Milindo Taid - Part 13

PhD Scholarships in Transcultural Studies 2013, University of Heidelberg, Germany

Jan 22

The Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies, University of Heidelberg, Germany, invites applications for eight doctoral scholarships.

Online application closes on March 15, 2013.

Open to Asia and Europe.

The programme offers a monthly scholarship of 1.200 Euro. It further supports scholarship holders in framing their research through advanced courses and individual supervision and mentoring. The scholarships start in the winter term 2013/14 and are granted for two years with the possibility of an extension for an additional year. Half of them are reserved for young scholars from Asia.

19th Century Photo-portraits: ‘Invisible’ mothers and visible babies

Dec 23

A rather curious form of portrait photographs emerged from about the mid to late 19th century – a ‘form innovation’ necessitated by a frailty of early photographic technologies viz. low emulsion sensitivity, and, consequently lengthy exposure times. The subject had to stay still for a fairly long stretch. Photographing adults was less of challenge then, but when it came to restless, excitable babies and children, the mothers were often cloaked or ‘disguised’ as supports for them, to get them to be calm and still. Mothers often covered themselves in black (or other) cloth to hold their children upright for the benefit of the camera. Sometimes the babies were propped upright from behind with the parent’s hands. Extra long child garments were also used to help hide the mother’s legs and body. The resultant images are a telling commentary on 19th century norms and photographic practice, however strange you may find them in the 21st. Take a look.

Jonathan auf der Heide: Van Diemen’s Land. 2009. Australia

Dec 19

Probably one of the most under-rated and misjudged films from the last few years. In retelling the true story of the escape of eight convicts in 1822 from the isolated Macquarie Harbour Penal Station on Sarah Island in Tasmania (then Van Diemen’s Land), Jonathan auf der Heide engages in what cine-scholars would dub as ‘Tasmanian Gothic’. Nature and landscape forms a very vital part of this narrative, assuming qualities of malevolence and menace. What auf der Heide does, to his credit, is to shy away from creating spectacle, but rather dwell on ‘strange silences’ to craft a meditative, relentless film in exploring the heart of darkness of desperate men in an extraordinary situation. The incorporation of the ancient Irish Gaelic language casts a melancholic brooding net over this atmospheric piece. Watch.

Grant Green: Idle Moments. 1963

Dec 16

Grant Green - Idle Moments

Watch this video on YouTube

Steve Schapiro: Photographing stars and everything else

Dec 16

Barbara Streisand. 1969

My first encounter with American photographer Steve Schapiro was via his portraiture work of the talented Barbara Streisand. Iconic portraiture that captured the spirit of a generation. And over the years, having seen a fair amount of his work while tracing his photographic lineage to two huge personal ‘heros’ of mine – Henri Cartier Bresson and W. Eugene Smith, it is clear to see that Schapiro is one of a rare breed of ‘photojournalists’ with an uncanny knack for capturing ‘the decisive moment’. Like Eugene Smith before him, Schapiro does wrap his photographer role around his activitist self, and not many do that any more. Here is a glimpse of some of his ‘celebritygraphs’ and a few ‘activitigraphs’.

Melvyn Bragg: In Our Time – Analytic and Continental Philosophy

Dec 12

British broadcaster and author Melvyn Bragg hosts one of the most invigorating BBC Radio 4 discussion programmes titled ‘In Our Time‘. Over 500 episodes now, Lord Bragg and his various discussion guests engage with the history of ideas, across the plural and complex domains of culture, history, philosophy, religion, science and politics. In this episode of ‘In Our Time’ Bragg and his guests discuss the Analytic-Continental split in Western philosophy. The Analytic school favours a logical, scientific approach, in contrast to the Continental emphasis on the importance of time and place. They go on to discuss the origins of this split and poses queries as to whether it is possible for contemporary philosophers to bridge the gap. The guests for this episode are: Dr. Stephen Mulhall of New College, University of Oxford, Dr. Beatrice Han-Pile of the University of Essex and Dr. Hans Johann-Glock of the University of Zurich.

Joan Cuthill PhD Scholarship in Art History 2013, University of Aberdeen, UK

Dec 12

To commemorate its links with the visual arts in Scotland, the University of Aberdeen in collaboration with the Alumni Association of Hospitalfield House are offering the Joan Cuthill PhD Scholarship in Art History. The award will facilitate research into the twentieth century history of Hospitalfield as an art institution and its role in the evolution of Scottish visual culture.

Study Level: Research Postgraduate

Country: International

Subject: History of Art

The PhD research will draw both on the extensive archive housed at Hospitalfield and will require the candidate to conduct interviews with surviving artist alumni of the institution. In addition to the thesis the successful candidate will be required and supported in the writing of a generalist publication based on the academic work undertaken.

The scholarship will cover full tuition fees (at home or overseas rate, as applicable) for the duration of the degree plus a contribution towards living expenses of £9000 per year.

Jean-Marc Cote: Postcards imagining the year 2000 in 1899

Nov 12

In the year 2000: Firemen rescuing a woman and child from a blaze.

Predicting the future is always risky business. Having been part of the drafting of various institutional ‘vision’ documents, the underlying ‘understood’ assumption was not to hold back – to give a free reign to ones imaginative capacities to conjure up definitive ‘ideal states’. French illustrator Jean-Marc Cote in 1899 had the unenviable task of future gazing 100 years, and with that, to come up with a series of postcards for the Paris World Exhibition in 1900. These postcards (En L’an 2000 – In the Year 2000) were distributed across France in the first decade of the 20th C, and were rediscovered much later in 1985, by American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Asimov published a collection of these postcards with his commentary as a book titled “Futuredays: A Nineteenth Century Vision of the Year 2000”. Take a look at some of these postcards, and try and not be amused. Try and imagine life in the year 3012 instead.

Oinam Doren: Songs of Mashangva. 2010

Nov 02

Rewben Mashangva is a Tangkhul Naga tribal musician and researcher from Ukhrul, Manipur, India. His quest and journey remains the most important one in the sphere of preservation of traditional folk music of the Tangkhul Nagas which stretches back more than a thousand years. With the explosive infusion of western music, coupled with a social order transformed radically via Christianity, Rewben struggles relentlessly against the turning tides to embrace an oral musical tradition which is on the verge of extinction. Oinam, a former student of mine in Shillong, filmed Rewben’s quest and journey for more than a year to give us this important and culturally vital document – a document that is reflective, respectful and reverberant. Take a look.