read about it here
Showing posts with label Art and Religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art and Religion. Show all posts
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Art and Religion XVII: Arthur Danto
read, I think the first chapter (pdf): 'The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art'
and his essay (pdf): 'The End of Art: A Philosophical Defense'
Listen to the entire podcast (2 hr discussion), and more info on Danto, at the Partially Examined Life
*if you haven't noticed, in some of these 'Art and Religion' posts I've been hinting and wondering what would happen if we substituted the term 'art' with 'religion' and whether the statement or argument could still apply.
In this case, in tribute to the late Arthur Danto, can we discuss 'the disenfranchisement of religion' or 'the end of religion'?
Art and ReligionXVI: Leo Tolstoy
"In order correctly to define art, it is necessary, first
of all, to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and to consider
it as one of the conditions of human life. Viewing it in this way we
cannot fail to observe that art is one of the means of intercourse
between man and man.
Every work of art causes the receiver to enter into a certain kind of relationship both with him who produced, or is producing, the art, and with all those who, simultaneously, previously, or subsequently, receive the same artistic impression.
[…]
The activity of art is based on the fact that a man, receiving through his sense of hearing or sight another man’s expression of feeling, is capable of experiencing the emotion which moved the man who expressed it. … And it is upon this capacity of man to receive another man’s expression of feeling and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based."
Source
Every work of art causes the receiver to enter into a certain kind of relationship both with him who produced, or is producing, the art, and with all those who, simultaneously, previously, or subsequently, receive the same artistic impression.
[…]
The activity of art is based on the fact that a man, receiving through his sense of hearing or sight another man’s expression of feeling, is capable of experiencing the emotion which moved the man who expressed it. … And it is upon this capacity of man to receive another man’s expression of feeling and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based."
Source
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Mythopoeia by JRR Tolkien (response to CS Lewis)
To one [C.S. Lewis] who said that myths were lies and therefore
worthless, even though 'breathed through silver'.
Philomythus to Misomythus
You look at trees and label them just so,
(for trees are 'trees', and growing is 'to grow');
you walk the earth and tread with solemn pace
one of the many minor globes of Space:
a star's a star, some matter in a ball
compelled to courses mathematical
amid the regimented, cold, inane,
where destined atoms are each moment slain.
At bidding of a Will, to which we bend
(and must), but only dimly apprehend,
great processes march on, as Time unrolls
from dark beginnings to uncertain goals;
and as on page o'er-written without clue,
with script and limning packed of various hue,
an endless multitude of forms appear,
some grim, some frail, some beautiful, some queer,
each alien, except as kin from one
remote Origo, gnat, man, stone, and sun.
God made the petreous rocks, the arboreal trees,
tellurian earth, and stellar stars, and these
homuncular men, who walk upon the ground
with nerves that tingle touched by light and sound.
The movements of the sea, the wind in boughs,
green grass, the large slow oddity of cows,
thunder and lightning, birds that wheel and cry,
slime crawling up from mud to live and die,
these each are duly registered and print
the brain's contortions with a separate dint.
Yet trees are not 'trees', until so named and seen
and never were so named, tifi those had been
who speech's involuted breath unfurled,
faint echo and dim picture of the world,
but neither record nor a photograph,
being divination, judgement, and a laugh
response of those that felt astir within
by deep monition movements that were kin
to life and death of trees, of beasts, of stars:
free captives undermining shadowy bars,
digging the foreknown from experience
and panning the vein of spirit out of sense.
Great powers they slowly brought out of themselves
and looking backward they beheld the elves
that wrought on cunning forges in the mind,
and light and dark on secret looms entwined.
He sees no stars who does not see them first
of living silver made that sudden burst
to flame like flowers bencath an ancient song,
whose very echo after-music long
has since pursued. There is no firmament,
only a void, unless a jewelled tent
myth-woven and elf-pattemed; and no earth,
unless the mother's womb whence all have birth.
The heart of Man is not compound of lies,
but draws some wisdom from the only Wise,
and still recalls him. Though now long estranged,
Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not dethroned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned,
his world-dominion by creative act:
not his to worship the great Artefact,
Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sowed the seed of dragons, 'twas our right
(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we're made.
Yes! 'wish-fulfilment dreams' we spin to cheat
our timid hearts and ugly Fact defeat!
Whence came the wish, and whence the power to dream,
or some things fair and others ugly deem?
