Under Construction. A critical reflection on contemporary internationalism and cultural diplomacy

Under Construction A critical reflection on contemporary internationalism & cultural diplomacy 1456776/ V15553

 

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Week One:

Introduction

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Week Two:

What is Cultural Diplomacy? - The Role of Meaning-Making and Identity

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Week Two and Three Quarters:

Reflexivity

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Week Three:

Culture, Conflict and Cultural Genocide  

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Week Four:

Culture and Media Imperialism

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Week Five:

Cultural Memory and Usable Pasts

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Week Six:

The Socio-Political Dimensions of Cultural Diplomacy in Practice

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Week Seven:

The Socio-Economic Dynamics of Cultural Diplomacy in Practice

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Week Eight:

Cultural Production, Creativity and Resilience

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Week Nine:

Thanatourism and ‘Difficult Heritage’

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Week Ten:

The Future of Cultural Diplomacy

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W eek One: Introduction “If we could all make small change happen, then it would make a big difference.” – Easkey Britton (Waves of Freedom, 2015) In 2010 the French filmmaker Marion Poizeau and Irish surfer Easkey Britton (The Center for Surf Research, 2015) traveled to Iran, a country geopolitically and culturally distant to Western societies, and began to explore the power of their passions (Waves of Freedom, 2015). Surfing and filming in a suitable but poor and remote region of the country the team began to delve into the use of the sport as a creative medium to transcend social, cultural and gender barriers (Waves of Freedom, 2015). Attending the premier of ‘Into the Sea’ at the London Surf Film Festival 2014, I was fascinated by this creative approach to find space for dialogue; initiated by a female Irish pro-surfer turned academic researcher turned practicing cultural diplomat that strives for the empowerment of women in a strictly patriarchal society; a diplomat establishing a peaceful cultural relation to a community whose lives and values could not be any more different from her own. This film raised curiosity about this power of connection Easkey Britton refers to, that could over come age-old predominant believes of social segregation through the language of shared experience. And with this thought I start my journey of researching internationalism and cultural diplomacy. First and foremost, the question of what is cultural diplomacy and what does actually stands for arises. The 2007 UK Demos report, for example, addressed specifically the term, its practices and economic and political implications (Briggs et al., 2007). The authors argue that ‘culture should be used as a tool for public diplomacy’ (Briggs et al., 2007, p.12) but in contradiction to their own statement the report stresses explicitly the importance for ‘international goals’ ‘international relations’ and other economic and political aims. It adopted a vague and imprecise political rhetoric to lobby for cultural institutes in London to receive funding and expand their international activities (Nisbett, 2012). Furthermore many scholars have defined the concept with fundamental differences with regards to the cultural meaning such as those of Cummings (2003) and Clarke (2014): •

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“…the exchange of ideas, information, values, systems, traditions, beliefs, and other aspects of culture, with the intention of fostering mutual understanding” – Milton C. Cummings Jr. (Cummings, 2003, p.1) “…potential means by which nations may maximise their soft power, that is to say their power to persuade and influence either other states or the citizens of those states in order to achieve their foreign policy goals.” – David Clarke (Clarke, 2014, p.1)

These findings highlight the central question of instrumentalism when researching cultural diplomacy. What are the underlying motives and power structures when one culture approaches the other? Is cultural diplomacy a rhetorical expression fostering global homogeneity lead by the dominant cultures rather than facilitating diversity and mutual understanding? The following 10-week journal will critically investigate terms and concepts around internationalism and cultural diplomacy through scholarly and empirical research embracing both theory and practical examples. The written work takes on the Harvard Referencing System and is accompanied by appropriate visual material, sourced online or self-produced. Here, these visuals functions as a glimpse, and impression, a vague, blurred, layered and complex picture under construction mirroring each week’s theme. The journal does not engage in referencing the visual sources to underline the fluid continuation of culture and its biasness to authorship, ownership and legitimacy, which is addressed in this research ipso facto. In addition, the decision to take on the first person perspective as well as engaging in an ‘explicit, self-aware meta-analysis of the research process’ (Finlay, 2002, p.531) was made to foster a greater awareness of individual and cultural subjectivity with regards to cultural diplomacy and qualitative research in general.

