Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

Designing Grandly and Well for the Sake of our Humanity

One of my favourite TV programs is the UK’s (and more latterly the Australian version) Grand Designs. I watch the program at so many levels. It’s not just about design and architecture; its more than that. A part of the interest is the role of form, beauty and space in nourishing what it means to be human and what it means to grow humanly. 

This same sense of engaging at multiple levels was also evident in a recent (24/09/11) Radio New Zealand interview with Kevin McCloud, Grand Designs’ front person. He talks about more than the program. He talks about the need to resist throwing out the old and replacing it with the new, the importance of taking context seriously in both the design and building phases of a project, and many many other fascinating topics.

You’ll find the interview here as a podcast. 

Beginning to Imagine – in Dunedin – How the World Might Be Mended – Final Part.

Murray Rae – “Building from the Rubble: Architecture, Memory and Hope”

As already noted in an earlier post, this was an understated yet utterly fascinating paper. It took listeners to some interesting places, if post lecture conversations and reflections were anything to go by. There’s such a lot that can be followed up, explored, and deepened. 

Fragments 

“To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric” – Theodore Adorno, who for a time even resisted the use of art to depict the horror.

Follow up – Samuel Beckett’s play: The End Game.

In times of tragedy, particularly following 9/11, we have increasingly looked to architects to help us approach tragedy on a large scale; to help us give physical expression to what it is we’re feeling and experiencing.

See also discussions around “re-building Christchurch” following the Sept / Feb / June earthquakes.

Architects have to work with spaces, with voids, and with emptiness in their work of design.

To mend the world we need to be willing to engage at the level of brokenness; whether within culture, or even within our own lives and relationships.

US Architect Daniel Libeskind whose design for the “ground zero” site won the competition that had been organised. His story and insights were fascinating, and well worth further exploration. He designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Again, fascinating to hear about that project and to see photographs from inside and outside the building.  He broke Adorno’s silence.

Artists help us see reality; to see what is before us. For there to be healing we need to first look at and engage with the brokenness without and within us.

“Descent” is the movement of grief; of repentance; of chastened humility and of endings; and of fall-eness.

In the plan for “Ground Zero” you descend into the footings of the building which were not destroyed.

Nicholas Ourousoff, Architectural Critic (ex - LA and NY Times) has written of the changes to the (urban) landscape; to urban architecture post the Oklahoma bombing. Buildings become “bunkers”. Instead he advocates for an urban landscape shaped by openness, hospitality and vulnerability to the “other”; instead of an architectural approach the preferences paranoia, invulnerability, unassailability and closedness.

Was reminded throughout the lecture why good architecture and design evokes something significant in me – especially if I can understand, or am able to gain insight into the creative process and conceptual journey that permeates the design.

“We shape our buildings, then our buildings shape us…” – Winston Churchill. What a wonderful insight!

We need to recognise that sometimes; indeed oftentimes the healing is in our brokenness; is in not trying to fix what has become broken.

Julanne Clarke-Morris: “Multi-Media Art: A Liturgical Approach”. 

Concerned with the creation of “immersive environments” / immersive and “contemplative” environments that open up possibilities… She wants to create “windows” through which people see, as if for the first time.

We enter into flow of the “never-ending worship of God” – reinforced for me by the projection of a fast flowing river.

Significant for Julanne in terms of her journey was the “blue windows” at Chartres Cathedral, France. Leading edge ‘technology’ of its day. A “new” means of bringing people into conversation with the gospel and God.

“Orthodox” are so there with their art!”

“I want to make people feel so deeply that they have to think…” “Creating art of often about ‘ditching things’…” - Peter Majende, Christchurch-based artist.

Multi-media art installations / works are open to multiple perspectives and interpretations, and that’s a good thing.

Mentioned Rowan Williams and his understanding of the “prophetic understanding of art, as distinct from propaganda” [I thought of this statement from Rowan Williams, “What is the world that art takes for granted?” He continues, “It is the one in which perception is always incomplete… there is constantly more response evoked… the religious vision [and one could also add, the artistic vision] [is] not a shortcut of any kind… [Artists are concerned with creating art] that is more than functional, more than problem solving… the artist looks for the ‘necessity’ in what is being made”… “Imagination produces not a self-contained mental construct but a vision that escapes control, that brings with it its shadow and its margins, its absences and its ellipses, a dimensional existence as we might call it… [there is] the sense of alternative space around the image…” – from Grace and Necessity, Chapter 4 “God and the Artist”, p. 135-170.]

