Project acronym CHROMOTOPE
Project The 19th century chromatic turn - CHROMOTOPE
Researcher (PI) Charlotte Ribeyrol
Host Institution (HI) SORBONNE UNIVERSITE
Country France
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2018-COG
Summary CHROMOTOPE will offer the very first analysis of the changes that took place in attitudes to colour in the 19th century, and notably how the ‘chromatic turn’ of the 1850s mapped out new ways of thinking about colour in literature, art, science and technology throughout Europe. Britain’s industrial supremacy during this period is often perceived through the darkening filter of coal pollution, and yet the industrial revolution transformed colour thanks to a number of innovations like the invention in 1856 of the first aniline dye. Colour thus became a major signifier of the modern, generating new discourses on its production and perception. This Victorian ‘colour revolution’, which has never been approached from a cross-disciplinary perspective, came to prominence during the 1862 International Exhibition – a forgotten, and yet key, chromatic event which forced poets and artists like Ruskin, Morris and Burges to think anew about the materiality of colour. Rebelling against the bleakness of the industrial present, they invited their contemporaries to learn from the ‘sacred’ colours of the past – a ‘colour pedagogy’ which later shaped the European arts and crafts movement.
Building on a pioneering methodology, CHROMOTOPE will bring together literature, visual culture, the history of sciences and techniques and the chemistry of pigments and dyes, with high-impact outcomes, including one major exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, a thorough pigment analysis of Burges’s Great Bookcase and the creation of an online database of 19th century texts on colour. This project will not only give invaluable insight into hitherto neglected aspects of 19th century European cultural history, it will also reveal the central role played by chromatic materiality in the intertwined artistic and literary practices of the period. This will in turn change the way the relationships between text and image, as well as the materiality of the text itself, may be envisaged in literary studies.
Summary
CHROMOTOPE will offer the very first analysis of the changes that took place in attitudes to colour in the 19th century, and notably how the ‘chromatic turn’ of the 1850s mapped out new ways of thinking about colour in literature, art, science and technology throughout Europe. Britain’s industrial supremacy during this period is often perceived through the darkening filter of coal pollution, and yet the industrial revolution transformed colour thanks to a number of innovations like the invention in 1856 of the first aniline dye. Colour thus became a major signifier of the modern, generating new discourses on its production and perception. This Victorian ‘colour revolution’, which has never been approached from a cross-disciplinary perspective, came to prominence during the 1862 International Exhibition – a forgotten, and yet key, chromatic event which forced poets and artists like Ruskin, Morris and Burges to think anew about the materiality of colour. Rebelling against the bleakness of the industrial present, they invited their contemporaries to learn from the ‘sacred’ colours of the past – a ‘colour pedagogy’ which later shaped the European arts and crafts movement.
Building on a pioneering methodology, CHROMOTOPE will bring together literature, visual culture, the history of sciences and techniques and the chemistry of pigments and dyes, with high-impact outcomes, including one major exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, a thorough pigment analysis of Burges’s Great Bookcase and the creation of an online database of 19th century texts on colour. This project will not only give invaluable insight into hitherto neglected aspects of 19th century European cultural history, it will also reveal the central role played by chromatic materiality in the intertwined artistic and literary practices of the period. This will in turn change the way the relationships between text and image, as well as the materiality of the text itself, may be envisaged in literary studies.