 

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W eek Two: What is Cultural Diplomacy? - The Role of Meaning-Making and Identity The definitions of cultural diplomacy and its surrounding key concepts such as cultural relations, cultural imperialism and soft power in literature are remarkably inconsistent, overlapping, subjective and highly contested. Yet, the concept of cultural diplomacy specifically continues to attract significant interest from cultural institutions, governments and policy makers to secure a nation’s position (Clarke, 2014) within the setting of globalisation and multidirectional flows of culture and communication (Castells, 2009). Arguing ‘that! the! most! fundamental! form! of! power! lies! in! the! ability! to! shape! the! human! mind’ (Castells, 2009, p.3) scholar Manuel Castells (2009) investigates into the! functioning! of! information and communication! within! the! context! of! the! globalised network! society. Although Castells’ approach shows major limitations with regards to his focus! on! communication! power! as! the! ‘shaping! of! the! public! mind’ (Kavada, 2011, p.201) missing to address how audiences receive and make! sense! of! media! messages, he yet offers an interdisciplinary approach to unpicking the complex power dynamics of culture, information and media within the current zeitgeist (Kavada, 2011), which is further explored in week four. Investigating into perspectives of instrumentalism through a critical rigorous discourse about the ontology of cultural diplomacy scholar David Clarke (2014) addresses here the importance ‘to recognise the extent to which audiences are implicated in processes of meaning-making (Clarke, 2014, p.1) and draws the significant connection with the articulation of identity. Particularly stressing the continuing change of meaning of cultural products through production, consumption but also consumption as a form of production (Clarke, 2014, p.6) the author argues for cultural products as the site of a struggle over meaning (Clarke, 2014, p.6) and supports his position by citing John Storey: “…different meanings can be ascribed to the same thing, meaning is always the site of struggle” (Storey, 1999, p.59). In this light, the role of identity becomes central within the debate about the ontology of cultural diplomacy, its rhetoric’s and influence in meaning-making.

 

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W eek Two and Three Quarters: Reflexivity Due to the aforementioned impact of identity on the debate around cultural diplomacy it is vital to draw attention and awareness to my own perspective, which may not only serve as offering a greater transparency showing my own cultural point of view but further this may also support the development of some of the central arguments within this paper. “As part of laying claim to the integrity and trustworthiness of qualitative research, it is vital for researchers to find ways to analyze how subjective and intersubjective elements influence their research” (Finlay, 2002, p.531). Although not without limitations as to its rather unscientific nature I, yet, follow the methodology suggested by Finlay (2002) of a more radical consciousness through an open reflexive analysis. In line with Bourdieu’s (1984) theoretical framework on cuItural fields my point of view is not only influenced by Germany and the nation’s very unique reflexivity of its past and present, which is the cultural environment I have been socialized in. Moreover, my appropriation is majorly impacted by my family’s heritage that has faced a long history of forced migration, cultural elimination and rather patched-up assimilation throughout the globe in every generation over the past four or more centuries. Descending from an ethno-religious group originating from the now Dutch province of Friesland my ancestors have been persecuted for their believes in informed choice to religion through adult baptism, pacifism and their refusal to cultural adaptation and migrated first to Germany then to the Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Canada and finally to the remote desert of Paraguay, where my parents had left in the early 80s immigrating to West-Germany. Furthermore, my position is formed through my individual experience of now living abroad having set my personal cultural perspective in a new context. How this transcultural perspective comes into play when appropriating research in culture and sociology stays in immeasurable realms. However, throughout my investigation I engage in an especially critical manner with disputes about power structures, economic and cultural hegemony questioning the legitimization of predominating ideologies. Thereby, I may be less sensitive with regards to positive effects and impacts that happen between the lines of critical identity/ power dynamics and continuations.

 

