Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences
Cultural Rhythms – Rhythmanalysis as a Method to Understand Culture
A culture is always in the making, it is a bundle of intertwined processes that flow in time, and rhythms are patterns of its organisation. Phenomenologically oriented cultural rhythmanalysis observes and describes the fundamental repetitions and alternations that constitute shared socio-cultural milieus. Polyrhythmic assemblages of these milieus consists of myriads of intersecting rhythms – daily routines, rhythms of traffic and productions, rhythms of growth and decay, seasonal alterations, technological and communicational rhythms, rhythms of natural and urban environments, economic and political rhythms and everything in between. Cultural rhythmanalysis is an endeavour to enter, unravel and analyse the multilayered textures of the lived worlds we inhabit. In the current presentation, I will attempt to analyse my experience I made this year in Vancouver, the city that merges many different and conflicting rhythmic structures in a particularly palpable way and offers an ideal terrain for rhythmanalysis.