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Each day’s Discussion Panel will explore a different theme. |
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saturday 21st february
Sacred Art: Sacred art traditionally has been used to help uplift the mind to the spiritual, art that is venerated not for what it is but for what it represents. The use of art has been an essential element in world religious traditions, symbolizing understandings and feelings that words simply can not describe. This panel will discuss a broad range of contemporary and popular art from America and India that draws upon a multitude of traditional forms and concepts from spiritual traditions east and west.
Speakers
Shakti Maira "Insight
Forms: Creating a Contemporary Spiritual Art
Language"
Neeta Omprakash "Metamorphosis of mystic images in 20th c.
Indian art"
Marie-Jo Binet "Painting after
painting: Spiritual Markings in Motion"
Kathryn Myers "Everywhere/Nowhere,
The Spiritual Temperament in
Current American Art"
Gopika Nath "In
Search of a Sacred Space"
Organized by Kathryn Myers, Professor of Art,
University of Connecticut, USA
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sunday 22nd february
“The
Power of Sacred Sound”
Vibration is the essence of all manifestation. Our ancients across
the globe knew the power of music, sound, word and thought ones
self and on the environment.
Many of these practices faded away with the decline of native
cultures and civilizations, while some continue to be practiced in
small communities or are buried in scriptures yet to be
rediscovered. It is now widely known that the ancient syllable OM
has long been used by the indigenous and sacred cultures of the Far
East as a sound device to trigger altered and higher states of
consciousness. The public salutation 'Shalem', the greeting for
peace in modern Arabic, and 'Shalom' (in Hebrew) both preserve an
ancient musical sound that may originate in an Indian-Iranian
contact. This seminar explores the use of these sounds and "seed
syllables" that create vibrations within and in the environment
around us, thus transforming matter and consciousness at visible and
subtle levels of existence. It further explores Sacred music, word
and other vibratory realms in the quest of universal harmony.
Prof. Bharat
Gupt "The Idea of
the Sacred in Indian Music"
Sarah Weiss
"Javanese Rasa and the Aesthetics of Musical Performance"
Shruti
" Sonic Healing and Transformation in Hindu and Buddhist
practice"
Bhai Baldeep Singh "What Makes
Sound Sacred?’
Organized by Shruti Foundation, Delhi
More
monday 23rd february
Sacred Spaces: ‘In search of the sacred in secular Literature’. This panel will explore how the sacred is constructed in contemporary literatures from various countries, but especially Indian and American. It is not unusual to talk about the architecture of a particular work of fiction, poem or film just as it is not unusual to see how certain spaces are differentiated as sacred spaces. We will explore how authors, architects and critics invest works of literature with sacredness.
Speakers
Geetanjali Chanda "Sacred
Domesticity"
Janet Powers "Sacred Space
in Three Novels by Raja Rao"
Gordon Slethuag
"Spirituality and the
American Road"
Staci Ford
"The Sacred
Space of Sisterhood in Hong Kong Fiction
and Film"
Organized by Geetanjali Chanda,
Women's, Gender, and
Sexuality
Studies Program,
Yale University, USA
More
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tuesday 24th february
Sacred Poetry: is performed for religious and/or spiritual purposes. This panel explores topics relating to women and their performance in sacred and ritual settings in an Islamic context. It also explores the Sephardic songs of the Jewish Diaspora and the chanting and other sacred musical traditions in Christianity and Buddhism.
Speakers
Madan Gopal Singh " The Sacred
and the Eclectic"
Purushottam Agarwal "Sacred Dissidence"
Ashok Vajpeyi "Reaching out to the Sacred: Contemporary
creativity"
Nand Kishore Acharya "Sacred in the secular"
Organized by Ashok Vajpeyi, poet, Director Lalit Kala Akademi.
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wednesday 25th february
Sacred Sites: are the most loved and visited places on earth, which demonstrate unique tangible and intangible relationships of human beings to their environment. These holy places have the power to heal the body, enlighten the mind, and awaken the soul. This seminar examines the nature of some sacred sites in India and abroad, such as Varanasi and Nizamuddin Dargah in India and Fatima in Portugal.
Speakers
Rohit Jigyasu "Protecting and Managing Living
Sacred Landscapes - Issues and Challenges"
Karla Britton "Intersecting Trajectories:
The Sacred Site of Our Lady of Fatima"
Rana P.B.Singh "Varanasi, the Holy and Heritage City of India:
Sacred Geometry, Sacred Art and Sacred
Landscape"
Ratish Nanda/Tara Sharma "Mapping
Sacred Spaces
Cultural mapping of the
Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti"
AGK Menon
"Sacred Spaces in Indian Urbanism"
Amita Sinha "Natural and Spatial Archetypes in Sacred
Landscapes of Hinduism and Buddhism" Organized by UNESCO Heritage Section and International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
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