All wishes are not idle, nor in vain
fulfilment we devise -- for pain is pain,
not for itself to be desired, but ill;
or else to strive or to subdue the will
alike were graceless; and of Evil this
alone is deadly certain: Evil is.
Blessed are the timid hearts that evil hate
that quail in its shadow, and yet shut the gate;
that seek no parley, and in guarded room,
though small and bate, upon a clumsy loom
weave tissues gilded by the far-off day
hoped and believed in under Shadow's sway.
Blessed are the men of Noah's race that build
their little arks, though frail and poorly filled,
and steer through winds contrary towards a wraith,
a rumour of a harbour guessed by faith.
Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme
of things not found within recorded time.
It is not they that have forgot the Night,
or bid us flee to organized delight,
in lotus-isles of economic bliss
forswearing souls to gain a Circe-kiss
(and counterfeit at that, machine-produced,
bogus seduction of the twice-seduced).
Such isles they saw afar, and ones more fair,
and those that hear them yet may yet beware.
They have seen Death and ultimate defeat,
and yet they would not in despair retreat,
but oft to victory have tuned the lyre
and kindled hearts with legendary fire,
illuminating Now and dark Hath-been
with light of suns as yet by no man seen.
I would that I might with the minstrels sing
and stir the unseen with a throbbing string.
I would be with the mariners of the deep
that cut their slender planks on mountains steep
and voyage upon a vague and wandering quest,
for some have passed beyond the fabled West.
I would with the beleaguered fools be told,
that keep an inner fastness where their gold,
impure and scanty, yet they loyally bring
to mint in image blurred of distant king,
or in fantastic banners weave the sheen
heraldic emblems of a lord unseen.
I will not walk with your progressive apes,
erect and sapient. Before them gapes
the dark abyss to which their progress tends
if by God's mercy progress ever ends,
and does not ceaselessly revolve the same
unfruitful course with changing of a name.
I will not treat your dusty path and flat,
denoting this and that by this and that,
your world immutable wherein no part
the little maker has with maker's art.
I bow not yet before the Iron Crown,
nor cast my own small golden sceptre down.
In Paradise perchance the eye may stray
from gazing upon everlasting Day
to see the day illumined, and renew
from mirrored truth the likeness of the True.
Then looking on the Blessed Land 'twill see
that all is as it is, and yet made free:
Salvation changes not, nor yet destroys,
garden nor gardener, children nor their toys.
Evil it will not see, for evil lies
not in God's picture but in crooked eyes,
not in the source but in malicious choice,
and not in sound but in the tuneless voice.
In Paradise they look no more awry;
and though they make anew, they make no lie.
Be sure they still will make, not being dead,
and poets shall have flames upon their head,
and harps whereon their faultless fingers fall:
there each shall choose for ever from the All.
source
Philomythus to Misomythus
You look at trees and label them just so,
(for trees are 'trees', and growing is 'to grow');
you walk the earth and tread with solemn pace
one of the many minor globes of Space:
a star's a star, some matter in a ball
compelled to courses mathematical
amid the regimented, cold, inane,
where destined atoms are each moment slain.
At bidding of a Will, to which we bend
(and must), but only dimly apprehend,
great processes march on, as Time unrolls
from dark beginnings to uncertain goals;
and as on page o'er-written without clue,
with script and limning packed of various hue,
an endless multitude of forms appear,
some grim, some frail, some beautiful, some queer,
each alien, except as kin from one
remote Origo, gnat, man, stone, and sun.
God made the petreous rocks, the arboreal trees,
tellurian earth, and stellar stars, and these
homuncular men, who walk upon the ground
with nerves that tingle touched by light and sound.
The movements of the sea, the wind in boughs,
green grass, the large slow oddity of cows,
thunder and lightning, birds that wheel and cry,
slime crawling up from mud to live and die,
these each are duly registered and print
the brain's contortions with a separate dint.
Yet trees are not 'trees', until so named and seen
and never were so named, tifi those had been
who speech's involuted breath unfurled,
faint echo and dim picture of the world,
but neither record nor a photograph,
being divination, judgement, and a laugh
response of those that felt astir within
by deep monition movements that were kin
to life and death of trees, of beasts, of stars:
free captives undermining shadowy bars,
digging the foreknown from experience
and panning the vein of spirit out of sense.
