[...] Event ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> paints a kind of national lanscape
="lsts lst1">•Life and Words ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> turn to an art of an ="trms">anthropological portraiture

...healing properties of the everyday
...everyday life generates its own forms of toxicity

(="ppl">Singh's) art of portraiture
of individuals, of milieu,

='strcls'>*singularity (of a portraiture) may express something both local and global='strcls'>*

="ppl">Veena ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> how would we conceptualize the moments of potentially violent uncertainty='qstn'>?
="prgrph">-="ppl">Benjamin='lgc'>: invocations of the uncanny
="prgrph">-="ppl">Derrida='lgc'>: the spectral
="prgrph">-="ppl">Veena='lgc'>: eventedness of the everyday (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> skepticism)

="large lg2" stl="font-size:112%"> Cavell (on Hollywood cinema and other sites where the drama of separation and union is played out) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> how philosophers have typically focused on skepticism ='lgc'>[longstanding western philosophical ="trms">question and doubt about existence='lgc'>] with respect to ="trms">material objects and the external ="trms">world
...existence of the ="trms">finite neighbour (seemingly known other) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> may become unknowable

='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*="ppl">Veena discovers the concept of skepticism for ="trms">anthropology (as a discipline centrally concerned with the varying conditions of human relatedness and otherness)='strcls'>*

='lgc'>[i have been trying dicover skepticism un="trms">systematically in artistic practices those that have strong concerns of ="trms">social justice and suffering, but i never named it as such. ='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Hoda, ="frds scrmbld">Xiri's emphasis on the threatening ="trms">nature of liminality (="trms">demand for equality or freedom) ='lgc'>=/= ='strcls'>**to take the possibility of unsettlement or chaos as founding concern='strcls'>**='lgc'>]
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> skepticism (may) sug="trms">gests a differnt route of inquiry

(="ppl">Veena -2007='lgc'>:) “the intimacy between skepticism and the ordinary is revealed in the ="trms">present work on several sites, as in the panic ="trms">rumors that circulate and produce the picture of the other as phantasmal from whom all human subjectivity has been evacuated, or when violence in the register of ="trms">literary is seen as transfiguring life into something else, call it a form of death, or of making oneself, as it were, into a ghost”

='lgc'>[violence ='lgc'>==> ghosts='lgc'>]

skeptical problematic ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> shifting potency of words ='lgc'>: energies that words may gather, and the ways these energies may give or deny life

speech ='lgc'>=/= voice
='lgc'>==> ='strcls'>***silence is not necessarily life-denying or that it necessarily indicates a lack or an inability to mourn='strcls'>***

='lgc'>[victims of violence telling ="trms">stories='lgc'>]
words imbued with spectral quality (yet animated by some other voice)

there is a deep moral energy in the ='strcls'>*refusal to re="trms">present some violations of the human body='strcls'>* ='lgc'>[='lgc'>=/= forensic architecture project's imperative of detailed re="trms">presentation of violation, explicit acknowledging traumatic ="trms">memory='lgc'>]
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>***living with poisonous knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge='strcls'>*** (a ="trms">different acknowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edgement of traumatic ="trms">memory) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> absorption exercises of remaking a ="trms">world