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 W eek Three: Culture, Conflict and  Cultural Genocide   “Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aimed at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.” - Raphael Lemkin (Lemkin, 1944, p.79) This week’s section I want to draw on some empirical experiences and evidence of the impact of culture in conflict in relation to the concept of cultural genocide as defined by Lemkin (1944) under the umbrella of cultural diplomacy in practice. One of my early projects as a fashion designer was an avant-garde wedding dress collection to be showcased in the Kunstforum Berlin as part of a group show. The creative brief was simply ‘Indigenous Cultures’. The result of my research, design and crafting process was a small collection of dresses. Its narrative centered around the story of a Native American woman of the Ojibwa tribe in the late 19th century who got married into a settler’s family. With the very act of marriage, however, her cultural identity, language and tradition was forcefully and abruptly erased in order to safe her new family from social discrimination. Generations later her great-granddaughter, my grandmother, revealed the long-kept secret of our identity on her deathbed. At the time working on this project she had just passed away. I was struck by the fact that the memory of our cultural heritage and knowledge about our genetic background had been taken and almost successfully erased for a century’s time. I was curious about the impact this actually had on my family and myself, which is to this day on immeasurable and hard to grasp. However, our conception of identity had always been affected by exclusion and discrimination somehow also within our own community and paired with an uncanny ease to giving up geographic location, belongings, traditions and our own cultural practices for the sake of moving on from what seemed to be a long forgotten cause. As part of my research I had just been visiting the exhibition ‘Our life- Contemporary Life and Identities’ at the National Museum of American Indian in Washington D. C. which showcases ‘how the deliberate and often difficult choices indigenous people make in order to survive economically and culturally’ (Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, 2015). Exhibition pieces include various contemporary objects that inhabit the native arts and crafts aesthetics but which are made out of everyday objects and materials as for example Gail Tremblay’s (Onondaga/ Mi’kmaq) ‘Strawberry and Chocolate’ (2000) made of 16mm film and full coat. This pairing of strange materiality and traditional aesthetics seems to resemble a narrative of silently resisting forceful elimination. With my artwork for this project I hence aimed to address how indigenous people preserve their cultural integrity and keep their traditional arts alive whilst the act of becoming part of the western society distorts and mutes their voice. The dresses crafted were mute white in colour and followed the aesthetics, proportions and designs of traditional Native American clothes and artworks. They were made out of everyday household materials for example plastic knifes instead of feathers or the hooks of curtains as beads embroidered. My artwork did not meet the taste of the creative director and did not visually match the pieces of the other showcasing designers who had chosen colourful, stigmatized ethnic aesthetics. My work had been excluded from the show.

 

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W eek Four: Culture and Media Imperialism The previous reflection over my personal experience has left me with particular curiosity about the irony of predominating stigmatized ethnic aesthetics contributing to the exclusion of the only designer with actual indigenous ethnic background within a show ambitious to be concerned with indigenous cultures. These findings encourage a further examination on how cultural production and representation can be complicit or oppressed in processes of cultural imperialism, which links with week two’s discussion on the functioning of information and communication within meaning-making processes. Media imperialism has been defined as ‘the non-reciprocal and imbalanced flow of entertainment media between countries’ (Mirrlees, 2013, p.24) and is considered to be the central element of contemporary cultural imperialism. Within the scholarly discourse on influence of today’s media on meaning-making processes Nixon (2011) examines specifically the representativeness of violence. Firstly, it is argued that the role of today’s media is to create a western cultural media mindset and simultaneously the censurability of narratives to represent ideologies and perspectives of the dominating culture (Nixon, 2011). But furthermore, Nixon extends his argument on the influence of media imperialism by the factors of time and space. He introduces the concept of slow violence defined as ‘a violence that occurs gradually and out of sight a violence of delayed deconstruction that is dispersed across time and space and attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all’ (Nixon, 2011, p.2). Within media the highly visible violence newsworthy and compressed in time and space such as for example the 9/11 terrorist attacks are commonly represented (Nixon, 2011, p.3), whereas events such as the quiet cultural erosion of indigenous cultures for instance become injuriously none-represented (Nixon, 2011). Acts of slow violence although of much greater destruction and harm become invisible and almost erased from the media narrative due to the force of cultural imperialism but also because of the ”sensation driven technologies of our image world” (Nixon, 2011, p.3). Yet, media convergence has given rise to a participatory environment in which personal contributions have become highly valued cultural pillars (Jenkins, 2006). Jenkins (2006) argues that the circulation of media content depends heavily on consumers’ active participation and represents a cultural shift contrasted with older notions of passive media spectatorship. Consumer-producers of today’s globalized culture are able to access necessary information and communication ‘across different media systems, competing media economies and national borders’ (Jenkins, 2006, p.3) which seems to offer greater opportunities for representing narratives of slow violence. However Jenkins (2006) notes, that not all participants are created equal. “Corporations- and even individuals within corporate media- still exert greater power than any individual consumer or even the aggregate of consumers. And some consumers have greater abilities to participate in this emerging culture than others” (Jenkins, 2006, p.3). These findings may be further linked to Bourdieu’s theory on the aristocracy of culture (Bourdieu & Nice, 1980) but contextualized with the new dynamics of social power in the information age. Applied to the case example, although it was technically possible for the other showcasing designers to research in depth into the visual world of indigenous cultures and their contemporary cultural production, they have not done so in the same way as someone with the identity rooted in such cultures. This yet again underlines that identity becomes central to acts of cultural diplomacy, its rhetoric’s and meaning-making processes in line with Clarke (2014) as aforementioned. The decision on how to consume, produce and consume-produce by the designers as well as the creative director as participating actors of culture was, henceforth, rendered by the image world created through predominating media imperialism that delivered a consumable narrative from the perspective of the dominating culture.