Max ERC Funding
1 884 867 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-10-01, End date: 2024-09-30
Project acronym COSMOS
Project COSMOS: Computational Shaping and Modeling of Musical Structures
Researcher (PI) Elaine Chew
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Country France
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary Music performance is considered by many to be one of the most breath taking feats of human intelligence. That music performance is a creative act is no longer a disputed fact, but the very nature of this creative work remains illusive. Taking the view that the creative work of performance is the making and shaping of music structures, and that this creative thinking is a form of problem solving, COSMOS proposes an integrated programme of research to transform our understanding of the human experience of performed music, which is almost all music that we hear, and of the creativity of music performance, which addresses how music is made. The research themes are as follows: i) to find new ways to represent, explore, and talk about performance; ii) to harness volunteer thinking (citizen science) for music performance research by focussing on structures experienced and problem solving; iii) to create sandbox environments to experiment with making performed structures; iv) to create theoretical frameworks to discover the reasoning behind the structures perceived and made; and, v) to foster community engagement by training experts to provide feedback on structure solutions so as to increase public understanding of the creative work in music performance. Analysis of the perceived and designed structures will be based on a novel duality paradigm that turns conventional computational music structure analysis on its head to reverse engineer why a perceiver or a performer chooses a particular structure. Embedded in the approach is the use of computational thinking to optimise representations and theories to ensure accuracy, robustness, efficiency, and scalability. The PI is an established performer and a leading authority in music representation, music information research, and music perception and cognition. The project will have far reaching impact, reconfiguring expert and public views of music performance and time-varying music-like sequences such as cardiac arrhythmia.
Summary
Music performance is considered by many to be one of the most breath taking feats of human intelligence. That music performance is a creative act is no longer a disputed fact, but the very nature of this creative work remains illusive. Taking the view that the creative work of performance is the making and shaping of music structures, and that this creative thinking is a form of problem solving, COSMOS proposes an integrated programme of research to transform our understanding of the human experience of performed music, which is almost all music that we hear, and of the creativity of music performance, which addresses how music is made. The research themes are as follows: i) to find new ways to represent, explore, and talk about performance; ii) to harness volunteer thinking (citizen science) for music performance research by focussing on structures experienced and problem solving; iii) to create sandbox environments to experiment with making performed structures; iv) to create theoretical frameworks to discover the reasoning behind the structures perceived and made; and, v) to foster community engagement by training experts to provide feedback on structure solutions so as to increase public understanding of the creative work in music performance. Analysis of the perceived and designed structures will be based on a novel duality paradigm that turns conventional computational music structure analysis on its head to reverse engineer why a perceiver or a performer chooses a particular structure. Embedded in the approach is the use of computational thinking to optimise representations and theories to ensure accuracy, robustness, efficiency, and scalability. The PI is an established performer and a leading authority in music representation, music information research, and music perception and cognition. The project will have far reaching impact, reconfiguring expert and public views of music performance and time-varying music-like sequences such as cardiac arrhythmia.
Max ERC Funding
2 495 776 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
Project acronym DEMOSERIES
Project Shaping Democratic Spaces: Security and TV Series
Researcher (PI) Sandra LAUGIER
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE PARIS I PANTHEON-SORBONNE
Country France
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2018-ADG
Summary In France, the UK, Germany, the US, and Israel, a growing number of films and television series are set ‘behind the scenes’ of democratic regimes faced with terrorist threats. These works reveal a moral state of the world. They may be analysed as ‘mirrors’ of society, or as ideological tools. But they can also be understood as new resources for the education, creativity, and perfectibility of their audiences; as the emergence of a form of ‘soft power’ that can serve as a resource for public policies and democratic conversation.
Because of their format (weekly/seasonal regularity, home viewing) and the participatory qualities of the Internet (tweeting, sharing, liking, chat forums), series allow for a new form of education by expressing complex issues through narrative and characters.
As a result, TV series are increasingly recognised in current research. However, their aesthetic potential for visualising ethical issues and their capacity at enabling a democratic empowerment of viewers has not yet been analysed ; nor their power for confronting cultural and social upheavals underway, and developing a collective inquiry into democratic values and human security.
DEMOSERIES brings together a team of scholars of moral philosophy, film studies, digital media and cultural data, sociology, law and political science, to explore a corpus of TV ‘security series’ from conception to reception. Doing so requires a particularist ethics based on attention to multi-faceted situations, paired with qualitative methods (interviews with security experts, showrunners, viewers; analyses of images, tropes, words; ethnography of reception) and quantitative methods (tweets and web analytics).
By elucidating how these series are conceived by their creators and audiences, DEMOSERIES thus aims to understand if and how they might play a crucial role in building the awareness necessary for the safety of individuals and societies, and in creating shared and shareable values in the EU and beyond.
