Jun 18, 2015 - John Baxter-Brown. 10.15- 10.30: Coffee break / refreshments. 10.30 - 11.00: Spirituality Banners. Jessica Kent. 11.00 - 11.30: Soul survivors: ...
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CSS Research Day: Spirituality and Popular Culture / Arts 18 June 2015, Centre for Spirituality Studies, University of Hull 9.00am-4.30pm, Lecture Room 32 Wilberforce Building About the Research Day: Scholars of religion have long been pointing out that going to the movie theatre, to a museum or an arts gallery can sometimes be experienced as religious/spiritual event during which the individual makes an encounter with the transcendent, that which is perceived to be not from this world. But popular culture and art themselves often portray spiritual experiences and transcendent encounters. When they do, they rely on aesthetic means and sometimes very stereotypical understandings of what such an encounter might look like. The religious/spiritual element, however, goes beyond the mere moment, the aesthetic/spiritual experience, the visual, or that what is depicted. Online and offline fan culture keep the discourse about popular culture and arts alive. Provocatively one could argue that fans perpetuate the spiritual experience through space and time thus creating.
Preliminary Programme: 9.00: W elcome and Introduction 9.15 - 9.45: Representations of Religion, Spirituality and Philosophy as International Narratives: The case of the Manga "Full Metal Alchemist" (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, 2001-2010)
Manuel Hernandez-Perez 9.45 - 10.15: "To w rite children's books you need to be a ruthless killer."
John Baxter-Brown 10.15- 10.30: Coffee break / refreshments 10.30 - 11.00: Spirituality Banners
Jessica Kent 11.00 - 11.30: Soul survivors: how green men tell us who we are
Simon Cross 11.30 - 11.45: Coffee break / refreshments 11.45 -12.15: Psychological and Spiritual Underpinnings in "G eek" Subculture
Seda Kaya 12.15-13.15: Lunch break 13.15 - 13.45: Clusters, cliques, and triads: understanding the prominence of religion in the public sphere
Paul Dearey 13.45 - 14,15: The Material Culture of the Sport of CrossFit as Religious Practice
Alexander D. Ornella 14.15- 14.30: Coffee break/ refreshments 14.30-16.30: Roundtable with: Or. Rina Arya Reader, Visual Communication, University of Wolverhampton) Or. W illiam Keenan H
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FireShot Capture 3 - Popular Culture - University of Hull_ - http
www2.hull.ac.uk fass centre-
Free-lance sociologist and independent researcher, Visiting Professor in Cultural Religion (Liverpool Hope University) Prof. Christopher Partridge Department of Polities, Philosophy and Religion (Lancaster University)
Abstracts: The paper abstracts can be downloaded here H ,
Registration: The event is free, but if you wish to attend, we would like to ask you to register your participation. Image: Sir Stanley Spencer, Villagers and Saints (1933, Oil on canvas, 88.3 x 158.7 cm).
Call for Contributions (closed): This research seminar will discuss questions of spirituality in popular and artistic contexts. We invite discussion contribution on any topic in relation to spirituality and arts and popular culture and are particularly interested in the following themes; ■ Encountering popular culture / art as encountering the transcendent ■ Portrayals of spiritual experiences in pop culture and the arts ■ Fan culture online/offline -fan spirituality ■ The artist as spiritual guide ■ Film and cinema as spiritual practice and experience ■ The museum (or gallery) as spiritual place ■ Comic books and graphic novels and spirituality ■ How to do research on spirituality and popular culture/arts / new directions
New directions in popular culture spiritualities: As the scholarship on religion/spirituality and popular culture is maturing (but often still not seen as serious scholarship by disciplines with a longer tradition), it is also time to think about new directions in the research of "popular culture spiritualities" and "artistic spiritualities".
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CSS Research Day
Spirituality and Popular Culture / Arts 18 June 2015, Centre for Spirituality Studies, University of Hull 9.00am-4.30pm, Lecture Room 32 Wilberforce Building Abstracts Representations of Religion, Spirituality and Philosophy as International Narratives: The case of the Manga “’Full Metal Alchemist" (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, 2001-2010) Manuel Hernandez-Perez Japanese Entertainment Industries may be defined by two main features: its transmedia vocation, or its ability to disseminate narratives through several media at once, and its crosscultural, or heterogeneous representation of different cultural backgrounds. These features are present in all aspects of their industry (production, distribution...) but might be even more relevant in the case of their products. Indeed, in recent years, manga (Japanese comic market) and their television adaptations (anime) have become a primary focus of academic scholarship, because of their peculiar representations of religion and spirituality. Although significant first approaches to the question have already been raised, these seem to be mostly oriented to film production, pointing out their Asian origin and hence, the relevance of Asian religions in their narratives. To add some further discussion to this topic, this paper is intended to discuss the representation of religion on two levels. Firstly, as a manifestation of a new spirituality in Japanese popular culture, a concept defined by others as Shukyo Asobi (Baraka Thomas. 2007) that also related to fandom cult. Secondly, these representations will be discussed as a feature of cultural hybridisation or internationalisation instead of being reduced to the Asian’s religion background of their narratives. The role of the author across transmedia franchises’ will also be considered: To what extent does the author be considered as an adaptor of cultural elements instead of a proper philosopher? Case study will be the manga and Japanese franchise "Full Metal Alchemist" (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, 2001-2010). In the original manga its author. Hiromu Arakawa. expressed her particular philosophy, influenced by different aspects of Western thought and Asian religions. REFERENCES Baraka Thomas, J. (2007). Shukyo Asobi and Miyazaki Hayao's Anime. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 10(3). 73-95.