 

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W eek Five: Cultural Memory and Usable Pasts Drawing the connection from media imperialism this week’s focus lies on how cultural memory is used for present and future actions in international realms. Thereby, my specific point of interest is the use of the phrase ‘trauma’ and ‘traumatized nations’ and the impact of its misuse. The word ‘trauma’ in Greek simply means ‘wound’ (Oxford Dictionaries, 2015) and refers to a ‘deeply distressing or disturbing experience’ that is in the form of an ‘emotional shock following a stressful event or a physical injury, which may lead to long-term neurosis’; or physical injury in the medical sense (Oxford Dictionaries, 2015). In the field of psychology the term is defined as: “direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or other threat to one’s physical integrity; (…) (Criterion A1). The person’s response to the event must involve intense fear, helplessness, or horror (…) (Criterion A2)” (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p.463) This concept has been applied metaphorically in the context of cultural memory by society, media and politics, many times outside its strict definition and often not without conflict. Here I want to draw on the two examples of the Native Americans and post-9/11 USA. Both cases have been referred to as ‘traumatized nations’; although of geographical congruence, both inhabit very different ontologies, crucial stressful experiences and alternate coping behaviours, but offer a great contrasting example for the misuse of the metaphorical term. Within psychology key focal point of investigation is the response, effects and implications from a traumatized individual. Although, according to Briere & Scott (2006) the term ‘trauma’ refers technically ‘only to the event, not the reaction’ (p. 34) they simultaneously argue that it ‘should be reserved for major events that are psychologically over-whelming for an individual’ (p. 34). It is to note that the reactive factor to the traumatic event stays doubtlessly crucial when distinguishing a highly stressful from a traumatic situation, which is also vaguely indicated by in the definition by DSM-IV-TR (Criterion A2). There are proactive, reactive, and passive behavioral responses common towards such seriously threatening situations (Briere & Scott, 2006). The first two include attempts correcting or minimizing the damage of the stressful event a priori or adhoc (Briere & Scott, 2006). The passive response is moreover characterized by an emotional numbness, reduced danger awareness via dissociation or denial, which leads to severe psychological and physiological dysfunctions in the long-term (Briere & Scott, 2006). These long-term implications may take the form of behavioral characteristics of none intentional coping actions such as posttraumatic stress disorder or ‘further behaviours and responses that are additional risk factors for further trauma, and subsequent, potentially even more complex mental health outcomes’ (Briere & Scott, 2006). Therefore, one could argue that a person who suffers from a trauma typically shows a passive stance no longer able to act in a manner of self-agency that is of best interest to a possible positive future; whereas a person who shows resilience through proactive and reactive responses had experienced potentially traumatizing situation but was able to behave in a way that was aimed to prevent and defeat further unhealthy physical and mental outcomes (Briere & Scott, 2006). Applied to the case examples we find a Native American nation to be terminally malfunctioning and struggling to survive economically and culturally. Having survived almost complete cultural erosion the remaining Native Americans live amongst their aggressors embedded within their culture, engage in slow and weak actions to preserve their identity whilst many members struggle with social discrimination, unemployment, poverty, crime and addiction. In contrast the proclaimed ‘traumatized nation’ of post-9/11 USA shows a proactive/ reactive stance legitimizing immediate violent military action towards the aggressors. Thereby the identity of the aggressors as well as the political dynamics before 9/11 stay blurred (Simpson, 2006). Therefore, I would argue that 9/11 has not lead either in physical or psychological metaphorical sense to the USA being traumatized by definition. The use of the term as a socio-political metaphor merely serves as a rhetorical mean to portrait a clearly distinguishable notion of victim vs. aggressor distracting from a socially, politically and economically much more complex picture (Bitter Lake, 2015).

