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Research
Proposal for the British Academy Research Readership
"...,
spiritual remains an old-fashioned word of vague meaning. Yet
it is this word that Kandinsky seeded into twentieth-century art, and
apart from any individual, it still speaks. It requires a positive response
from us." (Roger Lipsey, An Art of Our Own The Spiritual in
Twentieth-Century Art)
"Physics
has now absorbed theology; the divorce between science and religion,
between reason and emotion, is over." (Frank Tipler, The Physics
of Immortality)
Introduction
Art and science in ancient times were not divorced from the spiritual.
In the 20th C however both art and science are activities generally carried
out independent of mainstream religious thought, though the spiritual
has played an important part in the work of some individual artists and
scientists. At the beginning of the century the painter Wassily Kandinsky
was prompted by his interest in Theosophy to write Concerning the Spiritual
in Art; towards the end of the century the physicist Paul Davies has
produced a series of books relating quantum theory to theology, the most
recent of which is titled The Mind of God. The reactions to the
spiritual in art and science vary however: Waldemar Januszczak (commissioning
editor for the arts, Channel Four) found the origins of Modernism in Theosophical
and other occultisms to be 'a skeleton in the art cupboard', while Paul
Davies has received the million-dollar Templeton prize for progress in
religion for his books (remarkable, considering that he claims that 'science
offers a surer path than religion in the search for God'). It is rare
however for an artist or scientist to have received any formal or systematic
exposure to the spiritual, and hence the questions arise: what kind of
spiritual literacies do we find in 20th C artists and scientists, and
how do they differ?
I believe that it is important to investigate the spiritual literacy of
these groups because of the impact that they have on modern culture, and
the impact they will have on the place of spirituality in culture in the
21st C. Artists who have a spiritual interest tend to write on it in a
dispersed fashion, reserving the substance of their interest to appear
in their chosen medium, for example painting or music. Physicists on the
other hand, particularly in the closing years of the 20th C, seem to write
copiously on the spiritual. In both cases it seems vital to build up a
picture of the spiritual material that they draw on, the interpretations
that they make, and the differing way that their respective occupations
in art and science influence the choice of material and interpretations.
Background to the Research
I have a background in the artistic, the scientific, and the spiritual
which I believe places me in a good position to carry out this research.
I have been working formally as a researcher and lecturer in the electronic
arts for some twelve years, which combines my training as a scientist
and artist. More recently I have undertaken an MA in Studies in Mysticism
and Religious Experience at Canterbury in order to give a third recurrent
interest, the spiritual, a formal basis. Out of this has grown a long-term
research project 'The Spiritual in Art and Science'. The proposed research
will focus on the question of spiritual literacy in art and science
as a way of pinning down a few well-defined questions within this larger
programme.
I have already laid the ground for the proposed research in an 18,000-word
essay 'Concerning the Spiritual in Art and Science' submitted as coursework
for the MA at Canterbury, and in a shorter version called 'Concerning
the Spiritual in 20th C Art and Science' submitted to the arts and technology
journal Leonardo. An important source of material has been Roger
Lipsey's An Art of Our Own - The Spiritual in Twentieth-Century Art,
which is a well-researched overview up to about 1985. I came across this
and much other relevant material at the British Library. In the sciences
I have been looking at works from the offerings by Fritjof Capra and Gary
Zukav in the seventies up to Paul Davies' work and the controversial Physics
of Immortality by Frank Tipler in the nineties.
The long-term project is beginning to take shape, as I am currently supervising
a doctoral student who is examining 'Virtual Reality and Visionary Experience'
(with particular reference to Hildegard of Bingen). I also have two Master's
students on the MA Computer Imaging and Animation who have chosen to look
at the spiritual as subject matter for their imagery; in one case the
Ancient Greeks (Heraclitus, Pythagoras and Plato) and in the other Sufism
and its symbols. I am planning to seek funding for further doctoral students
and to set up a Research Centre for the Spiritual in Art and Science.
The Value of the Research
Artists and scientists often respond warily to the term 'spiritual' (as
Roger Lipsey's quote above implies), yet they are often the very people
whose intense probings and questionings into the fabric of human experience
and the cosmos make them likely to enter the territory traditionally marked
out as 'spiritual'. I believe that an evaluation of how they engage with
the spiritual in relation to their practice has not yet been carried out
in any depth, and is needed for several reasons. First of all, as mentioned
above, these groups have considerable influence on modern culture. Secondly,
such an evaluation is needed in juxtaposition to the better-understood
influence of those traditionally concerned with the spiritual: the theologians
and philosophers. Thirdly, such an evaluation might enable us to make
a better response to visual artists who draw on the spiritual, to better
gauge the claim of a scientist such as Tipler that 'theology is now a
branch of physics', or to put in perspective the anti-religious stance
of reductionist scientists such as Richard Dawkins or Francis Crick.
