Engagement
This new four-episode podcast series brings thought-provoking, contemporary topics to the table. Be it reappropriating Runes, warning against the perils of media censorship, distinguishing between provocative art and hateful discourse, and giving voice to the experiences of women in the music industry, no topic proves too challenging for Vivek Venkatesh and his co-host, Michelle Ayoub. Produced by Aaron Lakoff and Kathryn Urbaniak, each episode runs at about 30 minutes long and also has original music by Leticia Trandafir.
The first episode is titled Propositions for Cultural Reappropriation and features Jannicke Wiese-Hansen, Kirsti Rosseland, Ivar Peersen (Enslaved) and Kjetil Grutle (Enslaved).
Next is Balancing Free Speech, Critical Thinking and Media Literacy featuring J.R. Hayes (Pig Destroyer), Richard Johnson (Agoraphobic Nosebleed) and Ihsahn (Emperor).
Then there is Social Media: The Good, the Bad and the Unforgivable featuring Neill Jameson (Krieg), Jason Rockman (Slaves on Dope), Ihsahn (Emperor), Richard Johnson (Agoraphobic Nosebleed) and Sean McGuinness (Pissed Jeans).
And finally, Women in Metal: Underdogs or Equals? featuring Kirsti Rosseland, Jannicke Wiese-Hansen and Ivar Peersen (Enslaved).
NordiQC
A second panel was conducted by Vivek Venkatesh with Ivar Bjornson, Janickke Wiese-Hansen and Kirsti Rosseland.
February, 2017
Vivek Venkatesh spoke at PINC (Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California) in February as part of Grimposium’s Desiring Deadness: Psychosocial Necrophilia in Accelerated times. This conversation took up the concept of necrophilia as both a potentially creative and yet often destructive phenomena that bears on psychical, cultural, and political processes in overdetermined ways. Concordia University professor, filmmaker, and founder of Grimposium, Vivek Venkatesh, PhD discussed his work on the critical and reflexive rejuvenation of extreme metal music through a socio-anthropological and cultural analysis of necrophilia, blasphemy and solipsistic individuality.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapist, visual artist, and death metal vocalist, Daniel Butler, MA turned to the concept of psychosocial necrophilia and offered both clinical and cultural material for illustration (not shown). Also, discussant Stephen Hartman, PhD located these presentations at the nexus of psychic and social forces that paradoxically present opportunities to elaborate aliveness with deadness, subjectivity via depersonalization, and dis/embodied relatedness (not shown). Moderator, composer, lyricist, musician and PINC Administrative Assistant, Leila Abdul-Rauf, MS introduced the symposium discussion in light of her unique experience as a veteran of several Grimposium events.
Recorded at PINC (Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California), San Francisco.
Pussy Riot talks punk rock, prison and Pokémon
November, 2016
Concordia professor Vivek Venkatesh interviewed Russia’s human rights rebels, Pussy Riot. Read more here.
A podcast of the interviews is below.
Theatrics of Hate Speech
October, 2016
In this talk, Vivek Venkatesh speaks about the development of an interdisciplinary research program that looks at socio-communal, political and psychological factors impacting the production and dissemination of hate speech in the global extreme metal music scene. Drawing on examples from field observations, interviews, and multi-method content analyses from multiple sources of data, Vivek describes how themes of darkness, destruction, self-harm, xenophobia and dystopia blur consumption-related boundaries between musicians, fans, visual artists and journalists in underground extreme metal scenes. Implications for the development of social pedagogical curricula to build criticality and reflexivity in the general public towards issues of discrimination, racism, misogyny and other forms of intolerance are discussed.
Recorded at CICC (Centre International de Criminologie Compare), Université de Montréal.
Death Metal Dads
September, 2016
Vivek Venkatesh appears on the Death Metal Dads podcast with host Shelby Lermo of Vastum and guests Pranjal Tiwari of Cardinal Wyrm as well as Daniel Butler of Acephalix and Vastum. Recorded in Montreal during Doomed to Death (2016). Click here to listen.
West Side Gory
January, 2016
Sexual Violence and Misogyny in Literary and Lyrical Frameworks: Intersecting the Humanities and Social Sciences in the Context of Niche Music, Film and Visual Art Scenes. January, 2016
Interactive Public Engagement Event with Daniel Butler, Leila Abdul-Rauf, Beth Winegarner, Bradley Nelson, Jason Wallin, and Justin Norton.
Recorded at aQuarius recOrds, San Francisco.
January, 2016
Necrophilia and Sexual Violence: Reflexive Viewpoints in Death Metal Music, Zombie Culture, Scandinavian Cinema and Early Modern Spanish Literature.
Improvisational reading by Vivek Venkatesh, Bradley Nelson and Jason Wallin accompanied on guitar by Cardinal Wyrm’s Nathan Verrill.
Recorded at aQuarius recOrds, San Francisco.
Interviews with Metal Music Artists
August, 2015
Recorded at Heavy Montreal, Montreal.
Spectacles of Hate Speech
Spectacles of hate speech: An exemplary approach to transgressions in black metal (talk)
Excerpt reading from: Exploring the language and spectacle of online hate speech in the black metal scene: Developing theoretical and methodological intersections between the social sciences and the humanities.
The symposium “From my cold dead hand: Cervantes and the public humanities in the twenty-first century” was organized by Brad Nelson and occurred on September 23rd, 2015.
Recorded at Concordia University, Montreal.
Spectacles of hate speech: An exemplary approach to transgressions in black metal (Q&A)
Brad Nelson and Vivek Venkatesh’s discussion at Concordia University with Julio Baena, David Castillo, Moises Castillo, and William Egginton.
Recorded at Concordia University, Montreal.
Communal and Individual Politics in the Extreme Metal Artform
In this lecture, Dr. Vivek Venkatesh provides an overview of the research program he has been working on with his collaborators which illuminate the communal and individual factors that impact a variety of politics in the extreme metal music scene.
Recorded at Concordia University, Montreal.