 

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W eek Six: The Socio-Political Dimensions of Cultural Diplomacy in Practice In light of the previous investigation into concepts of cultural imperialism and instrumentalism through the means of narrative and media this week’s section draws attention to more explicit acts of cultural diplomacy in practice. Thereby, I want to examine the format of international art exhibitions. While I will focus on the socio-economic dynamics in the following week, this week is regarding firstly their socialpolitical dimensions. As discussed earlier, the role of identity, perspective and place of the various cultural producers play a vital role in the meaning-making processes of events with intentions or notions of cultural diplomacy. And these never come without conflict. Within the example of the indigenous cultures fashion show, I have highlighted the role of media imperialism, identity and collective consciousness, and how this may have been linked to the way designers of different cultural background have approached the creative brief. But furthermore, in such environment the role of the curator and showcasing institution have shown to inhabit a very unique position of power. The critical viewer/ researcher may ask questions such as: Who produced the cultural artifact? Under which circumstances and what is the intent of the production? In which place/ setting is the work displayed? Who decides about what is shown and what is excluded? What is the intent of showing it? Who consumes the exhibition and why? But also, what is not shown/ narrated/ exhibited and why? Who/ what does not get represented? And who is not part of the audience? In the case of the pavilion of Iraq at the 55th International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia the exhibition Welcome to Iraq was curated by the British internationally renowned curator Jonathan Watkins, and commissioned by Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Iraq (RUYA, 2013) that aims its actions in accordance to the occupying nations (Bitter Lake, 2015) towards contributing ‘to the development of civil society in Iraq’ (RUYA, 2014). Although we have again a questionable relationship of the curator, commissioning organisation, audience, location and subject of representation, Jonathan Watkins offers a very interesting approach ‘to promote what is hopeful about the country’ (Pilger, 2014). The exhibition concentrates particularly on narratives outside the strictly political realms and selected artworks from artists living and working inside Iraq who are concerned with the every day experience of contemporary Iraqi identity, as well as a glimpse into cultural practises regarding food, hospitability and music (Senova, 2013). Thereby, the exhibition avoids a narrative of re-victimizing the culture as being torn apart by it’s war-struck condition as its only attribute (Senova, 2013). Yet again, this approach has not been left without criticism from audiences particularly concerned with the urgency of the nation’s political landscape. The exhibition’s intentions and served interests seemed rather gentle and indirect as Pilger (2014) notes. Conclusively it is to highlight that the socio-political dimensions of cultural diplomacy in practice are complex and should never be taken without critical reflection unique to each case. Looking at the example of the Iraqi pavilion, international exhibitions as acts of cultural diplomacy may contribute to a more holistic and humanistic narrative outside the dominant media images. Nonetheless, these cultural diplomatic practices are often created by parties/ individuals with a specific cultural perspective and an agenda embedded within their own identity in alignment to Clarke’s (2014, p.1) definition of cultural diplomacy in relation to foreign policy goals and soft power. But further these practices often appeal only to a specific audience and hence may overall only inhabit a limited contribution to meaning-making processes.

 

