Uma conversa com Sanjay Seth e Rajyashree Pandey sobre os desafios e as possibilidades proporcionados por um léxico crítico sobre a materialidade nos domínios das artes e do património.

Affordances of a critical lexicon on materiality:

A conversation with Sanjay Seth and Rajyashree Pandey

Drawing on the interim results of the MATERIA exploratory research project, Sanjay Seth and Rajyashree Pandey (Goldsmiths University and, at the moment, Visiting Researchers at IHC) join the project team to discuss the challenges and possibilities afforded by a critical lexicon on materiality to the arts and heritage fields.

This event is open to all.

On the guests:

Professor Sanjay Seth is Professor of Politics at the Goldsmiths University. After completing his education in Sydney and Canberra, Sanjay held positions at Sydney University and La Trobe University (Melbourne), as well as a Fellowship at Tokyo University. He moved to Goldsmiths in 2007, to take up the Chair in Politics.
Sanjay has published in the fields of modern Indian history, political and social theory, postcolonial theory and international relations. He is particularly interested in how modern European ideologies, and modern Western knowledge more generally, ‘travelled’ to the non-Western world- and what effects this had both on the non-Western world, and on modern, Western knowledge. His current work is focused on whether the presumptions that inform our modern knowledge are ‘universal’, meaning adequate to all times and places- as is usually supposed- or whether they are in fact parochial, presumptions that are specifically modern and Western but that illegitimately pass themselves off as universal. He often uses his Indian archive to raise and pursue these broad social, cultural and epistemological questions.
Sanjay has been invited to give keynote talks in the US, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Bulgaria, Brazil, Greece, India, Pakistan, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Taiwan. Some of his publications have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Slovenian.

Professor Rajyashree Pandey is Professor of Japanese Studies at the Goldsmiths University. Pandey did her undergraduate degree at Oxford University in Japanese Studies. She received her Masters at Washington University and her PhD from Australian National University. She has taught in many universities across the world including Washington University (St Louis), University of Hawaii, and La Trobe University in Melbourne. She took up her current post in 2007.
Rajyashree has published widely in the areas of medieval Japanese literature, Buddhism and gender. She is particularly interested in examining the applicability of categories such as woman, body and gender, all of which emerged in the West, for understandind non-Western pasts and presents.
She also does research in postcolonial studies and popular culture, particularly on manga and anime, to consider how political concerns and ideologies are reflected in these contemporary artistic forms. Rajyashree has given several keynote addresses in these areas of her research in Estonia, Finland, Japan, UK and Germany, and some of her major publications have been translated into Japanese.

On the MATERIA project (IN2PAST):

Although matter and materiality are intrinsic to the arts and heritage fields, the terms underpinning discourse and practice around its manifestations are arguably more contested than ever. Negotiating terms and their boundaries becomes an essential task when redefining materialities and their past, present, and future. Understanding what matters in material culture and the various disciplines underpinning its study will help us understand decision-making processes regarding the conservation, historicisation, and overall transmission of art and heritage practices.
This seed project aims to set the basis for creating a critical lexicon addressing the diverse ways in which materiality is performed within the arts and heritage fields. It draws on existing efforts to interrogate how we understand matter and knowledge (specifically through posthumanism) to expand the idea of materiality in itself by creating a lexicon. Due to their intrinsic relationship with language (and, therefore, culture and practice), lexicons have particular potential to emerge as critical tools to rehearse forms of situated practice.
IR: Hélia Marçal

In the poster: Capital by Rádóczy Gyarmathy Gábor – Rippl-Rónai Municipal Museum with County Scope – Kaposvár, Hungary – CC BY. (Soure: Europeana)