here to guide us, not judge. 

With a clearer idea of my thesis research now, I realized now that even some readings do make sense if I find them relevant to my topic. I only wish I could say the same about all of them…

Off I go, with a better understanding of where to. There’s a long way ahead, but I will overcome as long as clear road signs are there. Otherwise, I'm learning to decode them.

The fear of failure – Thoughts about the unfinised story of Galgahévíz

Galgahévíz is an ecovillage that was founded in the beginning of the ’90s in Hungary among several similar villages. After 1990 as the continuing of the ’green movements’ that were born during the Soviet regime people formed communities and settled down in the rural area with the aim of creating a sustainable life. It means that the habitants of the village do farming without using any reagent, use environment-friendly technologies in architecture and in all of their activities. They try to have a law consumption, make a live on, trade and entertain in the village. They try to have economical autonomy and self-sufficiency.[1] But they don’t see themselves as they would have left the society. They think they are part of it as an autonom community and they serve the society with sharing their knowledge and showing a good example for the outside world.[2]