Great powers they slowly brought out of themselves
and looking backward they beheld the elves
that wrought on cunning forges in the mind,
and light and dark on secret looms entwined.
He sees no stars who does not see them first
of living silver made that sudden burst
to flame like flowers bencath an ancient song,
whose very echo after-music long
has since pursued. There is no firmament,
only a void, unless a jewelled tent
myth-woven and elf-pattemed; and no earth,
unless the mother's womb whence all have birth.
The heart of Man is not compound of lies,
but draws some wisdom from the only Wise,
and still recalls him. Though now long estranged,
Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not dethroned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned,
his world-dominion by creative act:
not his to worship the great Artefact,
Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sowed the seed of dragons, 'twas our right
(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we're made.
Yes! 'wish-fulfilment dreams' we spin to cheat
our timid hearts and ugly Fact defeat!
Whence came the wish, and whence the power to dream,
or some things fair and others ugly deem?
All wishes are not idle, nor in vain
fulfilment we devise -- for pain is pain,
not for itself to be desired, but ill;
or else to strive or to subdue the will
alike were graceless; and of Evil this
alone is deadly certain: Evil is.
Blessed are the timid hearts that evil hate
that quail in its shadow, and yet shut the gate;
that seek no parley, and in guarded room,
though small and bate, upon a clumsy loom
weave tissues gilded by the far-off day
hoped and believed in under Shadow's sway.
Blessed are the men of Noah's race that build
their little arks, though frail and poorly filled,
and steer through winds contrary towards a wraith,
a rumour of a harbour guessed by faith.
Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme
of things not found within recorded time.
It is not they that have forgot the Night,
or bid us flee to organized delight,
in lotus-isles of economic bliss
forswearing souls to gain a Circe-kiss
(and counterfeit at that, machine-produced,
bogus seduction of the twice-seduced).
Such isles they saw afar, and ones more fair,
and those that hear them yet may yet beware.
They have seen Death and ultimate defeat,
and yet they would not in despair retreat,
but oft to victory have tuned the lyre
and kindled hearts with legendary fire,
illuminating Now and dark Hath-been
with light of suns as yet by no man seen.
I would that I might with the minstrels sing
and stir the unseen with a throbbing string.
I would be with the mariners of the deep
that cut their slender planks on mountains steep
and voyage upon a vague and wandering quest,
for some have passed beyond the fabled West.
I would with the beleaguered fools be told,
that keep an inner fastness where their gold,
impure and scanty, yet they loyally bring
to mint in image blurred of distant king,
or in fantastic banners weave the sheen
heraldic emblems of a lord unseen.
I will not walk with your progressive apes,
erect and sapient. Before them gapes
the dark abyss to which their progress tends
if by God's mercy progress ever ends,
and does not ceaselessly revolve the same
unfruitful course with changing of a name.
I will not treat your dusty path and flat,
denoting this and that by this and that,
your world immutable wherein no part
the little maker has with maker's art.
I bow not yet before the Iron Crown,
nor cast my own small golden sceptre down.
In Paradise perchance the eye may stray
from gazing upon everlasting Day
to see the day illumined, and renew
from mirrored truth the likeness of the True.
Then looking on the Blessed Land 'twill see
that all is as it is, and yet made free:
Salvation changes not, nor yet destroys,
garden nor gardener, children nor their toys.
Evil it will not see, for evil lies
not in God's picture but in crooked eyes,
not in the source but in malicious choice,
and not in sound but in the tuneless voice.
In Paradise they look no more awry;
and though they make anew, they make no lie.
Be sure they still will make, not being dead,
and poets shall have flames upon their head,
and harps whereon their faultless fingers fall:
there each shall choose for ever from the All.
source
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Fellowship by Kafka (1909)
We are five friends, one day we came out of a house one after the other, first one came and placed himself beside the gate, then the second came, or rather he glided through the gate like a little ball of quicksilver, and placed himself near the first one, then came the third, then the fourth, then the fifth. Finally we all stood in a row. People began to notice us, they pointed at us and said: Those five just came out of that house.
Since then we have been living together, it would be a peaceful life if it weren’t for a sixth one continually trying to interfere. He doesn’t do us any harm, but he annoys us, and that is harm enough; why does he intrude when he is not wanted? We don’t know him and don’t want him to join us.