Summary
In France, the UK, Germany, the US, and Israel, a growing number of films and television series are set ‘behind the scenes’ of democratic regimes faced with terrorist threats. These works reveal a moral state of the world. They may be analysed as ‘mirrors’ of society, or as ideological tools. But they can also be understood as new resources for the education, creativity, and perfectibility of their audiences; as the emergence of a form of ‘soft power’ that can serve as a resource for public policies and democratic conversation.
Because of their format (weekly/seasonal regularity, home viewing) and the participatory qualities of the Internet (tweeting, sharing, liking, chat forums), series allow for a new form of education by expressing complex issues through narrative and characters.
As a result, TV series are increasingly recognised in current research. However, their aesthetic potential for visualising ethical issues and their capacity at enabling a democratic empowerment of viewers has not yet been analysed ; nor their power for confronting cultural and social upheavals underway, and developing a collective inquiry into democratic values and human security.
DEMOSERIES brings together a team of scholars of moral philosophy, film studies, digital media and cultural data, sociology, law and political science, to explore a corpus of TV ‘security series’ from conception to reception. Doing so requires a particularist ethics based on attention to multi-faceted situations, paired with qualitative methods (interviews with security experts, showrunners, viewers; analyses of images, tropes, words; ethnography of reception) and quantitative methods (tweets and web analytics).
By elucidating how these series are conceived by their creators and audiences, DEMOSERIES thus aims to understand if and how they might play a crucial role in building the awareness necessary for the safety of individuals and societies, and in creating shared and shareable values in the EU and beyond.
Max ERC Funding
2 216 375 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-01-01, End date: 2024-12-31
Project acronym EDJ
Project An Etymological Dictionary of the Japonic Languages
Researcher (PI) Alexander VOVIN
Host Institution (HI) ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES
Country France
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary It is a paradoxical situation that with Japan being the third modern economy and Japanese, the main Japonic language, being the 10th in the world in terms of native speakers and the most widely studied Asian language, the Japonic language family still lacks an etymological dictionary.
The present research project will rectify this situation. The benefits of an etymological dictionary of Japonic are obvious: not only it will be of a great use to the specialists working on pre-modern Japan and Ryukyuan islands in various disciplines; it will have its impact on modern studies, especially on linguistic identities in East Asia. And offer a new reading of regional linguistic identities
The Etymological Dictionary of the Japonic languages has never been compiled, and the time for the realization of such a project is ripe, as it would have been impossible to carry on 30 or 40 years ago, since many important resources available now did not yet exist then such as numerous dictionaries and descriptions of dialects and historical stages of the language development. The same is true regarding the editions of many textual sources and compilation of their indexes. One very important difference with the previous era is also the fact that nowadays many sources are available electronically, which greatly facilitates the search and management of information. This project is highly innovative because it provides a presentation in context based on the extensive use of the IT technology, as compared to the previous research on Japonic etymology which was essentially word-list-oriented. In contrast with the current practice, where only word entries with their translations were provided (and often without any reference to the source), thanks to internet link to database, and cross-referenced entries, the electronic etymological dictionary will present the words in their textual historical and cultural context.
Summary
It is a paradoxical situation that with Japan being the third modern economy and Japanese, the main Japonic language, being the 10th in the world in terms of native speakers and the most widely studied Asian language, the Japonic language family still lacks an etymological dictionary.
The present research project will rectify this situation. The benefits of an etymological dictionary of Japonic are obvious: not only it will be of a great use to the specialists working on pre-modern Japan and Ryukyuan islands in various disciplines; it will have its impact on modern studies, especially on linguistic identities in East Asia. And offer a new reading of regional linguistic identities
The Etymological Dictionary of the Japonic languages has never been compiled, and the time for the realization of such a project is ripe, as it would have been impossible to carry on 30 or 40 years ago, since many important resources available now did not yet exist then such as numerous dictionaries and descriptions of dialects and historical stages of the language development. The same is true regarding the editions of many textual sources and compilation of their indexes. One very important difference with the previous era is also the fact that nowadays many sources are available electronically, which greatly facilitates the search and management of information. This project is highly innovative because it provides a presentation in context based on the extensive use of the IT technology, as compared to the previous research on Japonic etymology which was essentially word-list-oriented. In contrast with the current practice, where only word entries with their translations were provided (and often without any reference to the source), thanks to internet link to database, and cross-referenced entries, the electronic etymological dictionary will present the words in their textual historical and cultural context.