However, the main value of the research would be to start an informed
debate as to what a 'spiritual literacy' might generally mean in a predominantly
lay culture. If successful in engaging a broader interest in the concept,
the research would lead in the long term to a new pedagogy, one that is
informed but relatively free of cultural and confessional bias. More specifically
it might form a basis for the teaching of spiritual literacies appropriate
to artists and scientists; a making explicit of what is now implicit and
haphazard.
It is intended that the research be as useful to the sceptic as to the
initiate, to the reductionist as to the holist and mystically inclined.
The Research Territory
The proposed research is clearly highly interdisciplinary, and to be of
value the results of it will need to delivered in such a way as to be
relevant to artists and scientists, as well as those more directly involved
in the spiritual. Although some historical basis will be essential the
main thrust of the research will focus on the 20th C. To narrow the field
further I shall explore mainly the visual arts of Modernism and Postmodernism.
In terms of science the most important area is that which is termed the
'new physics' (mainly quantum theory, relativity, and the concepts around
the 'anthropic principle'). Both arts and science will be in a Western
context but the spirituality will have no boundaries in time or place:
the spiritual influences on Western 20th C art and science are broad.
In the arts I will be looking mainly at 20th C fine artists including
key figures such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, Malevich, Brancusi, Rothko, Newman,
and Joseph Beuys, and a host of other. In addition key groupings or movements
forming part of the arts territory will include the Bauhaus, the American
Abstract Expressionists, and the electronic artists of today. There are
also a range of other organisations in which the spiritual and the artistic
are explicitly linked such as the Steiner schools and art colleges, the
Temenos Academy, and 'fringe' groups such as the Gurdjieff-Ouspensky schools
and the School for Economic Science. Some of these have roots in a neoplatonist
tradition, while others are an occult or purely 20th century phenomena.
In the sciences the writings of the 'quantum fathers' such as Schroedinger,
Bohr, and Heisenberg will be important, through the early 'physics as
mysticism' writers in the seventies, to contemporary writers such as Davies,
Tipler and Polkinghorne. Organisations such as the Institute of Noetic
Sciences and the UK-based Scientific and Medical network will also be
examined.
Another important source for the spiritual in contemporary science lies
in the emerging field of Studies in Consciousness. The journals, books
and conferences in this area receive contributions from a wide range of
scientists representing the whole spectrum of spiritual interests. This
is well-documented, for example, in papers presented at the 'Tucson II'
conference 'Towards a Science of Consciousness' in April 1996.
The research will involve the examination of texts (including exhibition
catalogues) relating to the territories outlined above, the examination
of relevant organisations through their literature and by interview, and
the attendance at relevant art exhibitions. Any previous surveys (such
as Roger Lipsey's) of the spiritual in art or science will need to be
found and closely analysed.
The establishment and refinement of a spiritual taxonomy appropriate to
the task is an essential and early component of the research, as it will
guide examination of texts and the preparation for interviews. In my research
so far I have established a simple working taxonomy of just three divisions:
the 'religious', the 'occult', and the 'transcendent'. I have used the
term 'religious' to denote a conventional spirituality associated with
mainstream religious thought and practice. The term 'occult' is used for
an interest and engagement with non-material spiritual worlds as posited
by individuals like Rudolf Steiner, but also found universally in all
cultures and periods of history. The term 'transcendent' is used to denote
such concepts as nirvana, mystical union or enlightenment. These
are clearly crude and overlapping terms but they have already proved useful:
the spiritual influences on Gaudi are (in these terms) the conventionally
religious; on the Bauhaus are clearly occult; those on the American Abstract
Expressionists more transcendent; and between two contemporary performance
artists, the American Fakir Musafar and the Australian Stelarc, we find
the former engaged in the occult and the latter in the transcendent. In
physics we find Capra and Zukav broadly preoccupied with the transcendent,
while Tipler, Davies and Polkinghorne engaged with the religious (theological).
These are early and tentative findings, but I believe that without any
such taxonomy it is hard to order the material under investigation. The
work of Roger Lipsey, though thorough, lacked any kind of useful distinction
between the spiritualities of the different artists he looked at.
The establishment of what broadly a spiritual literacy might be
is also an early goal. The term 'literacy' has been carefully chosen because
it implies interest, breadth and usefulness. One becomes literate in a
given area out of interest; it is implied that the interest is not partisan,
chauvinist, or (in this case) confessional; and the result is a range
of 'competences' in the area. The delineation of 'spiritual literacy'
is interlinked with the taxonomy: one cannot be literate in an area if
ignorant of important phyla in the structure of the subject. For example,
in terms of spiritual practice it may be that the distinction between
devotion and gnosis (Indian bhakti and jnani) becomes an
important part of the taxonomy, and hence a spiritual literacy requires
an understanding of both.
