Archives de catégorie : Billets multilingues

Assassination of Lokman Slim (1962-2021): homage from the academic community

The death of Lokman Slim, cowardly assassinated on February 3, 2021, in southern Lebanon, raises deep feelings of sadness and revolt.

Lokman Slim was a man of culture and engagement. He paid a heavy price for his freedom of thought and his uncompromising freedom of speech.

Humanities and social scientists working in the Near East have regularly benefited from Lokman Slim’s work through Umam Research & Documentation, an association he co-directed with his wife Monika Borgmann. Umam was created in 2004 with a twofold objective: to build a citizen archives centre accessible to as many people as possible, and to raise public awareness on the subjects of war and violence through the arts. Together, they also founded the Hangar, a cultural centre in which many exhibitions have been organized, notably on memories of the war and of the Ghobeiri district where it was located. The building of an archive of Lebanon’s contemporary and present history constitutes a significant contribution to the work research in the field.

Lokman Slim was committed to the development of an open and democratic society in Lebanon. He was a main actor of Lebanon’s cultural life. In 1990, together with his sister, the writer Racha Al-Ameer, he founded Dar Al-Jadeed editions. Its innovative choices had a key impact on the Lebanese and Arab publishing landscape. With Monika Borgmann, he made two essential documentaries: Massaker (2004) is based on the testimonies of former militiamen who participated in the massacres in the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Chatila in 1982; Tadmor (2016) focused on the daily life of detainees in the Syrian prison of Tadmor (Palmyra).

Lokman Slim was also a lively and impactful writer and speaker. He spoke in a chiselled language, in Arabic as well as in French or English. Two of his writings, available in French, testify to the delicacy and refinement of his reflections and his uncompromising love of Lebanon: “Lebanese peace, or the art of reconciliation without moderation”((translated from French to English by the author)) (Liban. Espaces partagés et pratiques de rencontre, Cahiers de l’Ifpo, 2008 [Online] https://books.openedition.org/ifpo/105) and “Beyrouth. A capital which capitulates “(Beyrouth à mots découpés”), Poitiers, 2000, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/495443604) in which he revealed a few false pretences of Beirut and the publishing profession.

This assassination raises fears of a new cycle of violence targeting intellectuals. The academic community engaged in the study and research of Near Eastern societies associates with the grief of Lokman Slim’s family and honours his memory.[SL1]

With the support of CERMOM – Centre de recherches Moyen-Orient Méditerranée/Inalco,  CéSor – Centre d’études en sciences sociales du religieux (UMR 8216 – EHESS / CNRS), Ifpo – Institut français du Proche-Orient (UMIFRE 6 / USR 3135-MEAE / CNRS), Sciences-Po CERI – Centre de recherches international, département “Etudes arabes” de l’Inalco Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales –  IREMAM – Institut de recherches et d’études sur les mondes arabes et musulmans (UMR 7310 – CNRS), MMSH – Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme USR 3125 (AMU/CNRS, GIS Moyen-Orient et Mondes Musulmans, SEMOMM – Société des études sur le Moyen-Orient et les Mondes musulmans, Unité de Recherches Migrations et Société (IRD UMR 205 URMIS).

Emma Aubin-Boltanski (CéSOR), Sandra Barrère, (Université Bordeaux-Montaigne, laboratoire TELEM), Hamit Bozarslan (CETOBaC), Myriam Catusse (IREMAM), Frédérik Detue (Université Côte d’Azur), Kamel Doraï (Ifpo), Véronique Ginouvès (MMSH Phonothèque), Eberhard Kienle (CERI), Pauline Koetschet (Ifpo), Stéphanie Latte-Abdallah (CERI), Franck Mermier (IFEA), Sabrina Mervin (CéSOR), René Otayek (Sciences Po Bordeaux/LAM), Anna Poujeau (Ifpo), Nicolas Puig (IRD UMR 205), Candice Raymond (Ifpo), Jean-Christophe Peyssard (MMSH), Elsa zakhia (Ifpo).

For an international investigation into the assassination of Lokman Slim: https://www.change.org/p/l-assassinat-de-lokman-slim-au-liban-pour-une-enqu%C3%AAte-internationale-ind%C3%A9pendante?signed=true

French language: https://phonotheque.hypotheses.org/33107

Photographic credits: Lokman Slim leading a round table on “Sharing digital data in the Middle East” on May 29, 2019, during the international conference New digital archives in the Middle East: sound, image, film and the web. Challenges of sharing field data in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, photograph V. Ginouvès, CC-BY

More information (selection on Zotero).