Max ERC Funding
2 470 200 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym EURO-EXPERT
Project Cultural Expertise in Europe: What is it useful for?
Researcher (PI) Livia Holden
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE PARIS NANTERRE
Country France
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2015-CoG
Summary Respect for diversity has been at the forefront of political accession to the European Union since 1993 and socio-legal scholarship has developed articulated reflections on the accommodation of ethnic and religious minorities in Europe. Country-experts have been instructed with increasing frequency in judicial and pre-judicial proceedings involving members of diasporic communities. In some common law countries the role of the expert witness has expanded to systematically assist the judge when litigants or defendants belong to minorities; in most civil law countries, similar roles are played by translators and cultural mediators, including notaries and lawyers. Cultural expertise is sometimes used in order to avoid excessive judicialisation. Notwithstanding, disbelief is developing around cultural expertise; and, excalations of violence and counter-violence signal that European majority and the so-called minorities are drifting apart. Hence our question: Cultural Expertise in Europe: What is it useful for? A comprehensive assessment of cultural expertise was entrenched by its narrow technical definition. This project develops around a new integrated concept of cultural expertise to empirically investigate its use and impact in fourteen European countries. In-context data will be collected through ethnographic fieldwork conducted by a modular team allowing real time analysis and immediate use of results by the stakeholders. The objectives will be to: 1) map the terms, condition, and costs of cultural expertise in private and public law; 2) create a toolkit for measuring the impact of cultural expertise; 3) establish an open access searchable data base for the consultation of cases and solution including cultural expertise; 4) design a teaching and learning module using the cultural expertise impact toolkit; and 5) formulate policy-making guidelines which include tested solutions for a sustainable inclusiveness in Europe.
Summary
Respect for diversity has been at the forefront of political accession to the European Union since 1993 and socio-legal scholarship has developed articulated reflections on the accommodation of ethnic and religious minorities in Europe. Country-experts have been instructed with increasing frequency in judicial and pre-judicial proceedings involving members of diasporic communities. In some common law countries the role of the expert witness has expanded to systematically assist the judge when litigants or defendants belong to minorities; in most civil law countries, similar roles are played by translators and cultural mediators, including notaries and lawyers. Cultural expertise is sometimes used in order to avoid excessive judicialisation. Notwithstanding, disbelief is developing around cultural expertise; and, excalations of violence and counter-violence signal that European majority and the so-called minorities are drifting apart. Hence our question: Cultural Expertise in Europe: What is it useful for? A comprehensive assessment of cultural expertise was entrenched by its narrow technical definition. This project develops around a new integrated concept of cultural expertise to empirically investigate its use and impact in fourteen European countries. In-context data will be collected through ethnographic fieldwork conducted by a modular team allowing real time analysis and immediate use of results by the stakeholders. The objectives will be to: 1) map the terms, condition, and costs of cultural expertise in private and public law; 2) create a toolkit for measuring the impact of cultural expertise; 3) establish an open access searchable data base for the consultation of cases and solution including cultural expertise; 4) design a teaching and learning module using the cultural expertise impact toolkit; and 5) formulate policy-making guidelines which include tested solutions for a sustainable inclusiveness in Europe.
