Art, Science and the Sacred
with Dr. F. David Peat |
6-12 May 2010
This course/workshop will explore the deep connections, as well as the boundaries, between the arts, science and the sacred. It will explore the ways in which the artist and the scientist engage the universe and encounter mystery. It will touch on the sense of awe and wonder that many scientists experience about the cosmos. It will look at ways in which the arts have sought to portray, symbolize and point to the sacred. It will enquire into the nature of creativity.
Artist Janice Gordon will be presenting her work on the human heart and there will be the opportunity for participants to discuss and present their own work. You can visit Janice at www.janicegordon.net
Topics to be explored will include:
- The universal nature of the sacred and the sense of wonder, awe and respect in the face of the cosmos that is experienced even by those who could call themselves agnostics.
- The nature of creativity, both human and in the cosmos itself.
- Contributions from such figures as Ibn bin Arabi
- Nicholas of Cusa's proposal that God is the coincidence of opposites.
- The change that took place from the early middle ages, through the Renaissance and the rise of science to our present age with its search for belief.
- Just what should be the boundaries and domains of science and of organized religion?
Is it justified to invoke the Big Bang as evidence for the existence of a Creator God?
What of the claim that "God is a mathematician"?
David Bohm's views on process and the constant enfolding and unfolding of the manifest world. This comes close to Eastern religious traditions and raises the question that mind may have pervaded the cosmos from the moment of its origin.
Do the laws of nature exist outside time and before matter, or did they self organize.
The anthropic principle states that the fundamental constants of nature are so finely tuned that with even the slightest change there would have been no life and maybe no planets. Can this be taken as evidence of a Creator God? Or is it an accident? Or is it evidence for multiple universes?
The role of beauty and elegance as an end in itself and as a means to that end in physics and mathematics.- J.S. Bach's interest in number mysticism and Kepler's theory of the solar system. Their influence on the Art of Fugue.
- Music and healing
- Therese Schroeder-Sheker's use of music with the dying.
- The nature of sacred objects, sacred spaces, icons and the symbolism of sacred art.
- The alchemical belief in the transformation of matter through spirit - a tradition that has persisted in the arts from the time of Michelangelo and Durer to present day artists such as Anish Kapoor.
- A visit to Siena to see the Duccio altar piece "The Virgin Enthroned" and discuss symbolism in religious art.
- The work of the artist and mathematician Piero della Francesca who felt that the divine can be approached "through symbols and mathematical signs”. His use of “Mental spaces” or “perspective of the intellect”. His influence on Seurat.
- Contemporary artists:-
- Anish Kapoor asks “Where is the Art? Where is the Matter”.
- Antony Gormley and inner space “beyond dimension, beyond good and evil”.
- Janine Antoni and the distance between artist and object.
- How insights into the work of Paul Cezanne helped David Bohm develop the notion of an "Implicate Order" and new approaches to quantum theory.
- Gerard Manley Hopkins on Inscape, and the influence of Aquinas and Duns Scotus on his life as poet and priest
- Emily Dickenson and metaphors from science
- James Joyce and Epiphanies.
- The origins of theatre within the mystery religions and the role of "sacred theatre" today.
- Quantum theory and the changing nature of reality
- Michael Faraday’s conviction that God acts directly and his handiwork can be found in the laws of nature led him to unify electricity and magnetism.
- The role of religion in the lives of other scientists.
- What ethical and moral limits should be placed on science.
- The physicist Wolfgang Pauli's conviction that we live in a time that will see “the resurrection of spirit in matter”
- Pauli’s fear that science was becoming obsessed with "the will to power" and that we are losing contact with eros.
- Jung and Pauli on Synchronicity- “meaningful coincidence” and “acausal connections”
- The marriage of matter and psyche
- The preoccupation of physics to discover an ultimate level and a final equation.
- Pauli and “the irrational in nature” and “the subjective in physics”
Artist Janice Gordon explores the artistic, the scientific and the sacred interpretations of the human heart as they have changed through history. With slide images, she will trace the depiction of the heart in Western art over the last 500 years, revealing how the artistic portrayal of the heart shifted as religious teachings changed and the scientific knowledge of the heart increased. Exploring both metaphorical and medical approaches to the heart, she will discuss how science is discovering their connection. She will also share her working process regarding her artwork related to the heart, and how she gained understanding of the heart through her own investigations, including a daily meditation practice, and collaboration with a cardiologist. www.janicegordon.net
May 6 . Participants arrive, welcome and dinner.
On the following days there will be two daily workshop sessions:
10.00 - 12.30 Lecture and question period
4.00 - 6.30 Lecture and discussion of the topic of the day.
Note, since absorbing new ideas can be exhausting an afternoon will be set aside for sightseeing, or for a conducted visit to a site of artistic or religious significance.
May 12 . Summing up. Participants leave following lunch
The cost of the course will be 1,500 Euros and will include all meals and accommodation, starting with dinner on 6 May and ending with lunch on 12 May. To ensure a place in the course a non-refundable deposit of 200 Euros is required.
Pay Pal, Please note: Payment can be made via the PayPal system using a credit card. If you wish to use this method we will send you an invoice with instructions on how to pay. The actual transaction is managed by PayPal so that we do not learn any of your credit card details.
Click here to enroll.
For further information write to info@paricenter.com.