The Research Method
The research will start from individuals in art and science, and
work backwards to the spiritual movements and influences in the 20th century.
The first step will be to identify key figures from art and science whose
life and work has a clear spiritual current. This will be done by cross-referencing
names from surveys and texts already mentioned, and through key-word searches
in various on-line bibliographies. From biographies, autobiographies,
notebooks, letters, memoirs, exhibition catalogues, pamphlets etc., will
then be derived a picture of the spiritual influences on these individuals,
and whether these are from texts (ancient, contemporary, Oriental, Occidental),
organisations (such as the Theosophical Society, the Church, cults, lecture
series), individuals (enthusiastic friends, spiritual teachers or guides
of various kinds), or personal revelation (rare, but important, as in
Blake, or Steiner). A knowledge of the spiritual practices (if any) of
these individuals will be derived from the same sources. In the case where
texts have been an influence it will be important to know the translation
or translations that were read, where the original was not in the reader's
own language.
The material so gathered will become the raw data for analysis. Before
this can be carried out the taxonomy of the spiritual will be developed
by cross-referencing those used by scholars of comparative religion and
mysticism, including James, Underhill, Zaehner, and Smith. A more precise
notion of 'literacy' will be obtained by examination of literacy in other
contexts, such as science literacy, computer literacy, visual literacy,
and media literacy. The primary analysis will then comprise:
·
a location of each individual's influences within the spiritual movements
of the particular part of the 20th century in which they were actively
seeking exposure to such material
·
an overview, for each individual, of the broader historical spiritual
influences on them, such as paganism, neoplatonism or Christianity
·
an assessment of how systematically they pursued the spiritual
·
a location of their primary spiritual impulses and interests within
the taxonomy (here developed) of the spiritual
·
an assessment of their general spiritual literacy in terms of the taxonomy,
and also in terms of broad/narrow, Oriental/Occidental, deep/shallow,
sceptical/credulous
·
an assessment of how the spiritual was integrated into the individual's
art or science.
A similar analysis will be carried out on organisations, though
this will involve a smaller number. In the case of organisations their
mission statements, publications, and testimonies of members and those
who encounter the organisation in various capacities will be used as raw
data. Where these organisations have a spiritual mission, it will be important
to check their 'official' version of events with other testimonies, for
example the Steiner organisation publishes a pamphlet about the involvement
of the artist Joseph Beuys, but his own diaries and non-Steiner sources
may reveal a contradictory picture. By the same token, some organisations,
for example involved in parapsychology, may have a clearly sceptical or
even anti-spiritual mission, and this has to be assessed and taken into
account.
From the primary analysis of individuals and organisations it will then
be possible to answer the questions listed below under 'Outcomes of the
Research'.
Sources
Roger Lipsey's An Art of Our Own is a key source with citations
for most of his source material, including his original inspiration, an
exhibition and catalogue by Maurice Tuchman, The Spiritual in Art:
Abstract Painting 1890 - 1985 (Los Angeles, 1986). The British Library
is a valuable repository of material: I have identified at least half
a dozen texts which need further detailed examination. Other London libraries
such as the Victoria and Albert and the Royal College of Art will be useful.
The Internet will also be generally useful, and especially so for the
electronic arts.
There does not seem to be any single exhaustive survey of the spiritual
in science to date that might compare with Lipsey's work in the arts (which
suggests that my proposed research is timely). However, Ken Wilber's
Quantum Questions is a useful starting point for examining some of
the writings of the quantum scientists, and there is no shortage of contemporary
material. The spiritual writings of scientists in the last five years
alone warrants a thorough survey (as many of these recent texts have not
yet arrived in the British Library or Science Reference Library they will
have to be purchased, but this is sustainable). The Internet will again
be useful in connection with individuals and organisations concerned with
the spiritual in science. The following texts are indicative:
The Spiritual in Art
Tuchman, Maurice The Spiritual in Art
Regier, Kathleen, The Spiritual Image
Lipsey, Roger, An Art of Our Own
Kandinsky Concerning the Spiritual in Art
Gurdjieff, G.I. Views from the Real World
Steiner, Rudolf The Arts and Their Mission
Besant and Leadbeater, Thought Forms
Coomaraswamy, Ananda, various works
Plato, The Republic
The Spiritual in Science
de Chardin, Teilhard, various works
Wilber, Ken, Quantum Questions
Capra, Fritjof, The Tao of Physics
Zukav, Gary, The Dancing Wu-Li Masters
Davies, Paul, The Mind of God
Tipler, Frank J. The Physics of Immortality
Polkinghorne, Reason and Reality
Consciousness
Journal of Consciousness Studies
Crick, Francis, The Astonishing Hypothesis
Penrose, Roger, various works
Claxton, Guy, Noises from the Darkroom
Spiritual Taxonomies
Smith, Huston The Religions of Man
Armstrong, Karen, A History of God
James, William, The Varieties of Religious Experience
Zaehner, R.C. various works
Literacy
Mount, Joyce IT and Computer Literacy
Zimmer, Anne, Visual Literacy ...
