Think Tank Manifesto
The think tank centers around critical dialogue focusing on museology intersecting with but not limited to art, architecture, urbanism, and culture. Moving away from traditional knowledge by creating a framework to look at the past, knowledge, and academy in a perspective that builds upon less authority in a more open-ended, cumulative mode. Questioning the academy suffers from representational crises (self\other) through representing a narrow perspective, thus reflecting biases, has led us to seek different approaches in today’s social agenda that lacks intersectional communications.
In the age of the internet, knowledge had become more accessible than anytime before, from a time that it was only limited to elites, the wealthy, and scholars. Whereas taking advantage of this accessibility, the think tank tries to increase/contribute cross-disciplinary dialogues without hierarchic tension. We intend to question even the most accepted taxonomies (classifications) in academic subjects and to talk about what could be different if we have a chance to change now?
Why in ‘other’ contexts?
Otherness is a wide range of arguments covering many political and cultural tensions since the emergence of nation-states. However, contemporary discussions about otherness, alienation, orientalism, exoticizing, and assimilation are still produced by a group of researchers to expose a very limited audience. We believe cultural otherness is a universal problem, and the more discussions stand out, the less oppression for others will happen in the future.
Things we do – Methodology
When we find an intriguing idea, preferably in an underrepresented non-western cultural narrative as a research topic, we start to follow the roots of the traditions and customs, leading to a discussion as a start of creative dialogue.
For us, creative/critical dialogue signifies combining scientific studies with many opinions, particularly in oppressed communities. Our methodology consists of browsing (in the age of the internet) academic authorities’ studies on the particular subject and discussing the critical points (for us) with ‘others.’ We like to borrow diverse techniques from different disciplines such as data analysis, mapping, comparative reading, etc.