Max ERC Funding
1 562 495 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2022-09-30
Project acronym EUROPUBLICISLAM
Project Islam in the Making of a European Public Sphere
Researcher (PI) Nilufer Gole
Host Institution (HI) ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES
Country France
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary During the last three decades, Islam has gained visibility in European public spheres through new religious symbols, but as well as new public figures, men and women, pious and secular who carry Islam in European public life. Islamic entry in the public sphere, and the claims for religious visibility provoke a series of debates on gender equality, freedom of expression and cultural (civilisational) differences in European publics. EUROPUBLICISLAM sets itself the intellectual research agenda of bringing together different fields of knowledge and analysis of the transformative forces that appear in the contemporary meeting of Islam and Europe. It proposes to develop an innovative understanding of the sporadic and at times violent ways in which Islam intervenes in the making of the European public sphere. EUROPUBLICISLAM engages with the European scholarly agenda on migration, the construction of a European public sphere, and Islam. It aims at shifting the contemporary theorization of Islam in Europe away from the integration and security paradigms, and towards a new theory of dynamics of interaction and mutual change. A new research field is marked out in combining and transforming the contemporary theorizations of European public sphere and European Islam. EUROPUBLICISLAM proposes to study religious symbols, artistic cultural productions and public figures affecting the everyday politics of cultural discord. It aims to re-conceptualize the place of Islam in the making of a European public sphere. An innovative methodology is proposed to study the constellations , the assemblages that bring together cultural differences in proximity and in confrontation across national public spheres, following a transnational dynamics. EUROPUBLICISLAM will thus contribute to the production of innovative research on the making and imaging a European public sphere where transformative cultural and aesthetic mixes and thus political pluralism are taking place.
Summary
During the last three decades, Islam has gained visibility in European public spheres through new religious symbols, but as well as new public figures, men and women, pious and secular who carry Islam in European public life. Islamic entry in the public sphere, and the claims for religious visibility provoke a series of debates on gender equality, freedom of expression and cultural (civilisational) differences in European publics. EUROPUBLICISLAM sets itself the intellectual research agenda of bringing together different fields of knowledge and analysis of the transformative forces that appear in the contemporary meeting of Islam and Europe. It proposes to develop an innovative understanding of the sporadic and at times violent ways in which Islam intervenes in the making of the European public sphere. EUROPUBLICISLAM engages with the European scholarly agenda on migration, the construction of a European public sphere, and Islam. It aims at shifting the contemporary theorization of Islam in Europe away from the integration and security paradigms, and towards a new theory of dynamics of interaction and mutual change. A new research field is marked out in combining and transforming the contemporary theorizations of European public sphere and European Islam. EUROPUBLICISLAM proposes to study religious symbols, artistic cultural productions and public figures affecting the everyday politics of cultural discord. It aims to re-conceptualize the place of Islam in the making of a European public sphere. An innovative methodology is proposed to study the constellations , the assemblages that bring together cultural differences in proximity and in confrontation across national public spheres, following a transnational dynamics. EUROPUBLICISLAM will thus contribute to the production of innovative research on the making and imaging a European public sphere where transformative cultural and aesthetic mixes and thus political pluralism are taking place.
Max ERC Funding
1 414 645 €
Duration
Start date: 2008-12-01, End date: 2013-03-31
Project acronym Healing Encounters
Project Healing Encounters: Reinventing an indigenous medicine in the clinic and beyond
Researcher (PI) Emilia Irene Gabrielle SANABRIA
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Country France
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2017-STG
Summary What is the difference between healing and curing? What understandings of wellness, illness and bodies underpin different healing practices? How is therapeutic efficacy assessed in a context of competing valuation practices? This project aims to develop a symmetrical, ethnographically grounded theory of what healing entails from the perspective of those who give, receive or evaluate healing. It is designed to break with binary frames that contrast indigenous and biomedical healing, positioning them on a tradition–modernity continuum. To do this, it will study the striking expansion and prolific reinventions of healing practices that make use of the Amazonian herbal brew ayahuasca. The unprecedented globalization of this indigenous medicine provides a unique opportunity to study healing encounters ethnographically.
Through participant observation, interviews, ethnography in expert settings, collaborative workshops and the use of digital methods we will study healing across three related sites: Healing in the City will examine the production of neotraditional urban healing forms. Healing in the Laboratory will analyse how ayahuasca is reinvented as a psychiatric tool to treat mental health problems and Healing in the Forest will study the contemporary reconfigurations of indigenous shamanism. These practices are entangled in long histories of postcolonial encounters: they are all – neotraditional, biomedical and indigenous alike – thoroughly modern and mixed. The comparative analysis is structured around three transversal objectives:
1) Material Semiotics: To develop an innovative framework to map the entanglement of biological and symbolic effects.
