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 parcel of biomedical technology and research. This assemblage is not only manifest in north America and Europe but is also becoming part of a discourse that surrounds biomedical advances as they impinge on the global south.

The presentation focused on the way in which responses to these advances are being shaped and articulated in local contexts; in particular, it drew on research carried out into the reception of new reproductive and genetic technologies in Sri Lanka which began in 2000. The presentation focused on the construction of an ‘Asian Bioethics’ as part of the local response to new and challenging technologies; it placed in context the rhetorical nature of this response and its links to colonialism, nationalism, and other broader questions of accommodating cultural relativism within global and universalistic statements of virtue. 

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 respect, curatorial practice is always also a political activity. The museum of the 21st century therefore becomes both producer and mediator, and must find structural ways and means to satisfy this responsibility.

Dr. Muehling spoke of the origins of the Lenbachhaus, the role of the curator as the link between artists on the one hand and the public, intellectuals and decision makers on the other, and how a curator finds and occupies a space that allows for the presentation of art without affecting the integrity of art itself despite the other pressures that are an invariable part of maintaining galleries and museums. He took the audience through a brief tour of the Lenbachchuas and discussed the process through which decisions were made to represent certain types of art within the museum, as opposed to other types. The ensuing discussion touched on the role and function of biennales and triennials in the contemporary global art world among other themes.

jagath weeeasignhe addressing audience

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 in October.  In this presentation, the speaker specifically dealt with key issues related to the global art market as well as the role of art museums and their collections in a time of globalization.

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 body, read in multiple ways. Pleasure, consumption, popularity, sexuality, gender and ethnicity are experienced through their embodiment. Today, the human body is a cultured body; a discursive body; moreover, it is a form of physical capital. It has reached its highest planes in contemporary times: that of the technical body that we call the cyborg.

A lively discussion took place moderated by Janaki Jayawardea from the Department of History, University of Colombo. There was significant interest among the audience to gain more information on the texts themselves as they are not widely available to the public.

dhananjaya karunaratne speaks on theatre space

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 of drama might be better achieved.

There were a number of stage personalities among the large audience gathered and a lively discussion followed Karunaratne’s presentation that was moderated by Jagath Pathirage from the Colombo Institute.

tariq jazeel speaks on reading landscapes in translation

Building on Subaltern Studies scholarship, the presentation made the point that the concept-metaphors ‘religion’ and ‘nature’ are insufficient conceptual tools to effectively analyze modern spatial formations in southern Sri Lanka. Instead, the speaker argued that reading these spaces ‘in translation’ offers a method for teasing out particular kinds of Sinhala-Buddhist aesthetics that permeate apparently secular landscape arrangements in southern Sri Lanka. Empirically, the paper works through contemporary tropical-modern landscape architecture.

A lively discussion took place after the presentation around thoughts on stretching of readings, a possible irreligious spirituality of Bawa’s landscapes and imposed behavioral patterns, accidental placement of signs, empowering the anecdotal, and explanatory narratives/ yarns, among other ideas. Nira Wickramasisghe of the University of Colombo moderated the discussion.

nihal perera on urban space

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 establishment of British colonial town planning in Ceylon (Sri Lanka from 1972). Although it was already there, this was the turning point in establishing a planners’ and authority’s perception of the city. It demonstrates that the planners’ and authorities’ cities are perceptions and constructions that enable them to understand, examine, and modify them. The Ordinance imported with it a set of urban problems requiring solutions that were not available in Colombo. The colonial/imperial planners such as Patrick Geddes carried British town planning solutions to the colonies. Planning was viewed by them, and the authorities, as a Western science which could be transferred across cultural boundaries, particularly from the metropole to the colony. This way, the British not only built cities in Ceylon, but also taught the Ceylonese how to understand and maintain them. This town planning discourse was not directly imported, but was negotiated between many agencies including the (British) municipal authorities of Colombo, the colonial government, colonial/imperial planners, the newspapers, and other stakeholders. Many changes to planning were introduced in post-colonial Sri Lanka in the 1970s, but they do not represent any substantial cultural unpacking of this discourse.

The discussion that followed centered around the British planning dynamics in colonial Colombo that introduced a notion of a Eurocentric urban perception to the local populace. Michael Collier of the University of Sussex moderated the discussion.