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W eek Seven: The Socio-Economic Dynamics of Cultural Diplomacy in Practice “Fundamentally any organisation has a personality it has a core idea just as every individual has. And the brand is the way in which that is represented to everyone and everything with whom it comes into contact. So the environment in which you live is part of the brand; the product you make is part of the brand; the way you behave is part of the brand and the way you communicate is part of the brand.” -Wally Olins (Adamson, 2015) Appropriating the socio-economic dynamics of cultural diplomacy in practice by the example of international exhibitions the following investigation is concerned with the question of economic instrumentalism. Are international activities by museums solely an instrument of global branding strategies and if so, do these serve ‘the intention of fostering mutual understanding (Cummings, 2003, p.1) or merely ‘the power to persuade and influence’ the other (Clarke, 2014, p.1) within the global competitive market place of cultures? When museums partake in international engagements not only do these embrace socio-political dimensions but they also inhabit quite pragmatic economic dynamics. With the above quoted statement renowned branding professional Wally Olins argues that branding is part of expressing an understanding of an organisations identity and vital to secure internal efficiency and generating consumer demand (Adamson, 2015). The Victoria and Albert Museum, as a case example, is following a strong brand orientated strategy that stands inline with its identity, incorporating its heritage and core expertise (Adamson, 2015). Its purpose is to inspire creativity linking its various departments coherently with each other, and furthermore to perform as a world leader/ world class and to be contemporary (Adamson, 2015). However, branding and marketing activities within the museum sector are often criticised due to the role of museums in society and culture that is considered to stand in conflict not only with political instrumentalism (O'Neill, 2008) but also with purely economically motivated purposes such as those of normal business organisations (Sandell & Janes, 2007). Therefore, Damien Whitmore, Director of Public Affairs and Programming at the V&A, suggests the term ‘purpose’ rather than ‘brand’ as sensitivity towards this critical discourse (Adamson, 2015). Nonetheless, this rhetoric does not change the initial landscape of intentions: Today’s museums ought to direct their activities towards greater profitability in order to survive as an organisation since the public funding landscape has become harsher in many countries (Adamson, 2015; Sandell & Janes, 2007; Rocco, 2013). Thereby, museums such as the V&A make use of internationalisation strategies to generate profits and secure their position within a global market place in a similar way as other business organisations. Practically implemented the V&A engages in a variety of nationally and internationally oriented work including ‘institutional partnership agreements, overseas trading, provision of consultancy services, touring exhibitions and capacity building initiatives’ (Aguerre, 2014). Thereby, some exhibitions are clearly focused on fostering the global lead of specifically British design in line with the museum’s outspoken heritage of aiming to ensure competitiveness as a nation (Aguerre, 2014), which can be considered moreover as a pursuit to ‘persuade and influence’ according to Clarke (2014, p.1). Examples of this may be the 2015 exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty or the exhibition Britain Creates 2012: Fashion + Art Collusion extensively celebrating Britishness and the nation’s advance in fashion design. Within this field the museum has offered so far little comparable investigation into foreign realms. Other activities however embrace a more nuanced cultural narrative with greater focus on equal cultural exchange in art and design such as the V&A’s recent partnership with Chinese Institutions (Aguerre, 2014). Nonetheless, the focus on branding and the museum’s DNA stays prominent within these as well. Although one could argue that the institution’s international engagement gives the overall impression of purely economically oriented soft-power dynamics along the line with Clarke (2014, p.1), the picture of its practical implementation on micro level may embrace a higher degree of innocence and enthusiasm of individuals as consumers and producers to foster mutual understanding by definition of Cummings (2003, p.1).

 

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W eek Eight: Cultural Production, Creativity and Resilience "You know there are displaced people in the camps. It makes more sense to see what they have suffered not through adults, but through children. It is the children who reflect the feelings with their innocence." - Osman Sağırlı (BBC, 2015) This week’s entry is regarding how creativity may play a key role in preserving cultures under threat offering an alternate perspective to week four’s lens of culture and media imperialism and how such threats can provoke new and innovative forms of cultural expression. In this context, one of the early examples I have discussed within the journal has been how Native Americans preserve their cultural integrity and keep notions of their traditional arts alive whilst living amongst their oppressors; specifically objects crafted with indigenous aesthetics but out of everyday western materials. These creative forms art may be considered a rather ‘silent’ way of resilience against oppression, but other forms take a ‘louder’ position in conflict. To be able to break through culture and media imperialistic boundaries these forms of cultural production seem to embrace the need for elements of provocation and innovation such as in war and protest art as well as journalistic photography. The question here remains if these can have an impact on the threatening situation of cultural loss. In the case of journalistic photography in warzones, its aim may be considered to bring visibility to violence and show the human side of war (Chalifour, 2004). One of such recent example is an image taken by Turkish photography journalist Osman Sağırlı. Showing a 4-year-old Syrian child with her hands raised in surrender mistaking the camera for a weapon the image has gained significant attention on social media networks (BBC, 2015). As above quoted Sağırlı argues for its strong compassionate impact by the reflection of the suffering through the child’s innocence. However, other than retweets, shares and discourse around the origins of the image little other actions can be credited to it. With this regard, Susan Sontag critically investigates into the uses and meanings of images, as well as the nature of war, the limits of sympathy, and the obligations of conscience in her book Regarding the Pain of Others. Concerning the meaning-making processes of such images she states: “Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question of what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. If one feels that there is nothing 'we' can do -- but who is that 'we'? -- and nothing 'they' can do either -- and who are 'they' -- then one starts to get bored, cynical, apathetic.” (Sonntag, 2003, p.79). Here, Sontag links the passive stance of those who are comfortable, those of distance who ‘can turn away, turn the page, switch the channel’ (Sonntag, 2003, p.91) with this very confusion over identity and relation to the photograph (Sonntag, 2003). Yet she regards such images as an ‘invitation to pay attention, to reflect, to learn, to examine the rationalizations for mass suffering offered by established powers’ (Sonntag, 2003, p.91). Conclusively, creative/ innovative or provoking forms of cultural production under difficult circumstances including the example of journalistic photography seem to embrace the urge to narrate the story out of a different angle than expected from mainstream media. They may or may not have a peculiar impact on saving people’s lives and preserving cultures under threat, however as such forms of art engage in more nuanced narratives of identities they are allowing space for possibilities to change perceptions. “Art can change the way we see the world. Art can create an energy. Actually the fact that art cannot change things makes it a neutral place for exchanges and discussions and then enables it to change the world.” (JR, 2011)

