Episode 8: Time and the Arts, Food and Colonialism

Keri and Michel talk to artist-scholars, the poet Rukmini Nair and the photographer Nomusa Makhubu about the relationship between time, art and coloniality.

Hosts and Guests

• Keri Facer (Professor of Educational and Social Futures, University of Bristol, UK)
• Michel Alhadeff-Jones (Executive Director, Sunkhronos Institute, Switzerland)
• Rukmini Nair (Honorary Professor of Linguistics and English, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; Global Professorial Fellow, Queen Mary University, Londo) 
• Nomusa Makhubu (Professor in Art History at the University of Cape Town; Founder of Creative Knowledge Resources)

Summary

In this episode, Keri and Michel talk with two award-winning artists and scholars - the poet and critic Professor Rukmini Nair and the photographer and art historian Professor Nomusa Makhubu. In this wide ranging conversation we talk about time as a relentless life partner, the role of colonial photography in deploying time to objectify subjugated people, the ancient form of poetry as a place of craziness that serves as a place of sanity to mirror the world, the long shadow of colonialism, the gaps in history into which new stories can be inserted, the role of art and poetry as survival mechanisms for settlers and colonised, statues as a way of freezing time, on whether hunger is located in the past, present or future, the training of guts to create new expectations of food, the idea of Indigenous food - plants and practices - ‘going extinct’ and how tastes change across time. The longstanding question of how we feed into the rhythms of what bodies need. 

(There are some difficulties with audio on Professor Makhubu’s recording at the beginning of the recording, but this improves so do stick with this episode, there are some real gems in here.)

References & Resources Mentioned

• Knut Hamsun’s novel that Rukmini Nair refers to is ‘Hunger’ 
• Lerato Shadi’s video work referenced is ‘Motlhaba Wa Re Ke Namile’ (2016)
• Liz Hoult’s chapter on ‘doing time in social sciences and humanities research ‘- talks about chronolectic time, killing time
• Nomusa Makhubu’s work with the colonial archive: https://asai.co.za/collective-healing-nomusa-makhubu/
• Olufela Omokeko’s Jeun Soke project Nomusa references: https://mobkilishi.shop/blogs/news/a-taste-of-tradition-the-unveiling-of-the-jeun-soke-project?srsltid=AfmBOoq4G5EtxLRej52Op4vTdIVQi-PL4x5COedWbL-FCVTvMsxhGEcz 
• Rukmini Nair’s books mentioned are: ‘Poetry in a Time of Terror; Lying on the Post-Colonial Couch’: The Idea of Indifference; and (co-edited with Peter de Souza) ‘Keywords for India’
• Michael Stevenson’s book ‘Surviving the Lens’
• The British author Rukmini mentions is David Lodge
• Nomusa Makhubu’s exhibition is called ‘Trading Lies’

External Links

• The Times of a Just Transition - Global Convening Programme: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/projects/the-times-of-a-just-transition/
• Sunkhronos Institute: https://www.sunkhronos.org/
• The Temporal Imagination: https://www.temporalimagination.org

The Temporal Imagination Podcast is supported by

• British Academy “The Times of a Just Transition” Global Convening Programme
• Sunkhronos Institute
• The School of Education, University of Bristol
• The Sarchi Chair in Global Change and Social Learning, Rhodes University

Credits

• Hosts: Keri Facer & Michel Alhadeff-Jones
• Audio/video editing: Sarah Van Borek, Michel Alhadeff-Jones, Keri Facer
• Artwork: Harriet Hand
• Music: Briony Greenhill, “Die Every Day” 
• Recorded and edited with Riverside.fm and Adobe Premiere

To watch the video recording of this podcast (which includes closed captions), go to: https://www.youtube.com/@institutsunkhronos/podcasts