Doug Specht-Media, maps, and the making of war
Maps have long been used to plan, implement, and explain war. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, media organisations began producing hundreds of maps in an attempt to tell the story of what was happening on the eastern borders of Europe : maps of occupation, of territory gained or desired, of refugee migrations, and the changing names of places. These maps join a long history of using cartography to try and explain the complexities of war to an audience that is positioned well away from the front lines. These maps, often distributed through the media are important to help us comprehend the changing global landscape. In this talk I draw upon the work of John Berger to explore how these maps present an abstraction, that is both alluring and dangerous. I explore how we map such complex situations using nothing more than the potentially limiting tool kit of lines, colour, and symbology. Importantly this talk will explore what disappears when we turn complex geopolitical tragedies into maps, and how cartography may mask the nuances and horrors of war.
Soma Basu- Phantoms of the drain: Imaginations of conflict in everyday infrastructures
This paper culminates from the sensory ethnography of two intersecting municipal drains that flows through the 2020 riot-torn areas of New Delhi, India. The riots, that claimed 60 lives with several people still missing, broke out in and remained contained in 60-kilometer square area of the Northeast Delhi. The drains appear like a cross on the map of the region. During the six days of conflict between the majority Hindus and minority Muslims, the drains, that appear like a cross on the map of the region, was the dumping site for several human bodies. Just like the people of the fringe of the National capital, these drains were also built in 1990s post-liberalization period as municipal aids to accommodate the burgeoning informal, displaced population and the decentered economy and its waste. The drain’s thick, black, slush, a concoction of industrial and domestic waste, and plastics floating like as a layer of cream floats on milk hid many stories and recollections of the murderous violence. Three years after the riots, the cross of the two drains, looms like a parable of the past no one wishes to recount. The urban infrastructure project has transcended into a boogeyman through constant media retellings and portrayals. As a medium of memories, trauma and imaginations, the drains have attained a different kind of mobility, replete with distinct cultural codes, as they feature in innumerable different narratives and recollections, in person and online, lips to smart phone screens and so on. The article explores how people of the densely populated riot-hit localities, through which the drains pass, negotiated with the drains in their daily lives, memories of communal conflict and imaginations of threat. The article explores how the drain, as a medium, absorbed the unease of the rushed post-violence normalcy efforts when stories of its phantasm and gore still circulated from pocket to pocket, finger to finger, screen to screen though constant online mediatization. The sensory ethnography of the drains explores their transformation from mere objects of urban abuse to unforgettable urban legend in digital space.
Velayutham Chandrasekharan- Framing of urban resettlement in English newspapers: an analysis of policy, gender and livelihood coverage
Urban development accelerated post-Independence in India, correspondingly, the private sector, employment, and educational opportunities flourished rapidly. Urban development steered the population of people living in urban areas. However, the unfortunate sequel of such developmental activities is slum clearance. The slum clearance led to the displacement of people from their place of living which eventually made them to resettle in a completely new location. This resulted in a lot of shifts, precisely in their livelihood, economy, and thinking. Nearly 2.4 million people are internally displaced in India as of 2019, due to various reasons such as developmental projects, natural disasters, political conflict, etc. This research paper aims at analysing how English newspaper framed the news related to policy, gender and livelihood issues of those resettled communities in Perumbakkam, Chennai the Asia’s largest resettlement site. The study also aims in identifying the various agendas adopted by English newspapers in India as powerful opinions moulder. A set of both inductive and deductive frames will be analysed qualitatively. Both News articles and editorials pieces of The New Indian Express, The Times of India and The Hindu newspapers will be analyzed for a period of six months.
Laura Saarenmaa- China’s Hope: Monkey King’s Nordic Tour
In April 1979 Finnish television broadcasted a rarity: an animation film Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven (Da naio tian gong 1961) from the People’s Republic of China. Today considered as one of the masterpieces of Chinese animation, the film was not in favor of Mao Zedong. It was shelved during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and got its re-premiere after Mao’s death in 1978. The film was thus perfect marker of the cultural and economic opening of China in the West. In the Nordic countries, the television broadcasting of Monkey King accompanied the Nordic tour of the vice-premier Gen Biao’s in the spring of 1979. The tour began from Stockholm, and then continued to Helsinki, Oslo, and finally Reykjavik. In this paper it is suggested that the broadcasting of Monkey King in all the Nordic countries in 1978-1979 was a determined act of public diplomacy operated by Chinese embassies, driven by hopes of improving the national image of China, and to pave the way for prosperous trade relations with the Nordic countries. The paper recollects that the economic rise of China, today a global super power in digital technologies and AI, started by persistent small-scale maneuvers such as circulating an animation film between Nordic public service television companies.