 

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W eek Nine: Thanatourism and ‘Difficult Heritage’ "This is a thing that people do - and when you see it in aggregate it takes on a meaning. For the first time in human history, we have the ability to share whatever we see, whenever we see it. (…) We are still figuring out what value that is, and what is supposed to be shared - maybe everything should be shared, maybe nothing should be shared." – Jason Feifer (Hebblethwaite, 2013) Apart from previously investigated time and space as well as cultural producers, the consuming audience plays inasmuch a vital role within processes of meaning-making in acts of cultural engagements. Therefore, this week is regarding these specifically by the example of Thanatourism, which is death-related tourism (Seaton, 1996), and sites of difficult heritage, as in remnants of meaningful but contested pasts that carry awkward notions for positive contemporary identity (Logan & Reeves, 2009; Mcdonald, 2009)!. Can these forms of tourism create mutual understanding within various groups of producers, consumers and producer-consumers leading to positive cultural diplomatic impacts? With awareness of the broad scope and complexity of this topic and limited extend of discussion within this entry, I want to further narrow my focus on how these types of tourist experiences create meaning in new forms of memory culture: in the digital era that ‘celebrates instantaneity and hyper-connectivity’, where ‘compulsions of networked individualism coexist with technological obsolescence, amounting to a sense of fragmentation and a heightened tension between remembering and forgetting’ (Lagerkvist, 2015, p.1). Noticing a curious cultural phenomenon New York native Jason Feifer created two blogs showcasing publicly accessible images posted on social networks that incorporate mostly young adults and teens taking selfies situated in death-related sites of difficult heritage or funerals (Hebblethwaite, 2013). This sparked a global debate about the nature of mourning and respect and was understood by many critical viewers as teenage clumsiness, a lack of cultural awareness of the lost, born-digital, egocentric selfie-generation (Hebblethwaite, 2013; Feifer, 2013). Feifer, however, reflected later over these in a more differentiated and reflexive manner stating that those visual documents can be considered as means of ‘expressing an emotion they may not have words for. It's a visual language that older people (…) simply don't speak’ (Feifer, 2013). Furthermore, he argues that in the death related context for instance ‘no funeral is 100% sadness. It's a mixture of loss and celebration, of life in all its parts’ (Feifer, 2013). Theoretically speaking, Feifer pinpoints towards ‘key ambivalences and vulnerabilities of our technologized existence’ (Lagerkvist, 2015). Lagerkvist argues that particularly performances of memory in digital culture are a relatively new phenomenon and ‘bespeak existential ambivalences as well as a quest for meaning in the face of these’ (Lagerkvist, 2015). As such concepts may be applicable to the sadgazing selfie of a young person pondering through the rather photogenic holocaust monument in Berlin, it is more difficult to understand the cheerful, smile-faced/ thumbs-up visual documents taken in places like Auschwitz. Here, I would argue that these very extreme examples are evidence to that experiences of death-related tourism in sites of difficult heritage do not create mutual awareness and understanding as a matter of course. Moreover results of these can be linked to meaning-making processes in accordance to each individual’s unique assemblage of cultural fields (Bourdieu, 1984) and their capability of ‘feeling of feeling being-there and being-with’ (Hong, (n.d.)) the practice of that specific memory. But furthermore these forms of shared experiences in digital space strongly demonstrate that physical and digital visibility of identity performance clash (Hong, (n.d.)). Showing awareness for the cultural meaning of the site with negative ontology stands in friction with the person’s networked digital counterpart that may be drawn to communicate instant visibility and perform existence of positive identity. It stays unknown if Twitter’s Princess Brianna (@princessBMM) really did not feel the pain of Auschwitz’s gruesome past at any moment during her visit. Although seeing her smile-faced photograph including emoji-caption struck as appalling and extremely offensive at first, it simultaneously portraits an innocence to violence that every inmate of the camp would have wished for and one could regard this as an awkward celebration of life in all its parts.

