Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities – Page 5

INVISIBLE LINES

How do you draw the invisible?

How to draw the feeling of belonging to a community of people and the people that live on the fringes of our society?

Invisible Lines develops around those questions, it’s a travelling training project that encourages young talents in comics and in illustrations to overcome this paradox enhancing visibility to these hidden realities.

The common thread of this project is the concept of invisibility. In a society characterized by the overproduction of images, it was considered essential to explore the inner dimensions of image production, such as subjectivity, marginality and spirituality. The importance of the invisible can be grasped in spiritual and religious phenomena , often regarded as destined to disappear in the contemporary era, but which today find new strength and new spaces. Invisible is paradoxically the migrant and the refugee, at the center of the representations of the media and yet rarely represented with his own history and voice. The invisible is also captured in many abandoned places that are scattered throughout Europe, because of an ever-changing urban landscape.

This two-year international project is co-found by the Creative Europe program of the European Union and developed by Fondazione Giorgio Cini; Central Vapeur (France); Hamelin Associazione Culturale (Italy); Baobab&Gplusg s.r.o. (Czech Republic).

The deadline to send the application and the portfolio is 31 December 2020.

For more information about how to apply visit: www.invisiblelines.eu

Download the call for artists

Eyes on music: Projects on visual ethnomusicology. 2020 Edition

Applications

Eyes on Music: Visual Ethnomusicology Projects. 2020 Edition

“Eyes on Music” is the title of a series of projects on documentation and audiovisual production in ethnomusicological studies set up by the IISMC in 2018 and coordinated by Giovanni Giuriati, Marco Lutzu, Claudio Rizzoni and Simone Tarsitani.

The series has been conceived starting from the realisation of the increasingly predominant role played by audiovisual recordings in fieldwork as well as in the production of documents and their diffusion. The camera has now replaced the tape-recorder in most documentation activities and digital technology has made high-quality audiovisual documents accessible for archiving, analysis and publication purposes. Films are used by ethnomusicologists not only for the production of documentaries, but also for popularising, teaching, and the creation of multimedia archives. This great proliferation of audiovisual technologies has not been accompanied, however, by adequate training of researchers.

In the universities, the small number of teachers and the limited resources mean that, in most cases, fieldwork methodologies and in particular techniques for production, editing and analysis of audiovisual products are not taught in a satisfactory manner.

In 2020 the project will again have three distinct but complementary parts:

1) An annual research scholarship of 5,000 euros to be awarded to a young researcher to make a audiovisual documentary on an ethnomusicological theme in memory of Diego Carpitella. Projects received by means of a call for applications will be judged by a panel of three experts. The winner will undertake to make the documentary, which will be screened publicly in Venice the following year. A copy of the material produced during the making of the film will remain in the IISMC Archive.

New deadline for application: 30 April 2020

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2) A workshop in the field of visual ethnomusicology. For a week, two experts will hold an intensive workshop with a selected number of participants on a relevant topic of audiovisual documentation in ethnomusicology (e.g. audiovisual documentation of fieldwork, documentaries, video documentation for analytical purposes, visual representation of analysis and post-production). An integral part of the workshop will be the documentation of a musical event organised by the IISMC in the same week. The participants (a maximum of ten) selected through a call for applications will be offered accommodation in Fondazione Cini’s Vittore Branca Center and lunches.

New deadline for application: 30 April 2020

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3) Short festival of films and multimedia products in the field of ethnomusicology. The second edition of the festival will be dedicated to the work of Diego Carpitella, a fundamental point of reference for those involved in visual ethnomusicology in Italy and maker of important documentaries on oral tradition Italian music. During the two days of the festival, films and audiovisual products made by Carpitella will be shown, as well as video material related to his teaching activities on IISMC courses.

INFO

Istituto Interculturale di Studi Musicali Comparati
musica.comparata@cini.it

+39 041 2710357

Call for papers Religious dimensions of nationalism: Interdisciplinary perspectives

Nationalism and religion have become closely entangled in the last two centuries. Nationalism in fact, can be easily associated with “political religion”, charismatic leadership, forms of prophetism, messianism, millennialism, and more generally mysticism, esotericism and alternative spirituality. The old religious concept of a divine covenant with a “chosen people” takes new shapes in nationalist, but also imperialist and colonialist, discourses. The spread of nationalism on a global scale, and its role in the decolonisation process, is also often far from having a purely political or secular dimension, and indeed alliances with religious fundamentalism are now a prominent feature.

This entangled relationship warrants a fresh focus on the relationship between nationalism and religion, which remains relatively inconspicuous in the field of nationalist studies. This conference aims at bringing together scholars coming from different disciplines who are interested in this relationship. We would like to have papers focusing on the modern and contemporary period from a global perspective, but we would also welcome contributions on earlier periods that would problematise modernist concepts of nationalism.

Downlaod Call fo papers CfP Nationalism

Deadline 1 June 2020

Symposium. Religious dimensions of nationalism: Interdisciplinary perspectives

The relationship between nationalism and religion is characterised by strong tension due to the universalist tendencies present in many religions, which challenge collective identities based on ethnic or cultural divisions. Moreover, modernist interpretations of nationalism have insisted on the close association between nationalism and secularisation. In recent years, however, these perspectives have become as problematic as the concept of secularisation itself, because they fail to grasp that religion, far from dying out in modern societies, has simply gone through a series of changes, such as individualisation and privatisation, on one hand, and new forms of public presence, on the other. Nationalism can easily be associated with forms of prophetism, messianism, millenarianism and, more generally, mysticism, esotericism and alternative spiritualities. The old religious concept of a divine covenant with a “chosen people” has taken new forms in nationalist but also imperialist and colonialist discourses. The study of the relationship between nationalism and religion has been relatively neglected and has not yet received due attention in the specific field of nationalist studies. The conference will bring together scholars from different disciplines who are interested in this relationship.