='lgc'>--='lgc'>{on ‘forensic architecture’ (an ="trms">aesthetics developed by Weizman)='lgc'>: ="ppl">Keenan asks='lgc'>: if the excruciating citizon videos (showing police violence for instance) could not convince a jury how can forms of ="trms">aesthetic critique based on research and visual evidence ='lgc'>[= post-conceptual art='lgc'>] be anymore effective on the general poblic='qstn'>? (='lgc'><== ‘evidence ='lgc'>=/= proof’)
="prgrph">-age of testimony (-public truth-)
="prgrph">-citizon photo journalism ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> “witnessing ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= action”
="prgrph">-the appearance of nonhuman objects as evidence (in forums and courts) as records of imperssions ='lgc'>[sense perception='lgc'>] ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> object='lgc'> = sensor (waiting to be ="trms">interpreted by justice-seekers) ='lgc'>='lgc'>~-> ='strcls'>***proxy for an absent victim='strcls'>***
='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]forensic='lgc'>: process of making claims of what the evidence is “saying” ='lgc'>[='lgc'>='lgc'>--> what is made evident remains in dispute='lgc'>]
“forensic production of evidence (in art) ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= radical rejection of re="trms">presentation” ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*adjudication of information='strcls'>* ='at'>@="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Alice,Shariati">Ali
(="ppl">Keenan='lgc'>:) ideological and formal continuities that run from the ="trms">geometrically precise drawing of human cargo slave ships ='lgc'>[='lgc'>==> public delegitimization ='lgc'>==> collapse of slavery='lgc'>], or infrared images of boats carrying humans across the mediterranean today.
(artist's claim of) “the fai="trms"nttrm="failure,blur,plur,lurk,tallur,slur">lure to see” (or “how could they not see the injustice”) (='lgc'>==> “I make them see” ='lgc'>~ violence of slowing down brutality videos, ="trms">zooming, saturating, freeze-framing, obssesing with the visual details, etc.) ='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> what we “see” is structured by other factors (race, etc.)
="prgrph">-recourse اعاده
(we can always do aggressive) counter ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">reading ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> counter forensic='lgc'>: the ="trms">technical ="trms">rhetorical work making evidence speek ='lgc'>: “voice ='lgc'>+ image='lgc'> = task of persuasion” ='lgc'>--claiming='lgc'>='lgc'>--> public truth and ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">rights
="lsts lst1">•(Thrall and ="ppl">Keenan='lgc'>:) alternative modes other than using images (visual evidence, fundamentally a peaceful way of wanting ‘change’)='lgc'>: using force(='qstn'>?)
="lsts lst1">•forensic ='lgc'>~ advocacy ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= con="trms">figuration of claims and evidence ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> claiming is always claiming ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">rights ='lgc'>[='lgc'>=/= commitments='lgc'>]='lgc'>}

="ppl">Keenan='lgc'>: ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">rights are something we claim (='lgc'>=/= something we have) ='lgc'>--through='lgc'>='lgc'>-->
="lstsrd">1. advocacy
="lstsrd">2. forensics


(Spivak's ="trms">question='lgc'>: can the subaltern speak='qstn'>?) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (="ppl">Veena sug="trms">gests forms of attentiveness to) myriad fluctuations between yes and no (='lgc'>=/= ="ppl">Derrida's notion of absence of voice)

we come to recognize the expressiveness of our ="trms">interlocutor (in its ="trms">different and difficult forms)
='lgc'>[...working for the expressivity of others, and not yours='lgc'>]

(="ppl">Veena research in Sultanpuri='lgc'>:) ='strcls'>*theatrical performances of violence created a subjectivity that would not be carried forward in time='strcls'>*

="prgrph">-to what extent subjects posses the knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge they enact='qstn'>? (='lgc'>~ do we know what we do='qstn'>?) ='lgc'>--='qstn'>?='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">question of structure and cognition (='lgc'>~ the extent to which we know the structures that we are part of, and what vulnerabilities and events this leaves us open to)

(let's stop throwing easy) political and moral posturing about neoliberalism

...there are only particular regions of the ="trms">past that we potentially or actually have access to. we do not know in advance which regions of the ="trms">past life might lead us to, or express through us ='lgc'>--="ppl">Veena='lgc'>='lgc'>--> we are not necessarily ='strcls'>*cognizant of the structure='strcls'>*, but may still express ='strcls'>*fragments of myth='strcls'>* ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>***non="trms">agentive invocation of politics='strcls'>*** ='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Hoda (="ppl">Veena example='lgc'>: ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">right after Sultanpuri carnage, women were sitting in front of their burnt houses in a ="trms">position of stillness letting their body grow dirty, sorrowfully ="trms">embodying pollution and dirt, like Draupadi in Mahabharata proclaiming her violation through public expression of her pollution. but the women did not device a strategy to carry a tactic of everyday life into the realm of the political. it was as if the ="trms">past has turned this face towards them='lgc'>--not that they had ="trms">translated this ="trms">past ="trms">story into a ="trms">present tactic of resistance ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> living fragments of a myth)

more like a conceptual signpost ='lgc'>=/= extended argument


two sig="trms">nature issues of politics='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•sovereignty ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the state
="lsts lst1">•as="trms">sociational life ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the ="trms">social contract