2) Encounters Beyond-the-Human: To push medical anthropology beyond the human by paying attention to the healing propitiated by more-than-human beings.
3) Radical Alterity in a Common World of Encounters: To develop an anthropological theory that recognises multiple ontologies without needing to posit multiple worlds.
Summary
What is the difference between healing and curing? What understandings of wellness, illness and bodies underpin different healing practices? How is therapeutic efficacy assessed in a context of competing valuation practices? This project aims to develop a symmetrical, ethnographically grounded theory of what healing entails from the perspective of those who give, receive or evaluate healing. It is designed to break with binary frames that contrast indigenous and biomedical healing, positioning them on a tradition–modernity continuum. To do this, it will study the striking expansion and prolific reinventions of healing practices that make use of the Amazonian herbal brew ayahuasca. The unprecedented globalization of this indigenous medicine provides a unique opportunity to study healing encounters ethnographically.
Through participant observation, interviews, ethnography in expert settings, collaborative workshops and the use of digital methods we will study healing across three related sites: Healing in the City will examine the production of neotraditional urban healing forms. Healing in the Laboratory will analyse how ayahuasca is reinvented as a psychiatric tool to treat mental health problems and Healing in the Forest will study the contemporary reconfigurations of indigenous shamanism. These practices are entangled in long histories of postcolonial encounters: they are all – neotraditional, biomedical and indigenous alike – thoroughly modern and mixed. The comparative analysis is structured around three transversal objectives:
1) Material Semiotics: To develop an innovative framework to map the entanglement of biological and symbolic effects.
2) Encounters Beyond-the-Human: To push medical anthropology beyond the human by paying attention to the healing propitiated by more-than-human beings.
3) Radical Alterity in a Common World of Encounters: To develop an anthropological theory that recognises multiple ontologies without needing to posit multiple worlds.
Max ERC Funding
1 450 166 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31
Project acronym HisTochText
Project History of the Tocharian Texts of the Pelliot Collection
Researcher (PI) Georges-jean PINAULT
Host Institution (HI) ECOLE PRATIQUE DES HAUTES ETUDES
Country France
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary HisTochText addresses written Buddhist culture of the northern Silk Road in an innovative and path-breaking way, by going beyond the frontier of disciplines which have been cultivated separately: philology, digital humanities and in-depth analysis of materials, edition of Tocharian texts and comparative Buddhist literature, Sanskrit poetics and narratology, texts and social contexts.
The flourishing Buddhist culture of the northern Silk Road during the 1st millennium CE in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang (NW China) is known by archaeological findings, artifacts and manuscripts in various languages. Since Buddhism was introduced from India, Sanskrit was the dominant religious language. By contrast, Tocharian belongs to the few local languages that are known to us thanks to Buddhist written culture. The two closely related Tocharian languages (Tocharian A and Tocharian B) were deciphered in 1908 on the basis of manuscripts discovered at the beginning of the past century in Buddhist sites of this region, together with Sanskrit manuscripts.
The collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France issued from the Pelliot expedition is a major collection of Tocharian manuscripts, counting around 2,000 fragments, second only to the Berlin collection, but in comparison hardly investigated, despite its containing numerous unique masterpieces and the broadest cross-section of manuscript and document styles and types. Only one fourth has been edited, mostly in a provisional manner, without translation nor commentary. Many texts of the Pelliot collection, literary and non-literary, are of the utmost importance because they have no match in any other collection of Tocharian manuscripts, nor in Buddhist corpora in other languages. As most Pelliot manuscripts in Sanskrit and in Tocharian were found in Buddhist sites of the Kucha region, the comprehensive edition and analysis of the texts will provide precious information about an important centre of Central Asian Buddhism.