Art has to be done in a way that offers a way (or oftentimes ways) of approaching reality. Typically these ways are “non-linear”.

Use space in a way that is congruent with that space, its shape, edges, stories, architecture etc. “Don’t fight the space”. Go with it – see where it takes you. See what emerges.

We need to exercise aesthetic rigour. Make good decisions, not pragmatic functional decisions about the aesthetics of the installation… we don’t simply make do for the sake of making do.

The artist doesn’t “take their feet off the ground”.

Alt-worship needs to be occasional and temporal, not always. [I had an interesting conversation on the way to the airport with Mark Pierson and Mike Riddell, who see understood what was being said but see things slightly differently particularly when questions of scale are considered].

Forests and trees are metaphors for “self”.

Alice Walker’s poem “Torture” was referenced.

There is more to reality that what is seen. “… Of things seen and unseen…[things visible and invisible]” (Nicene Creed)

These made their way into my notes but weren’t part of Julanne’s presentation – “Just keep going - no feeling is final.” “Most events are inexpressible, taking place in a realm which no word has ever entered, and more inexpressible than all else are works of art, mysterious existences, the life of which, while ours passes away, endures.” “A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity." (Rainer Maria Rilke).

In the midst of the mundane we can glimpse and discover the extraordinary, the Divine. BUT we need to take the time to stop; to be still; to wait; to be open, with our senses engaged. 

A footnote to the conference. For those within the Reformed tradition grappling with theology and art, an additional resource recommended to me by Carolyn Kelly is Randall C. Zachman’s book Image and Word in the Theology of John Calvin pub. University of Notre Dame Press, August 2009.

Part One of this series can be found here. 

 

Beginning to Imagine – in Dunedin – How the World Might Be Mended – Part 1

Written – Saturday evening – 30 July 2011.

In the last decade I haven’t been to many conferences; I’ve been to one of two “gatherings” and some workshops, but not a university / seminary organised conference. It was therefore a real delight to travel to the Dunedin located Knox Centre for Ministry & Leadership for a Knox / Otago University School of Theology facilitated conference of Theology and the Arts. The 2-day conference was centred around a conversation on the place of the arts in “Mending the World”. I would have thought that around 80% of the participants were practicing “artists” (in the broadest sense of the word, i.e. painters, writer/poets, people involved in film and multimedia, sculptors, people working with fabric (e.g. embroiderers) – the list goes on. 

The “Keynote” paper was a fascinating one delivered by Prof. Bill Dyrness from the USA around the theme of “the artist’s role in the healing of the earth”. Much of it derived from his latest publication: Poetic Theology: God and the Poetics of Everyday Life (pub. Dec 2010). 

Other highlights for me were talks by artist Allie Eagle (presented collaboratively with Jo Osborne); Carolyn Kelly on “Re-Forming Beauty: can theological sense accommodate aesthetic sensibility” (a delightful, heart-felt and thoughtful paper engaging the “Romantic Poets” and more besides (sadly I didn’t have access to my note pad during Carolyn’s paper, but in what turned out to be an unexpected sacramental moment I sat beside Carolyn on the return flight to Auckland and we had a delightful conversation). I’ll look forward to the opportunities that future writing / publication by her will provide. My sense is that she’s got such a lot of real value to share, and the beginnings of a really creative approach to sharing that learning. I thought of the following story, attributed to John F. Kennedy, as I listened to her: 

“…Frank O’Connor, the Irish author, tells in one of his books how as a boy, he and his friends would make their way across the countryside and when they came to an orchard wall that seemed to high and too doubtful to try, and to difficult to permit their journey to continue, they would take off their hats and toss them over the wall – and then they had no choice but to follow them…” 

While a dense and academic paper, I worked hard and found some ways into John Dennison’s paper titled “The Interesting Case of [Irish Poet Seamus] Heaney, the Critic, and the Incarnation. John’s was a paper that will undoubtedly resource an exploration for me; material to follow up and engage with on my own terms; not least Heaney’s poetry and collected prose essays / lectures. Dipping into one of those collections in Dunedin in a second-hand bookshop I found myself in a fascinating essay that touched on a number of the themes I’d “taken-away” from John’s paper. The remaining conference highlights were Murray Rae’s quiet, understated (but significantly deep theological reflection) and fascinating paper titled “Rebuilding from the Rubble: Architecture, Memory, and Hope”. And finally, Dunedin-based Anglican Artist/Theologian Julanne Clarke-Morris and her reflections and multimedia presentation titled “Multimedia Art – A Liturgical Approach”. One can only hope that Julanne finds a multimedia way to share her undoubtedly rich learning and experience. The themes she touched on felt critically important to me as we move further into the 21^st Century. 