='lgc'>[the state is ="trms">supposed to be a proxy for people to appropriate power (of death='qstn'>?!), rather than laying absolute claim over it='lgc'>]
="prgrph">-how such claim is contested or re="trms">formulated in ="nms">iran='qstn'>?

the figure of the abducted and rescued woman ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> sign of ="trms">authority ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> sign of state

having a politics ='lgc'>=/=='qstn'>? do politics ='lgc'>~ political act
='strcls'>*agonistic impulse of politics='strcls'>* (often, if not prophetic, a heroic mode of action in terms of escaping the ordinary rather than descend into it ='lgc'>[='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="ppl">Marx='lgc'>]. such as='lgc'>: Antigone's ="trms">spectacular defiant voice celebrated in philosophical and political thought, stable locus of redemption. usually a rebellion in some ="trms">sort, craving a ="trms">socially progressive agonistics ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> French Revolution)
='lgc'>--or='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (='lgc'>=/= possibility of an ethnographic) ="trms">integrity='lgc'>: ='strcls'>*attempt to attain a proximity to the vagaries of life='strcls'>* ='lgc'>='lgc'>~='lgc'>~> ordinary works of repair in a life, such as Asha
='lgc'>--or='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*reparative impulse of politics='strcls'>* (='lgc'>=/= agonistic), Shahrzad's non-agonistic ="trms">socially progressive politics of working under “terror” animated by the ="trms">question of how we might continue to live together, how the ="trms">social fabric holds together
='lgc'>--or='lgc'>='lgc'>-->

(it is our/my imperative today) ='strcls'>***to give each other a more open-ended picture of ='lgc'>[our='lgc'>] bad objects (caste, capital, state, ="trms">modernity, etc.)='strcls'>***

exchange, resettlement, fission, mythological replacement (='lgc'>~ friction and movement within the ="trms">system) ='lgc'>==> repartitioning of ="trms">categories ='lgc'>==> rearrangement of hierarchies ='lgc'>==> opposing and heretical sects and ="trms">religions

="prgrph">-art's (ethnographic='qstn'>?) proximity to life
="prgrph">-political postures and stands

(nobody has, neither state nor ="trms">communities) monopoly on ethical pronouncement ='lgc'>[='lgc'>~ declaration of good and evil='lgc'>]

(political) postures are not unimportant, they allow us to take a stand ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> perspective
='lgc'>--or='lgc'>='lgc'>--> evocatively ambiguous ="trms">formulation on... ='lgc'>=/= ='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]politic='lgc'>: spirit of resentment on behalf of the victim (="frds scrmbld">Setareh, ="frds scrmbld">Hoda, ="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Alice,Shariati">Ali ; also ='at'>@="frds">Sina not to deny the possibility of victimhood) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*how possibilities of life close down and where other possibilities open up under the weight of patriarchal norms='strcls'>*

="large lg1" stl="font-size:125%"> ="trms">question at ="frds scrmbld">Hoda='lgc'>:
="prgrph">-how dose she involve a relocation of her protagonists (the sorrowful women) within the domestic, even if the domestic shifts='qstn'>?
="prgrph">-how an understanding of power after ="ppl">="ppl">Foucault (that power does not come from above, that power is not something that has to be identified) influences her mode of thinking about the condition of her women='qstn'>? ='lgc'>[the boundaries of patriarchy are not clear='lgc'>]

sometimes recovery from violence does not come from national ="trms">imaginary and public rituals of mourning and reparation, ="ppl">Veena shows how a certain kind of silence, the refusal to let toxicity circulate, involves everyday spiritual exercises in ='strcls'>*di="trms">gesting the poison in the acts of attending to the ordinary='strcls'>* ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> survivors affirming the possibility of life by removing it from the circulation of words gone ="trms">wild... (='lgc'>--="frds scrmbld">Hoda's lullabies songs of private injuries='qstn'>?)
="prgrph">-silence is never simply a silence
="prgrph">-to be able to affirm certain kinds of silence (is key to a political ="trms">anthropology)

="trms">different rhythms of conflict and cohabitation

="trms">questions
="prgrph">-life-giving and life-denying rhythms of ordinary life
="prgrph">-how (a revolutionary) event is grown from the everyday, and must return to it