CLARIN Café – How Not to Spill Coffee on Your Tapes. Best Practices for Preserving Oral Archives

Take a coffee with us, on Wednesday 24 February 2021 from 14:00 to 16:00 (CET)!

About the café

Oral sources are rather fragile objects within oral history, mainly if compared to other kinds of historical sources such as artifacts and written documents, and thus rely on a specialised infrastructure for their preservation. This CLARIN Café discusses the best practices for preserving such oral sources. Continuer la lecture de CLARIN Café – How Not to Spill Coffee on Your Tapes. Best Practices for Preserving Oral Archives

Avent-2: 13 desserts and two songs for Christmas

On aurait dit qu’un ouragan allait surgir. Un courant d’air cassa un vasistas. J’ai dit tout bas “I am afraid”. (La disparition, Georges Perec, 1969, p.97).

Tomorrow it will be time to prepare the meals of Christmas Eve. 

We suggest you prepare 13 desserts listening to Christmas two songs from other parts of the world, as this happy choir song “Joy to the World” recorded in the Marshall Islands in 1952, that will enlighten your night : http://archives.crem-cnrs.fr/archives/items/CNRSMH_I_1953_002_001_19 Continuer la lecture de Avent-2: 13 desserts and two songs for Christmas

Avent -3 : Enjoy food and drink… with your ears!

Quoi qu’il fut, plutôt par goût, par tradition, plutôt gourmand, sinon glouton, il n’avait plus jamais faim. Il n’arrivait plus à finir son fricot du midi. Pourtant, nous lui mijotions, non sans amour, un plat qu’il adorait : un aloyau aux oignons confits, un turbot au court-bouillon, du quasi, du boudin au raifort, un salpicon. Mais il avalait tout au plus un anchois, du cantal, un soupçon d’izard, un doigt d’amontillado, un abricot ou un citron doux. Il maigrissait. Il nous faisait du souci (La disparition, Georges Perec, 1969, p. 73-74).

Staring into a bakery shop window, smelling mouth-watering flavours coming from your oven, grabbing a bit of sandwich… Well it is pretty obvious that you can enjoy food and beverages by smelling, tasting and even looking at them, but has it ever crossed your mind that you could useanother of the five senses: hearing!
Continuer la lecture de Avent -3 : Enjoy food and drink… with your ears!

Avent -4 : Singing/Speaking. Yezidi and neapolitan cases

Il souffrait moins, mais il s’affaiblissait. Alangui tout au long du jour sur son lit, sur son divan, sur son rocking -chair, crayonnant sans fin au dos d’un bristol l’indistinct motif du tapis d’Aubusson, il divaguait parfois, pris d’hallucinations. (La disparitioin, Georges Perec, 1969, p. 9).

The very close relationship between speech and song makes it sometimes difficult to draw a clear dividing line between these two categories. Some utterances are considered liminal. We will give you two very different examples from the archives of the CREM and the MMSH. Continuer la lecture de Avent -4 : Singing/Speaking. Yezidi and neapolitan cases

Avent -5 : Celebrating Summer with fire or water?

Il faisait un froid suffocant. Un canard n’aurait pas pu sortir ni un loup. (La Disparition, Georges Perec, 1969, p. 34).

This post was first published the 16th of May 2015 and began as follows “Summer is coming and to welcome it,…” but republishing this post this Christmas 2020, in link with the 27th of December, the celebration of St. John the Evangelist is celebrated, we decided to change the phrase… In this case, the Wayback Machine didn’t archive it but fortunately, a preview of the post – sent by the communication head on 18 May 2015 – allowed us to view the post as it was on the Europeana Sound blog. Let’s discover two sound archives dealing with the classical elements: fire and water. One archive from Provence presents Saint-Jean celebration and the other one from Serbia introduces Dodole ritual.

Saint Jean, protector of fruits and crops, is a very popular patron saint in Provence. An old Provençal saying claims that “Jan émé Jan partejan l’an” and explains how the “Saint Jean” celebration divides the year1. The solstice day on June 24th marks the beginning of the hot weather. During this night a collective celebration is organized: we light a big fire and have to jump on it in order to bring warmth and protection. The nature is celebrated this day as well, because it’s the leading of livestock to the high mountains for the Transhumance. Continuer la lecture de Avent -5 : Celebrating Summer with fire or water?

  1. Saint Jean is celebrated on June 24th (Midsummer) and St. John the Evangelist is celebrated December 27th. []

Avent -8 : Ring the bells – Sonnez les cloches !