Silverblatt, Art, Media Literacy
OUP, Benchmarks for Science Literacy
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Essays and exhibition catalogue
Essays (two common authors with above)
A thorough overview of the spiritual in art up to 1986
Seminal work, influenced by Theosophy
Contains whole chapter on the arts
Summary of the Steiner position on the arts
Source book for Kandinsky and others
Useful for the religious role of art in history
Useful for a picture of the subordinate role of art in religion
Theology and science from a Jesuit priest
Source book for the writings of the quantum fathers
The parallels between physics and Eastern mysticism
ditto
A physicist's attempt to relate physics to theology
A physicist's attempt to relegate theology to physics
Quantum theory and religion from a scientist/priest
papers from the most sceptical to the most credible
a reductionist approach to consciousness
a scientist/Platonist on consciousness
a sceptical analysis of consciousness studies
An overview of comparative religion
A contemporary account of religion
A seminal work on mysticism and religious experience
The works of an influential Oxford academic
} These texts will be useful for deriving a more precise
} understanding of literacy in a wider context. The
} International Institute for Adult Literacy may also be a
} useful source.
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Outcomes of the Research
The research outcomes should be able to answer the following questions:
·
what is a useful taxonomy of the spiritual for art and science?
·
how can we characterise and contrast spiritual literacies in
art and science?
·
is science more receptive to the spiritual than the arts at this juncture?
·
what are the antagonisms between the artistic and the spiritual?
·
what are the antagonisms between the scientific and the spiritual?
·
how can the concept of spiritual literacies be used to critique those
visual arts that draw upon the spiritual?
·
how can the concept of spiritual literacies be used to assess the
seemingly pro-religious works of scientists like Tipler and Davies?
·
how can the concept of spiritual literacies be used to assess the
seemingly anti-religious works of scientists like Dawkins and Crick?
·
what are the 'competences' that derive from a broad-based non-confessional
spiritual literacy, and how do they differ in art and science?
·
how can the spiritual, the artistic, and the scientific mutually illuminate
each other?
Dissemination of the Outcomes
The main route for dissemination of the outcomes of this proposed research
would be a book, the working title of which would be Spiritual Literacy
in Art and Science. However, it may prove more useful to embody the
work in two books, one aimed at the science reader and one aimed at the
arts reader, but this would become clear later in the research (and would
also depend on the advice of publishers). I would also publish essays
and articles in science and art journals and present findings at national
and international art and science conferences, throughout the period of
research. Conferences will be particularly important, not just for dissemination,
but also to test out and refine working hypothesis.
Timetable for the Research
Year
1, first quarter: History of the spiritual in art and science (Plato,
Longinus, Plotinus, the neoplatonists, Ficino's Academy, the rise of
science, attitudes in the Renaissance and Enlightenment, the spiritual
movements at the end of the 19th C, early 20th C movements, development
of relativity and quantum theory). Art and science in Islam and the
Orient. Attendance at LGU Social Science Research Methods MA units
Year
1, second quarter: Taxonomy of the spiritual and refinement of 'spiritual
literacy'; middle and late 20th C spiritual movements, conventional
religion and its attitudes to art and science. (Note that there is a
possibility that the first six months of the research project may be
spent at Oxford if successful in applying for a Visiting Fellowship
at either Magdalen or All Souls. This would be useful in taking the
'intellectual temperature' at Oxford regarding spiritual literacy, examining
the origins and impact of the thinking of Richard Dawkins, Roger Penrose,
Richard Swinburne et al.)
Year
1, third quarter: Spiritual in Art: reading at the BL and V+A, RCA
library etc., and Internet sites.
Year
1, fourth quarter: Spiritual in Science: reading at the BL and SRL
and Internet sites.
Year
2, first quarter: Investigations of organisations with explicit
interests in both the spiritual and the artistic: The Temenos Academy,
Steiner schools and art colleges, Gurdjieff-Ouspensky schools, the School
for Economic Science, and any others discovered through reading and
contacts.
Year
2, second quarter: Investigations of organisations with explicit
interests in both the spiritual and the scientific, including the Institute
for Noetic Sciences (a visit will be made to the US to coincide with
'Tucson III' Science of Consciousness conference in April 1998), the
Scientific and Medical Network, and others discovered up to this point.
Year
2, last six months: Write up research results in book form (one
or possibly two books).
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