="ppl">Singh='lgc'>: progress of ethnographic knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a ="trms">sort of movement that in="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clude the ='strcls'>***emergence of new answers to earlier ="trms">questions='strcls'>*** ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= new routes of inquiry
='lgc'>[='lgc'>=/= progress in the sense of a telos of increasing self-awareness='lgc'>]

intellectual vita (can't be all heroic and saintly, tales of adventures and achievements, as in the way Manning ="trms">presented herself,) rather it can gather up it share of victories and wounds

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everyday life='lgc'>: a life lived on the level of='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•surging ="trms">affects
="lsts lst1">•impacts suffered or barely avoided
spawns a series of little somethings dreamed up in the course of things
(="ppl">="ppl">Stewart='lgc'>:) “ideologies happen. power snaps into place. structures grow entrenched. identities take place. ways of knowing become habitual at the drop of a hat. but it's ordinary ="trms">affects that give things the quality of a something to inhabit and animate”


='strcls'>*ordinary registers intensity='strcls'>* (regularly, ="trms">intermittently, urgently, as a slight shudder)

(one can be) ='strcls'>***confused but attuned='strcls'>***

“we dream of getting by, getting on track, getting away from it all, getting real, having an ="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge, beating the ="trms">system, being ourselves, checking out” -="ppl">="ppl">Stewart

(="trms">socialities, identities, dream ="trms">worlds, bodily states, public feelings are not simply “good” pr “bad” but always) both powerful and mixed

the talk, once set in motion, expands into a بیشه ="trms">thicket of ="trms">stories and ="trms">social maneuverings
(a s="trms">cene in a restaurant becomes) maze of inspirations and experiments ='heart'>♥
="prgrph">-“her brother's ="trms">stories are shell-shocked and they have no endings. they leave you hanging”

singularity of the event ='lgc'>==> a “we” of all ="trms">sorts opens in the room

chance event ='lgc'>==>
="lsts lst1">•a layer of conflict
="lsts lst1">•a daydream to things


...tuned in to some little something somewhere


“in a video that blankly records an arresting image, young ="trms">embodiments of a mainstream in the making come face to face with an otherness that compels a closer look. the order of re="trms">presentation gives way to a more violently ="trms">affective contact”
="ppl">="ppl">Stewart

force of things ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> what counts as an event

a politics of being/feeling conected
a politics of ways of watching
a politics of waiting for something to happen
a politics of ="trms">difference (of habit and dull ="trms">routine)


="trms">childhood coming back ='lgc'>[to you='lgc'>] as shocks of beauty

graphic ="trms">stories prompted by the seemingly simple work of re="trms">membering='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•kinship ties
="lsts lst1">•married names
="lsts lst1">•="trms">stories of alcoholism
="lsts lst1">•="trms">stories of accidents
="lsts lst1">•="trms">stories of violence
="lsts lst1">•="trms">stories of cancers


='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]potential='lgc'>: fleeting and a="trms">morphous, it lives as a residue or resonance in an emergent assemblage of disparate forms and realms of life; a thing immanent to fragments of sensory experience and dreams of ="trms">presence ='lgc'>--engenders='lgc'>='lgc'>--> attachments or ="trms">system of investment...

(people are) collecting found objects snatched off the ="trms">literal or ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphorical side of the road

="display:block;white-space:nowrap;margin-bottom:-1em;overflow:hidden;">...................................

Yazid='lgc'>: the ="trms"nttrm="search">archetypal tyrant of islamic ="trms">memory

...a shift from thinking of Urdu as ex="trms">="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clusively Muslim to thinking of Muslims as the custodians of a shared ="trms">heritage that Hindus have forgotten, but have the potential to reclaim
="prgrph">-="ppl">Anand ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> how do we understand the islamicness of urdu ="trms">poetry='qstn'>?

