Brownstein: Concordia prof reveals how 'steel music can break the shackles'

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Vivek Venkatesh likes to joke that his first identify rhymes with “headache.” That’s a relatively fascinating remark from somebody whose ardour for heavy steel can induce that bodily response for these not enamoured of the style.  

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Venkatesh is a Concordia College professor. However he’s a most atypical prof.  

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Aside from instructing important theories lessons on every thing from tradition to politics, he’s the chair of the artwork schooling division, the UNESCO co-chair in Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism, co-director of the Centre for the Examine of Studying and Efficiency and director of Undertaking Somebody at Concordia.

And, oh yeah, he’s not solely a guitarist/bassist in two experimental ensembles, Panorama of Hate and Halka, he additionally writes music for the teams. Plus he makes documentaries about his fave musical style, with explicit give attention to inroads made by Norwegian practitioners of black steel. 

The time period “too cool for varsity” instantly involves thoughts when speaking to or about Venkatesh.  

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Not surprisingly, Venkatesh might be entrance and centre when Concordia hosts the sixth assembly of the Worldwide Society for Metallic Music Research, from June 6 to 9. He has helped spearhead the convention No Outsides: Metallic in an Period of Contagion, which is able to supply an array of movie screenings, performances, interactive workshops, artwork installations and panel discussions — each free of charge and non-gratis, however all open to the general public. 

Venkatesh is totally conscious that heavy steel, significantly its black and loss of life steel sub-genres, is usually a supply of both delight or disgust to many. Regardless, the music has more and more been drawing the eye of lecturers who search to get to the core of this artwork type.

This isn’t to recommend Ozzy Osbourne or Slayer 101 programs have been popping up at universities across the planet, however relatively that some scholarly varieties take this oft-misunderstood style fairly critically and in addition consider it offers insights into societal polarization.

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Venkatesh and like-minded lecturers really feel that steel offers “a voice to under-represented teams who overcome adversity.”

“My analysis and tutorial work focuses particularly on how we will construct resilience towards numerous types of discrimination, xenophobia and bigotry — not solely by the humanities and cultural establishments, but additionally by pedagogy packages,” says Venkatesh, 47, who was born in India and lived in Venezuela, the U.S. and Singapore earlier than shifting to Montreal. “It’s about pluralism, a necessity for us to reside in a society the place you’re anticipating folks to have differing factors of view and the way we may also help have a good time pluralism.

“The work that I do with respect to steel music research is sort of strongly grounded on this notion of prevention. It started 10 years in the past after I collaborated with philosophers and consultants in consumer-cultural orientations to higher perceive how the darkish arts and the intense steel sub-genre permit for, in a sure sense, a really wholesome consumption of fabric of a sombre nature.”

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Venkatesh views heavy steel as fairly celebratory in sure methods, in connection to every thing from the rise of the working class to the occult. He does permit, nevertheless, that technical loss of life steel, a sub-genre of loss of life steel, might be difficult, significantly with its themes of violence and solitude.

“You don’t wish to essentially embrace that with different members of the group,” he factors out. “However this helps us to know variety in the way in which we produce and eat artwork types. We’re looking for methods during which steel music can break the shackles and never essentially fall into sure tropes.”

However Venkatesh can be abundantly conscious that some steel is related to white supremacy and different racist teams.

“Even in my very own work when it comes to specializing and prevention of radicalization and violent extremism, I see how some artists straddle a really wonderful line between freedom of creative expression and outward xenophobia and bigotry. However you then even have artists from Scandinavia, the States and even Canada who speak about freedom of faith and worship of nature. What’s vital to us, although, is to protect that classical liberal perfect to protect the liberty of expression.”

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Venkatesh has a robust reference to the Worldwide Society for Metallic Music Research, which has accepted a few of his papers. 

“For higher or for worse, I understand that quite a lot of these tutorial conferences are inclined to get steeped in a really incestuous manner in enthusiastic about the sector. It’s typically the identical students not essentially trying past the boundaries of the sector.”  

Venkatesh was host of the Grimposium underground arts festivals in 2014 and 2017 at Concordia.  

“We didn’t invite any lecturers to the pageant. We invited bands, journalists and filmmakers who addressed the darkish arts basically. And we introduced collectively a complete host of the general public to assist us join with folks exterior the educational circle who consider steel in a extra international manner.” 

Which, in flip, has led to No Outsides: Metallic in an Period of Contagion. 

This prof clearly has little interest in residing in an instructional ivory tower. 

AT A GLANCE

The convention No Outsides: Metallic in an Period of Contagion runs from June 6 to 9 at Concordia College. For extra info, see grimposium.ca/ismmsschedule.

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