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uTo write children's books you need to be a ruthless killer” [1]. John Baxter Brown This paper explores JK Rowling’s use of death and life after death in the Harry Potter series of books. These books provide a fascinating insight into how death, the final taboo, can be portrayed within popular culture, and in particular how concepts of the afterlife are presented. Rowling uses a variety of literary techniques in exploring these themes but especially she combines myth and humour in such a way that readers are able to explore the death and the afterlife in the comparative safety of their own imaginations. By considering Harry’s own ‘death’ and the use of several motifs for life after death the paper will show how the Christian doctrine of resurrection is the core driver of the plot of the entire series of seven books. Thus this paper will focus on this meeting of theology and popular culture.
References [ 1] http://homepage.eircom.net/%257Eodyssey/Quotes/Popular/SciFi/Harry_Potter.html#About
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arts for health
Spirituality Banners Jessica Kent
The NHS Trust provides opportunities for service users, carers and staff to come together for spirituality. At Christmas time this involves a celebration at each inpatient site. We endeavour to make those occasions appropriate and engaging by inviting everyone to a service of readings, carols, time for reflection and togetherness. We involve local schools and encourage families to attend. On the two major sites, we are looking to improve the environment for these events to take place by having something that could be used as a backdrop each year to set the scene. This would need to be something that could be used in different settings and that could fold away when not in use. Arts for Health and the Chaplaincy have been involved in commissioning two artist groups to work with service users and children. The aim of the project was to create colourful and inspiring artworks that would act as creative and inspiring backdrops within our hospital centres - inspiration at Christmastime The artists’ brief referred to the creative style of Matisse in his piece designed for stained glass: Christmas Eve - exploring the use of colour, impact and reflecting the Christmas story and time of year. The sense of simplicity and abstraction are what we hoped to achieve with this project, but the process of collaboration and sharing ideas, artwork and thoughts - would reflect the spirituality agenda.
As the operation of these two projects was happening on two different sites, we involved the children from two different schools and two artists’ groups from those areas. The artists approached the work slightly differently and have created two very different results. Children were encouraged to explore the work of Matisse, his use of colour, shape and space, as well as the subtle imagery - allowing the viewer to make their own associations and interpretations. The process of creating the work involved a number of stages, working with children, then service users and the coming together for the unveiling and celebration event. - a wonderful collaborative result by all those involved!
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Soul survivors: how green men tell us who we are Simon Cross At the root of our spiritual search are a number of key questions - among them are those related to the ultimate meaning of life: Who am I? And why am I here? Religious and spiritual answers abound, and as predominant worldviews have shifted, so have the way we understand the meanings that are provided by them. One approach to answering these profound questions that is most evident in Western European and North American cultural forms, is through ‘green men’ myths. These are a series of apparently unconnected mythological representations of creation narratives represented through popular culture. They first become most apparent in the middle ages, but have continued through the centuries, with a variety of ‘green men’ to be found in a wide range of popular literature and film - all depicting or reflecting some form of creation narrative. This paper will explore some of those narratives, and relate them back most directly to the founding creation myths in the Judeo Christian tradition. In order to demonstrate the prevalence of the green men, who it will present as some form of cultural trope, and the way they have been used as a means of accessing answers to deep spiritual questions, it will highlight examples of these to be found in novels, films, comic books, computer games, and architecture and relate them directly to emerging understandings of ‘who we are’. About the speaker: Simon Cross works for the charity Oasis in Grimsby where he is Chaplain to the Oasis Grimsby ‘Hub’. His degree was in Politics and Sociology, and subsequent work has included a series of Science Fiction comic books and a variety of newspaper and magazine articles besides other publications including: ‘Totally Devoted: The Challenge of New Monasticism’ (Authentic Media2010) and more recently a chapter in ‘Earthed’ a collection of essays on Nature Connection in the Christian tradition (Mystic Christ Press, 2014), a paper at Missio Dei, University of Chester, 2014 (Re-engaging with the ‘other’) and a forthcoming paper at Self and the City, University of Manchester, 2015 (By the rivers of Babylondon: finding our soul in the heart of the city).
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Psychological and Spiritual Underpinnings in “Geek” Subculture Lead Researcher: Seda Kaya Project Supervisor: Patrick Rosenkranz Dunbar and colleagues (2005) state that both religion and storytelling have one common role in human history: “they are both concerned with virtual worlds” . These virtual worlds seemed to have common concepts in both religion and products of fictional literacy. Mentally represented assumptions of supernatural concepts that violate intuitive ontology; intentional communicative displays by meta-representing false beliefs: a shared common language and interest that allows individuals to cooperate. According to the literature, it is suggested that there is a positive correlation between religiosity/spirituality and mental health. The present study aims to explore the relationships between mental health, spirituality, and schizotypal personality among geek subculture population. Project involves two studies: Study 1 includes two focus group discussions with individuals who are interested in fictional literacy, games (video/board/card/fantasy role playing games etc.), and comic books. Study 1 is designed to explore the geek subculture based on the question: Is fictional literacy another form of spirituality in these individuals’ lives, acting as an agent similar to religion. Study 2 is an online survey, which will include questionnaires related to mental health, spirituality, schizotypal personality and geekiness. Project is Funded and Approved by Newcastle University, School of Psychology References Dunbar, R., Barret, L., Lycett, J. (2005). Evolutionary psychology: a beginner's guide: human behaviour, evolution and the mind. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.
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