Religious Studies 395-01
Art, Architecture, and Music in South Asia
Spring 2001
TTH: 12:45-2:05,
ARH 227
S.M.A. Jeffrey Lidke and Sthanesvar Timalsina
Office Hours: MW: 4:10-5 in Steiner 302, Ext:4745 or by appointment
lidkejs@grinnell.edu
timalsin@grinnell.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is an architectural theatre in which participants design a postmodern cultural blueprint that interweaves art, architecture, and music for the purpose of a global classical civilization. The theatre is a ritual in three acts-Art, Architecture, and Music. Each part ritually combines lectures and discussion with practicum. On Tuesdays the theatre centers on lectures, analysis, and discussion of readings. On Thursdays our theatrical stage is the site for an engagement with South Asian artistic traditions. On Tuesdays we analyze, plan, and imagine. On Thursdays, we sing, play, paint, and construct. The merging of these two types of theatrics will provide a means for us to reflect on the interrelationship of ideology and practice not only in South Asian traditions of Art, Architecture, and Music but throughout the world and in western traditions of theoretical scholarship. This theatre is designed to be comparative, experimental, fun, and revolutionary. This theatres explore the boundaries of learning, challenging its actors/architects to rethink contemporary models of education as they craft a creative and intellectual blueprint whose imagined ultimate purpose is global enlightenment. This syllabus serves as a guideline of our theatre's ritual structures, screen calls, requirements, and scripts. Be forewarned, however, that this theatre is committed to performative strategies that link structure to spontaneity. For this reason, all participants are required to not become attached to form, to be ready for change, and to expect that this theatre, like the path of art itself, will demand and impart fluidity. As we enact and imagine our postmodern classical culture, we will necessarily be called afield of our preconceived notions of what we believed this theatre would be. Let us playfully heed that calling.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
1) Our theatres meet twice each week. Tuesdays theatre is devoted to lectures, discussions, and analysis of readings. Thursdays theatre is devoted to studio work. Each student is expected to have read the readings by the time of class and be prepared to engage in lectures, discussions, and embodied learning techniques. Studio will be a time when we as a group compose, create, and construct. These composition, creations, and constructions are the heart of the class. Additionally, each student will be a respondent twice (30%).
2) Each theatrical architect will develop and present an academically-rooted creative project in conjunction with myself and Sthanesvar Timalsina, a visiting professor from Valmikit Sanskrit Campus, Kathmandu, Nepal. Beginning in the 6th week of the term students will meet weekly for 3-weeks with Professor Timalsina culminating with a 2-3 page essay due on March 16th, which will include a theoretical and methodological consideration of your project. Projects will be presented during the second half of the semester. Although options for topics are wide ranging, each paper should have as its ultimate focus the envisioning of a postmodern classical culture. (Total = 30% of course grade)
3) There will be a midterm on April 4 (15%) and a final on May 19th (15%). These exams will focus on material that is most relevant to our theatre's ultimate goal of designing a global cultural blueprint. (Total = 30% of course grade).
4) All architects are asked to keep a design-journal which they keep a bi-daily log of their constructionist activities. This journal serves to bridge our theatre with daily life. (10%)
// Details about these requirements will be discussed the first day of class, and then changed repeatedly thereafter. If at any time during the semester you are unclear about what is expected, please know that you are not alone : - ) //
COURSE OUTLINE
Act One: Sonic Theologies-God as Music
I. In the Beginning was the Vibration . . .
Jan 23: Becoming attuned
Jan 25: The Principals of Yoga Myths, XI-50.
II. Sonic Theologies
Jan 30: Nada Yoga "Vedic Sound," 23-49; Mysticism, 1-61.
Feb 1: Entering the Raga World, 15-50; "Nada Yoga," 107- 118; III. Classical and Folk Traditions
Feb 6: Mystical Aesthetics World, 51- 111; White; "Arts of Love."
Feb 8: The Science of Rhythm Larson, "The Religious," Mysticism, 103- 118.
IV. Music as Freedom
Feb 13: Musicians as Yogins World, 112-134; Mysticism, 120-139.