There was a time, of course, when the five of us did not know one another, either, and it could be said that we still don’t know one another, but what is possible and can be tolerated by the five of us is not possible and cannot be tolerated with this sixth one. In any case, we are five and don’t want to be six. And what is the point of this continual being together anyhow? It is also pointless for the five of us, but here we are together and will remain together; a new combination, however, we do not want, just because of our experiences.
But how is one to make all this clear to the sixth one? Long explanations would almost amount to accepting him in our circle, so we prefer not to explain and not to accept him. No matter how he pouts his lips we push him away with our elbows, but however much we push him away, back he comes.
Ethnography.com discusses the in-group vs. out-group dynamic in terms of Gemeinshaft vs. Gesellshaft: here
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Thousand Hands Guan Yin (Dance)
"In 1987, the China Disabled People’s Performing Arts Troupe was formed. They are a professional performing arts troupe made up of 106 performers with hearing and/or visual impairments or physical disabilities. For the next 20 years, the 106 performers worked hard to turn professional in 2000. By 2004, they gave up their government allowance, began supporting themselves… and started raising money for charities! So beautiful no matter what angle you look at it from.
Aged between 14-19, they slowly-but-steadily learned the art of dancing through sign language with other trainers. To make up for the lack of one or more of their senses, they put in more time, effort and have immense determination. Determination is the key for all success for anyone."
source
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Monday, November 18, 2013
Religion and Hip Hop
Dr. Monica Miller has written 'Religion and Hip Hop', in which she seeks to open up the dialogue further between the two:
The description of the book from Routledge:
In a previous post I mentioned the work of Dr. Daniel Hodge in which he discusses Tupac's 'Black Jesus' (and some recent commentary here @ political jesus on Tupac's 'Black Jesus')
Michael Eric Dyson talks about Tupac and God a bit further in an interview here
And for good measure, just because I am a fan of 2Pac:
'Ghetto Gospel' (released posthumously in 2004)
Lyrics:
The description of the book from Routledge:
Religion and Hip Hop brings
together the category of religion, Hip Hop cultural modalities and the
demographic of youth. Bringing postmodern theory and critical approaches
in the study of religion to bear on Hip Hop cultural practices, this
book examines how scholars in religious and theological studies have
deployed and approached religion when analyzing Hip Hop data. Using
existing empirical studies on youth and religion to the cultural
criticism of the Humanities, Religion and Hip Hop argues that
common among existing scholarship is a thin interrogation of the
category of religion. As such, Miller calls for a redescription of
religion in popular cultural analysis - a challenge she further explores
and advances through various materialist engagements.
Going beyond the traditional and more common approach of analyzing rap lyrics, from film, dance, to virtual reality, Religion and Hip Hop takes a fresh approach to exploring the paranoid posture of the religious in popular cultural forms, by going beyond what "is" religious about Hip Hop culture. Rather, Miller explores what rhetorical uses of religion in Hip Hop culture accomplish for various and often competing social and cultural interests."
Going beyond the traditional and more common approach of analyzing rap lyrics, from film, dance, to virtual reality, Religion and Hip Hop takes a fresh approach to exploring the paranoid posture of the religious in popular cultural forms, by going beyond what "is" religious about Hip Hop culture. Rather, Miller explores what rhetorical uses of religion in Hip Hop culture accomplish for various and often competing social and cultural interests."
