Oxford Digital Ethnography Group Seminar Series

OXDEG – Ganesh Yourself

About

Conceived by the artist Zaven Paré and myself, Bappa 1.0 was an interface to enable anybody to incarnate the God Ganesha and have a conversation. Operated by a controller (or ‘embodier’) tasked with doing ‘God’s voice’, the tele-operated machine presented an opportunity for interactive dialogue but also reflexive and creative interactions we would have never expected. Launched in India in 2014 and tested during the Ganapati Festival, the machine was quickly adopted by Hindu priests for broadcasting mantras, approved by astrologers who saw in Bappa a new way to give consultations at a distance and by political activists who used it to spread reformist messages. What if the ‘Ganesh yourself incarnation game’ was a shortcut to become a guru, amplify his own aura and make disciples? Originally conceived as a small experience in divine (media) circuitry, this exercise in speculative design became a veritable experiment in the deconstruction of guru-ship, the effects of divinity, authority and conviction. To what extent can we speak on behalf of God? What happens when we fail? Can we upgrade ourselves in divinity and retrograde without consequences? Can God be rebooted through a media, reset or even ‘hacked’, and what advantages could such acts of re-mediation entail? This presentation will begin with a screening of the film, Ganesh Yourself (2016), followed by a discussion.

Zoom link: https://oii.zoom.us/j/93771921838?pwd=eFJ6b25KaWhSbnlRakVmcnY3YWNlQT09

Meeting ID: 937 7192 1838

Passcode: 332969

 

Emmanuel Grimaud is an anthropologist, film director, and researcher at CNRS in Paris. His research explores nonhuman forms of communication, perception and the frontiers of human technology. He designs anthropological forms of experiment, often radical and provocative, in order to question the limits of our anthropocentric view of the world. Recent work has included recently, he worked with an Indian hypnotist and ghost hunters in order to investigate into the invisible layers of the city of Calcutta. His publications include Le jour où les robots mangeront des pommes (2011) (on Japanese robotics), and  L’étrange encyclopédie du docteur K (2014) (on Indian astrology), while his films include Kings of Kwaang (2009) (on beetles in Thailand), and  Black Hole (2019) (on ghost hunting in Calcutta).