J’introduisis l’inconnu, lui offris un pouf, sonnai du gong. Augustus parut aussitôt : « Plait-il ? » dit-il. « Anton Voyl » dit l’inconnu en s’inclinant. (La disparition, Georges Perec, 1969, p. 80)

Ce billet collectif (CREM, CRESSON, MMSH) avait été publié un 27 juin 2016 sous cette URL http://www.europeanasounds.eu/news/ring-the-bells qui désormais renvoie systématiquement à une adresse générique. Heureusement la Wayback machine est passée ce jour là et le billet se retrouve sous https://web.archive.org/web/20170627010236/http://www.europeanasounds.eu/news/ring-the-bells… mais la version française, sous l’URL  http://www.europeanasounds.eu/fr/actualites-fr/sonnez-les-cloches, n’a pas eu cette chance, elle est tombée dans les oubliettes du web :

message d'erreur de la wayback machine

Revoilà les cloches qui sonnent, en français et en anglais !

Les cloches sont un marqueur de territoire qu’il s’agisse des cloches animales des clochers et campaniles. On les a certes oubliés, car ces marqueurs sonores de l’espace & du temps ont été aujourd’hui supplantés ou complétés par bien d’autres systèmes, administratifs & techniques (le bip-bip de votre réveil ou la sirène des pompiers du mercredi midi…), mais tendez l’oreille vous entendrez encore des cloches sonner à la campagne… Voilà quelques exemples à travers l’Europe  issus des archives du CNRS, le CREM, le CRESSON et la MMSH. Continuer la lecture de Avent -8 : Ring the bells – Sonnez les cloches !

Avent -10 : How to bury Winter?

L’on dansa dans tous les caboulot au son du hautbois, du biniou, du tambour. (La disparition, Georges Perec, 1969, p. 20)

This post was published for the first time on the Europeana Sounds Blog the 29th of February 2016, at this URL: http://www.europeanasounds.eu/news/when-carnival-buries-winter, and fortunately, this post is not dissolved in the web! We found it on the Wayback Machine (many many thanks Archive.org) at this URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20160624193905/http://www.europeanasounds.eu/news/when-carnival-buries-winter

Continuer la lecture de Avent -10 : How to bury Winter?

Avent -11 : Polyphony around Europe

Quoi qu’insuffisant, surtout dans sa conclusion, son travail, confinant à l’intuition d’un Marc Bloch quant au rapport Donjon-Vassal, d’un Mauss sur l‘union Chaman-Tribu, d’un Chomsky sur la jonction Insignifiant-Signifiant, prouvait qu’il n’y avait pas obligation (il s’agissait tout au plus d’un choix facultatif), montrant ainsi qu’on s’abusait quand on analysait, à partir d’un Droit soi-disant positif, un substratum d’où l’on croyait saisir la Colonisation, la Romanisation ou la Barbarisation. Ça signifiait donc qu’il fallait à tout prix fuir l’a priori pour saisir, avant tout, l’infrastructural. Tu vois la situation Karl Marx à l’Institut ! On n’avait jamais vu ça. Pourtant la plupart du jury fut d’accord, sauf Carcopino (di Cocopinard) qui dit-on avait rugi « Idiot ! Idiot » ! » (La disparition, Georges Perec, 1969, p. 44)

This post was published for the first time on the Europeana Sounds Blog the 8th of September 2014, at this URL: http://www.europeanasounds.eu/news/polyphony-around-europe ((In September Archive.org archived the blog twice but not this page. Unfortunately, all the posts of this blog were dissolved in the web when the project finished. This Avent Calendar is a chance to publish these forgotten posts. Continuer la lecture de Avent -11 : Polyphony around Europe

Avent -13 : Ski Ambience in Bardonecchia

Il s’assit un long instant sur un banc moussu, non loin du grand acacia dont la frondaison balançait, produisant un bruit sourd mais continu, un chuchotis murmurant, un soupir bourdonnant qu’on aurait cru parfois sibyllin, sodonial. (La disparition, Georges Perec, 1969, p 222).

Ce billet a été publié le 8 décembre 2016 . La Wayback Machine permet d’en retrouver partiellement la trace, dernière page conservée du blog : https://web.archive.org/web/20170125115406/http://www.europeanasounds.eu/page/5

L’enregistrement mis alors sur Soundcloud est toujours disponible :

Continuer la lecture de Avent -13 : Ski Ambience in Bardonecchia