In a previous post I mentioned the work of Dr. Daniel Hodge in which he discusses Tupac's 'Black Jesus' (and some recent commentary here @ political jesus on Tupac's 'Black Jesus')
Michael Eric Dyson talks about Tupac and God a bit further in an interview here
And for good measure, just because I am a fan of 2Pac:
'Ghetto Gospel' (released posthumously in 2004)
Lyrics:
[Intro]
Uhh, hit em with a little ghetto gospel
[Hook: Elton John]
Those who wish to follow me
(My ghetto gospel)
I welcome with my hands
And the red sun sinks at last
Into the hills of gold
And peace to this young warrior
Without the sound of guns
[Verse 1]
If I could recollect before my hood days
I sit and reminisce
Thinking of bliss and the good days
I stop and stare at the younger
My heart goes to em
They tested with stress that they under
And nowadays things change
Everyone's ashamed of the youth cause the truth look, strange
And for me it's reversed
We left em a world that's cursed
And it hurts
Cause any day they'll push the button
And all come in like Malcolm X or Bobby Hutton died for nothing
Don't it make you get teary
The world looks dreary
When you wipe your eyes see it clearly
There's no need for you to fear me
If you take your time and hear me
Maybe you can learn to cheer me
It ain't about black or white cause we human
I hope we see the light before it's ruined, my ghetto gospel
[Hook]
[Verse 2]
Tell me do you see that old lady
Ain't it sad
Living out of bags
Plus she's glad for the little things she has
And over there there's a lady
Crack got her crazy
Guess who's giving birth to a baby
I don't trip or let it fade me
From out of the fryin pan
We jump into another form of slavery
Even now I get discouraged
Wonder if they take it all back
Will I still keep the courage
I refuse to be a role model
I set goals, take control, drink out my own bottles
I make mistakes but learn from every one
And when it's said and done
I bet this brother be a better one
If I upset you don't stress never forget
That God isn't finished with me yet
I feel his hand on my brain
When I write rhymes I go blind and let the Lord do his thing
But am I less holy
Cause I chose to puff a blunt and drink a beer with my homies
Before we find world peace
We gotta find peace and end the war in the streets
My ghetto gospel
[Hook]
[Outro]
Lord can you hear me speak
To pay the price of being hellbound
source
Uhh, hit em with a little ghetto gospel
[Hook: Elton John]
Those who wish to follow me
(My ghetto gospel)
I welcome with my hands
And the red sun sinks at last
Into the hills of gold
And peace to this young warrior
Without the sound of guns
[Verse 1]
If I could recollect before my hood days
I sit and reminisce
Thinking of bliss and the good days
I stop and stare at the younger
My heart goes to em
They tested with stress that they under
And nowadays things change
Everyone's ashamed of the youth cause the truth look, strange
And for me it's reversed
We left em a world that's cursed
And it hurts
Cause any day they'll push the button
And all come in like Malcolm X or Bobby Hutton died for nothing
Don't it make you get teary
The world looks dreary
When you wipe your eyes see it clearly
There's no need for you to fear me
If you take your time and hear me
Maybe you can learn to cheer me
It ain't about black or white cause we human
I hope we see the light before it's ruined, my ghetto gospel
[Hook]
[Verse 2]
Tell me do you see that old lady
Ain't it sad
Living out of bags
Plus she's glad for the little things she has
And over there there's a lady
Crack got her crazy
Guess who's giving birth to a baby
I don't trip or let it fade me
From out of the fryin pan
We jump into another form of slavery
Even now I get discouraged
Wonder if they take it all back
Will I still keep the courage
I refuse to be a role model
I set goals, take control, drink out my own bottles
I make mistakes but learn from every one
And when it's said and done
I bet this brother be a better one
If I upset you don't stress never forget
That God isn't finished with me yet
I feel his hand on my brain
When I write rhymes I go blind and let the Lord do his thing
But am I less holy
Cause I chose to puff a blunt and drink a beer with my homies
Before we find world peace
We gotta find peace and end the war in the streets
My ghetto gospel
[Hook]
[Outro]
Lord can you hear me speak
To pay the price of being hellbound
source
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Art and Religion XIV: "The purpose of art"
*I can't attest to the validity of this quote, whether it is attributable to Picasso, but thought it intriguing enough to warrant the post
Art and Religion XIII: Pearls Before Breakfast
Article: here
It's a somewhat long article, if you don't have time to read it watch the clip below. And if you're so inclined then go back and read the article.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013
Art and Religion XI: "Traditional" and "Experimental" art
Source
Dr. Jennifer Biddle, Anthropologist, argues that not all indigenous art is "traditional"; that much of the aboriginal art movement began as an "experimental" art putting acrylic on canvas that began in the 70s - effectively creating a discourse around "indigenous art".
"Traditional" art, for Biddle, was initially ephemeral and utilized for ritual purposes that has become 'traditional' art as a commodity to be framed, hanged, and displayed, i.e., from body to canvas.
She is speaking of a linguistic shift within the use of the term 'traditional' and its appropriation within material culture.
Now, through "experimental" art she is expanding the access of various mediums, different forms of expression, to the aboriginal culture as a means to transfer knowledge onto next generations. New art forms are now being incorporated into ritual and tradition/culture.