The symposium is curated and organized by the Center for Comparative Studies of Civilization and Spiritualities, directed by Francesco Piraino, in collaboration with Joep Leerssen and Marco Pasi (University of Amsterdam).

Download the Program CINI Nationalism

For information related to registrations write to civilta.comparate@cini.it

Masterclass in Venice with Alex Majoli

Magnum Photos and the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities at Fondazione Giorgio Cini are inviting applications for the second workshop organized on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, offering participants the opportunity to work on their projects in an immersive and intimate group setting. Join Magnum photographer Alex Majoli for an intense three-day of honest discussions about photography, during which he will talk at large about his work, give you critical feedback about your practice and explain in details how he has developed his technique to work on his latest body of work “Scene“.

For more information, please visit: https://www.magnumphotos.com/shop/events/events/masterclass-with-alex-majoli/

Call for Masterclass with Alex Majoli and Erik Kessels

21-22-23 April 2020 Fondazone Giorgio Cini, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore Venezia

Magnum Photos and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini are thrilled to launch applications for the second workshop organized on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, offering participants to work on their projects in an immersive and intimate group setting.


Deadline to apply is March 1, 2020, 23:59 UK time.

Download Cfpp Cini Magnum 2020 

For further information and sending the application:

https://www.magnumphotos.com/events/event/masterclass-with-alex-majoli-and-erik-kessels-in-venice/?fbclid=IwAR1SZbMV6U5-IeCaKhivd_YC1TOSectqQA4YjyTaA5BJZ7sxav31LIyRGRQ

Workshop Japanese Calligraphy

The Shodo workshop (Japanese calligraphy), intended for Ca ’Foscari Japanese students and all lovers of Japanese culture and visual arts will be inaugurated with an introductory lecture by professors Bonaventura Ruperti and Silvia Vesco.

A workshop led by Master Norio Nagayama, director of the Bokushin School of Oriental Calligraphy, will follow.

Programme:

3pm – 4pm

Introductory lecture with Bonaventura Ruperti e Silvia Vesco (Università Ca’ Foscari)

4pm – 4.15pm
Coffee break

4:15pm – 7pm
Workshop with Master Norio Nagayama

Places are limited, to register send an email to: calligrafia@cini.it indicating name, surname, affiliation. The e-mail must be nominative, multiple registrations are not accepted.

Symposium Philo of Alexandria: at the Crossroads of Civilisations

The Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities is organising a day of study devoted to Philo of Alexandria, in collaboration with Giuseppe Balzano (University of Brussels and director of Beit Venezia, Casa della Cultura Ebraica). Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BC – c. AD 45) developed his complex philosophy after studying and crossing over various religious and philosophical traditions. His Platonic interpretation of the Bible laid the foundations for the encounter between Greek philosophy, Judaism and Christianity. The Logos as a philosophical concept and a religious notion is undoubtedly the most original feature in this monumental work. The study day sets out to explore how the central role of language in Philo’s thinking, his “logocentrism”, came to influence subsequent monotheistic philosophical traditions. One of the most original aspects of this study day will be the special focus on Philo of Alexandria’s influence on Islam.

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Arabic-Islamic calligraphy

This worksop of Arabic-Islamic calligraphy will be guided by the Jordanian-Italian artist Eyas Alshayeb. Andrea Brigaglia (Università degli Studi di Napoli l’Orientale) and Sara Kuehn (Institut d’ethnologie méditerranéenne, européenne et comparative -CNRS) will lecture respectively on Sub-Saharan and Ottoman calligraphies.

Download the program Workshop-Arabic-Islamic calligraphy

International Conference Religious Dimensions of Conspiracy Theories: Connecting Old and New Trends

Nowadays conspiracy theories not only have a significant presence in social media, but they have also become part of mainstream culture. Despite this important presence in contemporary societies, conspiracy theories have been studied mainly from a political and cultural point of view, and only very recently have they begun to be studied more from the perspective of religion and alternative spirituality. Organised in collaboration with Marco Pasi (University of Amsterdam) and Egil Asprem (University of Stockholm), this conference sets out to contribute to filling this gap, especially by focusing on the religious and esoteric dimensions of these theories.
Earlier research on conspiracy theories described them as irrational and dangerous phenomena embodying what Bruno Latour would calla modern “practice of purification” (1993), based on the strict separation of the rational from the irrational. On the other hand, more recent studies have stressed the importance of these phenomena by also considering how the distrust of political, economic and scientific institutions is often reasonable and that conspiracies sometimes do exist. Moreover, they also argued that the “ontological insecurity” of contemporary societies encourages scepticism and paranoia.
Conspiracy theories also have an important political dimension. In fact, conspiracy theories provide an anti-hegemonic discourse against transnational powers, but also against what Foucault called the“regime of truth”, questioning the basis of knowledge production. Yet they are also significant in terms of the phenomenon they are opposed to because conspiracy theories are sometimes even exploited by those holding hegemonic power.

Program Conspiracy conference

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