Feb 15: Kirtan, Bhajan, Qawwali, and Zikr Garner Enyclopedia. Hand-in: journals.
V. A Musical Theory of Religion
Feb 20 Music as Ritual World, 135-182; Mysticism, 140-173.
Feb 22: Music as Meaning World, 200-235.
Act Two: Photic Theologies-God as Art
VI. Mandala: Architectonic of Consiousness
Feb 27: The Forms of the Divine "Iakta Tantra," 121-147; Mission, 3-69;
Mar 1: The Sacred Geometry of the Canvas Mission, 71-106;
VII. Living Deities
Mar 6: Imagination and Reality Mission, 109-175; Myths, 123-151
Mar 8: Primordial Templates Mission, 177-202 ; Hand-in: journals.
VIII. Art as Yoga
Mar 13: Rainbows in an Empty Sky Mission, 205-233; Myths, 152-216.
Mar 15: Theoesthetics Disfiguring, 2-47; Due: Midterm essays,
March 16th. ******Spring Break********
VIII. The Artist as a Transnationalist Siddha
April 3: Iconoclasm Disfiguring, 51-95;
April 5: The Buddha in the Brushstroke Disfiguring, 97-184.
IX. The Politics of Artistic Enlightenment
April 10: Logocentrism Disfiguring, 185-228.
April 12: Compassion as a daily practice Disfiguring, 229-319. Hand-in: journals
Act Three: Brick Theologies-God as the Constructed
X. The Cathedral and the Mystical City
April 17: Chartres and Banaras Gothic, xiii-58; or Banaras, xiii-93.
April 19: Human and Divine Architects Gothic, 61-90; or Banaras, 94-145.
XI. Bridging the Two Worlds
April 24: The Issue of Epistemes Gothic, 91-141; or Banaras, 146-210.
April 26: Divine Geometries Gothic, 142-156; or Banaras, 211-251.
XII. Virgins and Virile Gods May 1: A City for All Gothic, 159-182; Banaras, 252-303.
May 3: Transforming Matter into Spirit Gothic, 183-234; Banaras, 304-344.
XIII. Implications of a Holographic Paradigm
May 8: The challenges of the new Millennium Lidke, "The Maö¶ala-Hologram."
May 10: Art, Arch, and Music as an eternal return Lidke, "The Reverberating Goddess."
Final Exam: Friday, May 18th, 2:00 p.m.
Final Papers Due: May 18th, 5:00 p.m. S
ELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Required Texts
Eck, Diana. Banaras: City of Light. Columbia, 1998.1
Berendt, Joachim-Ernst. The World is Sound. Inner Traditions, 1991.
Grey, Alex. The Mission of Art. With a foreward by Ken Wilber. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1990.
Khan, Hazrat Inayat. The Mysticism of Sound and Music: The Sufi Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1991.
Taylor, Mark. Disfiguring: Art, Architecture, and Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
von Simpson, Otto. The Gothic Cathedral. Princeton, 1998.2
Zimmer, Heinrich. Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974.
Optional Texts
Bloomer, Kent C. Body, Memory, and Architecture. Yale University Press, 1998.
Cook, Elizabeth. The Stupa: Sacred Symbol of Enlightenment. Dharma Publishing, 1988.
Couston. The Cosmic Octave. Liferhythm, 2000.
Danielou, Alain. Music and the Power of Sound. Inner Traditions, 1995.
Davis, Richard. Lives of Indian Images. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.
Hofstadter, Douglas R. Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Basic Books, 1999.
Khanna, Madhu. Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity. Thames & Hudson, 1997.
Landaw, Jonathan. Images of Enlightenment: Tibetan Art in Practice. Snow Lion, 1997.
Michell, George. The Hindu Temple. An Introdution to Meaning. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1988.
Rothfarb, Ed. In the Land of the Taj Mahal: In the World of the Mughal Empire. Henry Holt & Co., 1998.
Trungpa, Chogyam. Dharma Art. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1996.
1 Alternatively, architects may read Otto von Simpson's Gothic Cathederal.
2 Alternatively, architects may read Diana Eck's Banaras.