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Hi empyre – thanks for reading, and to Dale for the invitation to engage with
these important questions.
Many of the artists I work with are based in the UAE, which restricts
expression – particularly criticism of the state, royal families, and Islam.
Artists have used the [ostensibly] deterritorialized site of the internet to
skirt some of these restrictions – engaging in limited-circuit digital
performances, online exhibitions, or withholding information about the target
of the work’s critique or exhibition’s location in order to protect the artist
from potential retribution. The resulting work is simultaneously of the UAE,
and yet not. Paradoxically then, the internet as deterritorialized platform
reveals the very contours of the political in a particular place.
-Beth
________________________________
From: empyre-boun...@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
<empyre-boun...@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au> on behalf of Dale Hudson
<dmh2...@nyu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, February 2, 2020 2:22 AM
To: empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au <empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au>
Subject: [-empyre-] Welcome to week 1 of February 2020 discussion:
Circumventing Territorial Limitations
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I am thrilled that Elizabeth (Beth) Derderian and Sean Foley have agreed to
help me launch month's discussion on Why Are We Still Talking about the Middle
East?
They both have done extensive research into ways that artists work around
territorial limitations whilst still remaining grounded in particular cultural
contexts of Saudi Arabia, UAE, and elsewhere. I’ve included their bios below
the theme.
I’ve learned so much from their work, so I am excited to learn more from them
and for others through comments on their posts or sharing their own research or
practice.
WEEK’S TOPIC: Circumventing Territorial Limitations
While some states in North Africa, West Asia, and South Asia are savvy in
shutting down the internet to subdue protests, notably Egypt and India, others
have been unable to keep pace with how citizens and non-citizens mobilize
digital spaces make statements that are riskier to make in physical space.
While official state censorship garners headlines, unofficial forms
self-censorship often pass unnoticed to the outside world. Various other
pressures come into play such a social stigma and family status.
Social media platforms that operate online and on mobiles provide a structure
for networking across territorial boundaries. Despite the built-in risk of
surveillance by transnational corporations, people often use Facebook or
WhatsApp to communicate across distances and divisions.
This week focuses on how to artists circumnavigate censorship, often based on
laws or rules concerning broadcast and on-site performance or exhibition, by
mobilizing virtual space, considering which artists feel empowered to speak
directly and which artists prefer to speak indirectly or not at all.
GUEST BIOS
Beth Derderian is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Council on Middle East
Studies at Yale University. She has a PhD in anthropology from Northwestern
University, and a Master’s in Museum and Near Eastern Studies from NYU. Her
research focuses on the politics of art and cultural production in the Gulf.
She was awarded a Fulbright IIE and a doctoral research grant from the Al
Qasimi Foundation to conduct her field research. She also makes podcasts for
AnthroPod, and co-edits the Middle East Section News on Anthropology News.
Sean Foley is a Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University, who
has published extensively on Middle East and Islamic history. He is the author
of Changing Saudi Arabia: Art, Culture, and Society in the Kingdom (2019) and
The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam (2010)—both of which were published
by Lynne Rienner Publishers. He has also done extensive research in Saudi
Arabia and has held Fulbright grants in Syria, Turkey, and Malaysia. For more
on his work, see his website,
https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=www.seanfoley.org&data=02%7C01%7Celizabeth.derderian%40yale.edu%7C3d7e7816370f40fecf6608d7a7b0c225%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637162249926510932&sdata=h5GfSJqUn3dRib%2BLTMGPnajEXUt%2FISUDP5Yq7lmHCmA%3D&reserved=0.
Follow him on twitter @foleyse.
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