sp="trms"nttrm="already,spread">read of ='lgc'>[...='lgc'>] ="trms">poetry far beyond the bounds of ex="trms">="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clusively muslim identity

sufism as an everyday mode of speaking of and speaking to the self (not as an esoteric practice, or as institutionally bounded)
="prgrph">-it gives you a ="trms">language to explore their ="trms">interiority
="prgrph">-(traditions of self-scrutiny and self-reflection,) a ="trms">poetry of self-knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge ='lgc'>+ rebellion against ="trms">social convention ='lgc'>[='lgc'>+ frenzied violence (vahshat) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> Majnun='lgc'>: an intellectual ="trms">articulation, ="trms">literary elaboration, and ="trms">social proliferation of the “mazhab of ="trms">love” a dominant strand of sufi theology, ethics, and political thought in the Balkans to Bengal complex='lgc'>]

earlier mode of understanding X as ir="trms">religious
discourses that recognize X as islamic


="ppl">Anand ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*indic ="trms">nature of islam='strcls'>*
="prgrph">-islam is indexed within the lives of non-Muslim Indians through a form of str="trms"nttrm="danger,stranger">anger hospitality

many, besides muslims, have ongoing ="trms">relations to islamic sacred objects
="lsts lst1">•embrace of the divine
="lsts lst1">•efflorescence of ="trms">relations with nonhumans (snakes and cats)

(="ppl">Naveeda on) ="ppl">Anand's mournful tone ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> forces of restoration='lgc'> = forces of destruction

importance of shadows for an understanding of sensory experience, ="trms">aesthetics, and divine order

(="ppl">Naveeda asks for an) alternative approach to the islamic tradition besides the ="trms">trope of light ='lgc'>--="ppl">Anand='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">imagining a lived islam from the perspective of shadows

shadows as the (="trms">relational and individual) self
='strcls'>*ruin='lgc'>: draw visitors by making itself the inner rendered as the outer ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a ="trms">traversal of one's inner self, otherwise hidden to oneself



perspective from the shadow ='lgc'>--allows='lgc'>='lgc'>--> to think about tradition paradoxically (about ='strcls'>*="trms">affective in="trms">heritances='strcls'>* in the constitution, trans="trms">mission, and transformations of the islamic tradition)

="ppl">Anand ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>****islam as identity ='lgc'>=/= islam as in="trms">heritance='strcls'>****
islam as in="trms">heritance ='lgc'>--Spadola='lgc'>='lgc'>--> like a river (='at'>#meander)

="ppl">Anand ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*how older forms of knowing and being coexist and are constantly in conversation and contestation with more ="trms">modern form='strcls'>*

...to re="trms">imagine the very de="trms">finition and coherence of “discourse”

='strcls'>*(="ppl">Foucauldian) archaeological work='strcls'>*='lgc'>: full of ruptures, disagreements, and reworkings ranging across an array of texts and conversations from contemporary to colonial records to hadith to eighteenth-century ="trms">poetry

="trms">question of coherence='lgc'> = ="trms">question of finding a grammar

difficult intellectual commitment to both ="trms">contingency and coherence

(you can witnessed in ="nms">Tehran a lot of anti-patriarchal, anti-hierarchical, and anti-identitarian)

="large lg3" stl="font-size:112%"> ='lgc'>[our challenge:='lgc'>] ='strcls'>*to make ourselves ="trms">literate='strcls'>* able to ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">read what is currently illegible to us



="ppl">Kant's notion of hospitality='lgc'> = ="trms">translation of the sanskrit upanishads into persian by the mughal prince and philosopher Dara Shukoh (1615-1659)
='lgc'>--Ganeri='lgc'>='lgc'>--> hospitality towards texts and ideas='qstn'>?

="large lg4" stl="font-size:110%"> ='strcls'>*for an intellectual tradition to have the ability to show hospitality to an intellectual str="trms"nttrm="danger,stranger">anger='strcls'>*

="prgrph">-Shakry
what does it mean to think through psychoanalysis and islam together, not as a “problem,” but as a creative encounter of ethical engagement='qstn'>?
="prgrph">-how arabic intellectual ="trms">world showed profound hospitality to ="ppl">Freudian thought
="prgrph">-how ="nms">iranians showed profound hospitality to western philosophies ='lgc'>--witness='lgc'>='lgc'>--> self-confident and enriching ethical encounter with a foreign ="trms">system of knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge

گورکانی pre-colonial mughal empire, in="trms">heritor of long a[...]