 

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W eek Ten: The Future of Cultural Diplomacy “Times would pass, old empires would fall and new ones take their place, the relations of countries and the relations of classes had to change, before I discovered that it is not the quality of goods and utility which matters, but movement; not where you are or what you have, but where you have come from, where you are going, and the rate at which you are getting there.” – C. L. R. James (James, 1963, p.113) With my last entry I want to critically reflect over this journals key findings and the future of cultural diplomacy. First of all, major limitation to in depth research has been given through the restricted scope of each week’s discourse and the broad variety of different and complex topics to be covered. Nonetheless the journal as a whole offers valuable insights into key forces of contemporary internationalism and cultural diplomacy. With critical reflection on the choice of my research focus, I may have disregarded more positive and successful narratives of cultural diplomacy in practice. Although within some parts of the journal my approach may have embraced a problematic personal notion, I have yet aimed to support the key argument of the crucial role of meaning-making processes and identity with my own cultural position and reflexive stance in transparency. Throughout the research I have intended to unravel underlying motives, instrumentalism and power structures when one culture approaches the other in line with the contrasting definitions of cultural diplomacy of Cummings (2003, p.1) and Clarke (2014, p.1). Thereby, I have argued that meaning-making processes are crucial sites of struggle and set in an inseparable relationship to the actor’s cultural identity, which becomes the major facilitator within these acts of cultural diplomacy. Furthermore, dominant cultures specifically through media imperialism are able to influence these meaning-making processes of all kinds of participants of cultural production, which I have examined through a personal but in depth example of cultural genocide and the Native American people within the context of cultural diplomacy in practice. With relation to these findings the factors of time and space can be considered as decisive within mediated meaning-making processes supported by Nixon’s (2011) concept of slow violence and its missrepresentation in mainstream media as well as the misuse of the term ‘trauma’ as a metaphor. Acts of cultural diplomacy in practice by the example of art exhibitions are aiming for intercultural mutual understanding but show complex socio-political dimensions and socio economic dynamics. These often inhabit limitations through economic constrains, critical underlying cultural positions of their producers, as well as a limited reach with regards to diversity of audience. However, by the example of cultural diplomatic approaches through creative/ innovative or provoking forms under difficult circumstances I have argued that cultural diplomacy in practice is granting uniquely nuanced narratives of cultures and identities that allow to the least space for possibilities to change perceptions other than those offered by established powers. Nonetheless, these are still in relation to the audiences meaning-making processes that stand in accordance to each individual’s unique assemblage of cultural fields (Bourdieu, 1984) and their capability of ‘feeling of feeling being-there and being-with’ (Hong, (n.d.)). Drawing back on the introductory example of Easkey Britton’s Waves of Freedom the key force of successful cultural diplomatic power was here the concept of shared experiences that enabled actors to connect and to catalyse dialogue. It was created specifically through physical experiences through the human body within the uncultured forces of nature. I am arguing that this very power may offspring out of realms outside of representation unable to be captured as Nixon (2011) puts it ‘within sensation driven technologies of our image world’ (Nixon, 2011, p.3) pinpointing towards the importance of postrepresentation and materialism within the context of cultural diplomacy. Henceforth, the future of cultural diplomacy ought to recognise the complexity of these identity related meaning-making processes through acts that go beyond mere visual/ linguistic representation as the latter are bound to alter or loose crucial meaning in translation.

 

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