Her book is: Breasts, Bodies, Canvas: Central Desert Art as Experience
Friday, October 18, 2013
Art and Religion X: (Trailer) 'They will have to kill us first', Music in Mali
“Documentary filmmaker Johanna Schwartz wrote for Index on Censorship magazine on the censorship and persecution that musicians in Mali have faced from Islamists, with musician Fadiamata Walet Oumar. In the article they highlighted how music was being driven out of the country, with even those with musical ringtones on their mobile phones facing crackdowns. Many musicians fled Mali during the worst excesses of persecution, as the article charts. Schwartz is an award-winning documentary maker, and she is giving Index readers an exclusive preview of her documentary They Will Have To Kill Us First.”
via Religion News
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Art and Religion VIIII: "Art is a Religion"
Sasha Chaitow, PhD candidate at the Center for the Study of Myth at the University of Essex, has posted some translations of L’Art Idealiste et Mystique by Joséphin Péladan.
Here is the translated 'Exhortation':
Artist, you are a priest: Art is the great mystery and, if your effort results in a masterpiece, a ray of divinity will descend as on an altar. Artist, you are a king: Art is the true empire, if your hand draws a perfect line, the cherubim themselves will descend to revel in their reflection. Spiritual design, a line of the soul, form of understanding, you make our dreams flesh. Artist, you are a mage: Art is the great mystery, it only proves our immortality.
Read more Here
Here is the translated 'Exhortation':
Artist, you are a priest: Art is the great mystery and, if your effort results in a masterpiece, a ray of divinity will descend as on an altar. Artist, you are a king: Art is the true empire, if your hand draws a perfect line, the cherubim themselves will descend to revel in their reflection. Spiritual design, a line of the soul, form of understanding, you make our dreams flesh. Artist, you are a mage: Art is the great mystery, it only proves our immortality.
Read more Here
Monday, July 15, 2013
Art and Religion VIII: Appearance
From the Clay Club:
"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."
"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."
-American philosopher, Will Durant
Art and Religion VII: Hopi Artifacts Returned
Cool: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/hopi-artifact-is-returned/
"70 sacred artifacts returned one of the masklike objects to tribal elders on Monday at their reservation in northeast Arizona. [...]
"The Hopis say the items of religious headwear are sacred beings imbued with divine spirits and have never been intended as art objects. During the court case in Paris, the Hopis said they regarded their public promotion and sale as “a desecration to our religion.” Art dealers have sold similar Hopi religious relics a piece or two at a time during the last half-century, but the Paris auction was by far the largest sale ever held."
"70 sacred artifacts returned one of the masklike objects to tribal elders on Monday at their reservation in northeast Arizona. [...]
"The Hopis say the items of religious headwear are sacred beings imbued with divine spirits and have never been intended as art objects. During the court case in Paris, the Hopis said they regarded their public promotion and sale as “a desecration to our religion.” Art dealers have sold similar Hopi religious relics a piece or two at a time during the last half-century, but the Paris auction was by far the largest sale ever held."
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Art and Religion VI: "Imagination can change what we see and hear"
Having just wrote on Tanya Luhrmann and the role of the imagination in religion, I just noticed that Science Daily came out with an article on how the "imagination"can influence what we hear and what we see. Now, just by reading this, it is vague in what sense they are using the term imagination. And how they actually got participants to "imagine" something from creating an illusion.
"In the first experiment, participants experienced the illusion that two passing objects collided rather than passed by one-another when they imagined a sound at the moment the two objects met. In a second experiment, the participants' spatial perception of a sound was biased towards a location where they imagined seeing the brief appearance of a white circle. In the third experiment, the participants' perception of what a person was saying was changed by their imagination of a particular sound."
Without reading the actual paper, I would be interested in how they actually measured and induced the "imagination". But I don't think the claim is new but rather reinforces that our imagination can influence our perceptions of reality. Imaginary friends, Schizophrenics, Hallucinations, hearing the wrong thing, phantom sounds, etc. etc. all of these things can affect our experience of reality.
"In the first experiment, participants experienced the illusion that two passing objects collided rather than passed by one-another when they imagined a sound at the moment the two objects met. In a second experiment, the participants' spatial perception of a sound was biased towards a location where they imagined seeing the brief appearance of a white circle. In the third experiment, the participants' perception of what a person was saying was changed by their imagination of a particular sound."
Without reading the actual paper, I would be interested in how they actually measured and induced the "imagination". But I don't think the claim is new but rather reinforces that our imagination can influence our perceptions of reality. Imaginary friends, Schizophrenics, Hallucinations, hearing the wrong thing, phantom sounds, etc. etc. all of these things can affect our experience of reality.
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