Summary
HisTochText addresses written Buddhist culture of the northern Silk Road in an innovative and path-breaking way, by going beyond the frontier of disciplines which have been cultivated separately: philology, digital humanities and in-depth analysis of materials, edition of Tocharian texts and comparative Buddhist literature, Sanskrit poetics and narratology, texts and social contexts.
The flourishing Buddhist culture of the northern Silk Road during the 1st millennium CE in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang (NW China) is known by archaeological findings, artifacts and manuscripts in various languages. Since Buddhism was introduced from India, Sanskrit was the dominant religious language. By contrast, Tocharian belongs to the few local languages that are known to us thanks to Buddhist written culture. The two closely related Tocharian languages (Tocharian A and Tocharian B) were deciphered in 1908 on the basis of manuscripts discovered at the beginning of the past century in Buddhist sites of this region, together with Sanskrit manuscripts.
The collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France issued from the Pelliot expedition is a major collection of Tocharian manuscripts, counting around 2,000 fragments, second only to the Berlin collection, but in comparison hardly investigated, despite its containing numerous unique masterpieces and the broadest cross-section of manuscript and document styles and types. Only one fourth has been edited, mostly in a provisional manner, without translation nor commentary. Many texts of the Pelliot collection, literary and non-literary, are of the utmost importance because they have no match in any other collection of Tocharian manuscripts, nor in Buddhist corpora in other languages. As most Pelliot manuscripts in Sanskrit and in Tocharian were found in Buddhist sites of the Kucha region, the comprehensive edition and analysis of the texts will provide precious information about an important centre of Central Asian Buddhism.
Max ERC Funding
1 833 103 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-10-01, End date: 2023-09-30
Project acronym LexArt
Project WORDS FOR ART : The rise of a terminology in Europe (1600-1750)
Researcher (PI) Michele, Alice, Caroline Heck
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE PAUL-VALERY MONTPELLIER3
Country France
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2012-ADG_20120411
Summary In the prospect of the circulation of concepts and practices and the permeability of artistic boundaries, this research program studies artistic vocabulary as it develops in the XVIIth century and transforms itself in the beginning of the XVIIIth century north of the Alps. Through words, the definition of concepts, the development of glossaries for artists and connoisseurs, and their subsequent insertion into intellectual networks may be grasped. Artistic vocabulary turns out to be a precious site of experimentation for these communities across Europe. Putting into relation artistic practices on one hand, and cultural transfers on the other, this lexicological study opens a new field, linked with the other knowledge domains. From two approaches, diachronic with the analyses of the dissemination of concepts, and synchronic with the study of their context, the purpose of this project is to provide a new research apparatus both reflexive and documentary: a critical dictionary of artistic terminology in French with multilingual entries, a database with the transcription of terms and definitions given by the art theorist themselves, and a volume of theoretical and methodological essays. Our aim is threefold. The first aim is to underline these artistic relations through the circulation of concepts and practices in Europe considered as the space of erudite communication. The second is to show the specificity of some terms and concepts in their own language, and the way they work in connection with the other languages and networks into which they fit, with the purpose of determining the moving boundaries of universality and identity within a culturally diversified geographic space. The third aim is to show that the early modern European artistic community is looking for a common language for the whole Republic of the Arts, which allows for the definition of the numerous artistic experiences which make the diversity of modern Europe.
Summary
In the prospect of the circulation of concepts and practices and the permeability of artistic boundaries, this research program studies artistic vocabulary as it develops in the XVIIth century and transforms itself in the beginning of the XVIIIth century north of the Alps. Through words, the definition of concepts, the development of glossaries for artists and connoisseurs, and their subsequent insertion into intellectual networks may be grasped. Artistic vocabulary turns out to be a precious site of experimentation for these communities across Europe. Putting into relation artistic practices on one hand, and cultural transfers on the other, this lexicological study opens a new field, linked with the other knowledge domains. From two approaches, diachronic with the analyses of the dissemination of concepts, and synchronic with the study of their context, the purpose of this project is to provide a new research apparatus both reflexive and documentary: a critical dictionary of artistic terminology in French with multilingual entries, a database with the transcription of terms and definitions given by the art theorist themselves, and a volume of theoretical and methodological essays. Our aim is threefold. The first aim is to underline these artistic relations through the circulation of concepts and practices in Europe considered as the space of erudite communication. The second is to show the specificity of some terms and concepts in their own language, and the way they work in connection with the other languages and networks into which they fit, with the purpose of determining the moving boundaries of universality and identity within a culturally diversified geographic space. The third aim is to show that the early modern European artistic community is looking for a common language for the whole Republic of the Arts, which allows for the definition of the numerous artistic experiences which make the diversity of modern Europe.
