KARMIC - KNITTING ARTISTIC AND RELIGIOUS MATERIALITIES WITH INDUSTRIAL CONVERSIONS

forthcoming

KARMIC - Knitting Artistic and Religious Materialities with Industrial Conversions is a research project aiming to explore and stimulate the interconnections between artistic and religious conceptions of matter and materiality and the current “green” conversions in the industrial and infrastructural sectors, especially with regard to waste mismanagement in urban contexts. The project consists of an interdisciplinary, multi-sited and comparative research, grounded along the boundaries connecting the anthropology of religions, MCS (material culture studies), public arts, materials sciences and industrial environmental politics. This crossdisciplinary frame allows to question existing experimentations leading to pragmatic co-adaptations between local communities and the industrial/infrastructural apparatuses in territories exposed to socio-ecological/climatic challenges. Aiming at applying neo-materialist analytical tools to actual experimentations in the artistic, religious and industrial sectors, the research will focus on Thai Buddhist landscapes, where creative collaborations between engaged Buddhist communities, artists and artisans, and the industrial sector in the field of waste re/up-cycling enhanced significant good practices. For this reason, the outgoing phase at Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand) will focus on the ethnographic inquiry of activist networks and initiatives (religious and/or artistic) in the capital Bangkok -a riverine/deltaic environment, where the ecological impact of solid waste pollution hits world records- and will point to the acquisition of interdisciplinary scientific skills in environmental sciences, ethical business (focus on CSER) and materials sciences (with a focus on plastic and other recyclable materials, such as organic, glass and ceramics). The incoming phase at University Ca’ Foscari of Venice (UNIVE) will be dedicated to the refination and re-contextualization of the research concept, and to its dissemination.