Talk on Medical Ethics, Bio Ethics and Asian Bioethics

Forum for Culture presented a talk on Medical Ethics, Bio Ethics and Asian Bioethics: Reflections on Culture and Rhetoric in the Response to New Biotechnologies in Contemporary Sri Lanka by Bob Simpson, Department of Anthropology, University of Durham.
The assemblage of knowledge and practices that has come to be known as bioethics is increasingly visible as part and [...]

Talk on Contemporary Cultural Praxis

The Forum for Culture presented a talk by Dr. Matthias Muehling, Curator at Lenbachhaus in Munich on Contemporary Cultural Praxis.
 

Ideally, the task of conveying and communicating art reflects the complexity of contemporary life; rather than viewing itself simply as part of life, it should become actively involved in social concerns through exhibitions and events. In this [...]

Contemporary Trends and Dynamics of Global Art

In the sixth of the series of presentations, Jagath Weerasinghe shared his ideas and thoughts on the well-known Global Art Museum Project with reference to contemporary Sri Lankan visual art and artists.  Much of the information for the presentation was based on the ideas presented at the Global Art Museum Conference held in New Delhi [...]

The human body: its contemporary readings

Ranjith Perera (editor of Pravada, Social Scientists’ Association) undertook a cultural reading of the human body in the fifth of the series of talks organized by the Forum for Culture.
He presented the following ideas: the human body, in the past, was mostly the subject of medicine, painting or sculpture. Today it is a cultural [...]

Narratives of early settlements of Sri Lanka: the unwritten

The fourth presentation in the series also in the Sinhala language was delivered by Ananda Tissa Kumara (Professor of Sinhala, University of Colombo). Tissa Kumara attempted to add a new chapter to memories of migration and settlement in recent Sri Lankan history by undertaking an initial reading of myths that refer to the dynamics of [...]

The dynamics and politics of theatre space: the space of the ‘actor’ and the ‘audience’

The next presentation in the series was held on May 29th and was the first to be delivered in Sinhala.

The Speaker, Dhananjaya Karunaratne, well-known Colombo based dramatist, explored the politics and dynamics of theatre space and sought alternative spaces where the actor and the spectator can be put through which the ‘entertainment’ and ‘professional’ aspects [...]

Reading Landscape in Translation: Religion, Nature and the Spatial Politics of Sri Lankan Modernity

The second talk was delivered in April by Tariq Jazeel (Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Sheffield) and was titled ‘Reading Landscape in Translation: Religion, Nature and the Spatial Politics of Sri Lankan Modernity.’ This presentation, also in the English language, attempted to explore the methodological challenges involved in engaging the politics of Sri Lankan [...]

Class and Space in Colombo: The Colonial Constructions of an Urban Perception

The first was Nihal Perera’s (Associate Professor of Urban Planning, Ball State University) illustrated talk in English titled ‘Class and Space in Colombo: The Colonial Constructions of an Urban Perception.’ It was delivered on March 27. This presentation attempted to narrate how the introduction of the Housing Ordinance of 1915 in Colombo led to the [...]