Max ERC Funding
1 679 796 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-04-01, End date: 2018-03-31
Project acronym MUSICOL
Project The Sound of Empire in 20th-c. Colonial Cultures: Rethinking History through Music
Researcher (PI) Jann PASLER
Host Institution (HI) ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE
Country France
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2018-ADG
Summary To better understand cultural relations in today’s multi-ethnic, multicultural societies, we need to revisit the legacy of modern empires. This project delves into the musical dimension of the French empire and what differences were negotiated through aurality, long-neglected by historians. Focusing on musical life and media from Dakar and Rabat to Saigon, 1900-1962, it studies how music was practiced, heard, and understood in a variety of colonial contexts. Crucially important is the need to investigate the tastes, practices, and interactions of Europeans and natives, usually studied in isolation. Such scope requires an entirely new methodological paradigm: relational, comparative, and integrative-synthetic. Traversing disciplinary boundaries separating musicology from history, media studies, and ethnomusicology, the project has four objectives: (1) To musicalize history, it probes what musical fields of production contribute to current debates on the nature of empire and colonial identities. (2) To historicize aural media, it examines live and recorded music on radio as windows on the dynamic nature of colonial coexistence. (3) To globalize music history, it brings new coherence with its focus on a single empire and without imposing postcolonial models of domination/resistance. (4) To creolize research, it integrates indigenous research and promotes dialogue with collaborators from the former empire. Foundations laid by the PI’s prior research in colonial archives, availability of sources, each team member’s expertise and focus on one field, their shared method, and common purpose insure its feasibility. This pioneering study of the modern French empire through music will generate new insights into its mechanisms and constituencies, taking colonial, media, and music history in unprecedented directions. Only in understanding the aurality of colonialism--what helped their imperialism take hold and last--can Europeans grasp its full nature, meaning, and legacy.
Summary
To better understand cultural relations in today’s multi-ethnic, multicultural societies, we need to revisit the legacy of modern empires. This project delves into the musical dimension of the French empire and what differences were negotiated through aurality, long-neglected by historians. Focusing on musical life and media from Dakar and Rabat to Saigon, 1900-1962, it studies how music was practiced, heard, and understood in a variety of colonial contexts. Crucially important is the need to investigate the tastes, practices, and interactions of Europeans and natives, usually studied in isolation. Such scope requires an entirely new methodological paradigm: relational, comparative, and integrative-synthetic. Traversing disciplinary boundaries separating musicology from history, media studies, and ethnomusicology, the project has four objectives: (1) To musicalize history, it probes what musical fields of production contribute to current debates on the nature of empire and colonial identities. (2) To historicize aural media, it examines live and recorded music on radio as windows on the dynamic nature of colonial coexistence. (3) To globalize music history, it brings new coherence with its focus on a single empire and without imposing postcolonial models of domination/resistance. (4) To creolize research, it integrates indigenous research and promotes dialogue with collaborators from the former empire. Foundations laid by the PI’s prior research in colonial archives, availability of sources, each team member’s expertise and focus on one field, their shared method, and common purpose insure its feasibility. This pioneering study of the modern French empire through music will generate new insights into its mechanisms and constituencies, taking colonial, media, and music history in unprecedented directions. Only in understanding the aurality of colonialism--what helped their imperialism take hold and last--can Europeans grasp its full nature, meaning, and legacy.
Max ERC Funding
2 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-11-01, End date: 2024-10-31
