Page 32 - Aesthetic Formations Media, religion, and the Sense

Introduction 17

are underlain with the voice of another, eases this process of disassociation.
Hoek understands this as an adaptation of the practice of porda—that is,
the modes through which woman become present in public—to the spe-
cific dynamic of the Bangladeshi film industry. While in Bangladesh
actresses involved in film making negotiate middle class and religious
moral standards in such ways that they continue to participate in obscene
films, in Northern Nigeria Hausa video movies are heavily critiqued by the
Muslim establishment because they display too much of the female body
(Larkin 2008; see also Krings 2005)—so much so that current censorship
requirements make it virtually impossible to still shoot a movie (Larkin
personal communication). Such critiques not only touch upon allegedly
obscene images, but also dismiss the medium of film as such, and its link
with the allegedly immoral space of the cinema. Of course, actual viewers
may have a different idea about this kind of movie. As Martijn Oosterbaan
(2003; see also Chapter 2) shows, born-again audiences in the favelas of
Rio de Janeiro do not only evaluate (and possibly dismiss) televised enter-
tainment on the basis of their Pentecostal worldview: they even put their
faith to test by observing to what extent watching obscene images still has
a bodily impact (sexual arousal being a sign of too much worldliness). The
point here is that both in the sphere of the production and consumption of
films, people mobilize a religiously underpinned ethics of acting, listening
(Hirschkind 2001, 2006) and watching (see also Bakker 2007).
Many more examples from the research conducted in our research pro-
gram (and other researchers in the field) could be invoked, but the point
should be clear: This volume demonstrates that the accessibility of (new)
media offers a strong potential for religious transformations, while at the
same time media themselves are subject to religious mediation practices.
As the incorporation of new media may entail significant changes in estab-
lished sensational forms, authority structures, and the public presence of a
given religion, a study of the negotiation of media offers deep insights into
processes of binding and bonding in our time. This is the key concern that
drives the various contributions to this volume.

IV Religion in the Public Realm

The contributions to this volume show that new possibilities for religions
to go public, and to assert their presence in the public sphere, involve para-
doxes and tensions. While within religious circles, such processes often are
subject to ongoing concern and reflection—expressed, for instance, by
fears of “watering down”—scholars need to be wary of simply echoing