On a more personal front, time spent with a dear friend, was the absolute highlight (including the James K Baxter 'pilgrimage'). Other friends enriched the four-days, as did new friends and diverse partners in conversation. In particular Jason Goroncy who I’ve corresponded with, but until this weekend had not met in person. Often my experience is that when there are resonances and intimations of shared or overlapping journeys in the “virtual” the movement from the virtual to the incarnational bears in that experience something of real value and rich possibility. It was great to share a beer and a fascinating conversation with Jason. Was great to see him walking around with a copy of Letters of Flannery O'Connor: The Habit of Being under his arm on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully there will be more conversations with Jason. It was great too to meet, again for the first time, Mike Crowl. There was lots of laughter too, and that’s a life-giving thing too.

At certain stages of life it’s not always easy or possible to get away to conferences like this, so I need to note my gratitude to my wife who kept the ‘home fire’ burning and the children well cared for.

Over the coming days I want to post some thoughts and quotes from the various addresses that made their way into my notebook. They not always a direct ‘quote’ from a particular lecture; oftentimes they’re paraphrases, or a note from the places lectures and their content took my imagination. Maybe there may be some content of value to others; at the very least though, it’ll provide a useful reference for me now and in the future. 

 

Architecture, Spirituality, and Religion

Back in 2008 on TVNZ’s TV1 channel there was a Sunday morning weekly television series titled My God: Conversations About Spirituality. Each episode featured an interview with a person of religious convictions: a Muslim, a Sikh, a Roman Catholic, a Jew, and a Buddhist etc. Hugh Tennent, an architect featured and I must say I was fascinated by the interview: a weaving together of religion, spirituality, and architecture. Since that episode I’ve had an opportunity to see a number of examples of his architectural work.

Saturday’s newspaper supplement featured a story on Tennent. It’s attached below as a PDF. 

For more on architecture and spirituality, you might find this online article interesting. It has featured at least a couple of times on this blog. 

Download Tennent Story - 18th June 2011

 

Mark McIntosh and Sandra Schneiders on Mystical Theology and Spirituality

Mark McIntosh is a prominent Anglican/Episcopalian Theologian who has written some fascinating essays and books, albeit I have still to read the book quoted from below.

Elsewhere McIntosh helpfully reflects on what he’s trying to do: “…If I’m focusing on mystical thought per se, or spiritual discernment, or on what it could mean to sense all creation as alive with divine intent and to see all things in God … in all such questions I’m seeking to elucidate how we might understand the beliefs of Christian faith more deeply – precisely by considering them in the light of spiritual traditions and mystical thought…”

Michelle (‘Chelle’) Wade, in this post, reflects a little on Chapter 1 in McIntosh’s book Mystical Theology: The Integrity of Spirituality and Theology (Oxford; Blackwell, 1998: 3-34).

She notes that “…the particular task of the Mystic is ‘contemplation’ and hence [contemplation] is the particular method of Mystic[al] Theology. She goes on to quote McIntosh from the chapter in his book noted above:

“…Contemplation is not like normal thinking only muddled and tentative, on the contrary it is seen as an activity in which the mind is liberated to perceive clearly, freed from the usual constraints of distraction, self-preoccupation or prejudice…” 

“…the more classical notion of mind [as opposed to Enlightenment preoccupation with linear, empirical rationality] refers to the desire of our whole being for deep understanding and relationship with all that is intelligible…”

“…What the mind is fixed upon in clear vision by an act of suspended wonder is ‘the manifestation of wisdom’… [Hence] it is in contemplation that theology and spirituality meet…”

Chelle observes that “McIntosh is particular about a definition of spirituality within the realm of Mystical Religious Experience”, and so he can suggest that:

“…spirituality… is inherently oriented towards discovery, towards new perceptions and new understandings of reality, and hence is intimately related to theology…” [The assumption being of course that this is what “theology” is also orientating itself towards - Paul].

“…the spiritual is that dimension of life which is engendered and empowered by God… [And] is connected with the active presence of God and not primarily with extraordinary inner experiences…personal experience is not in itself the goal of spirituality…” [see also my post on Kenneth Leech - Paul]

These latter points are helpful (and dare I say at the start of the 21^st Century, needful!), particularly if you accept, along with the likes of Kenneth Leech (and many others, including Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, Richard Rohr et al), that contemplation and action are inseparably and needfully interwoven. Action gives rise to contemplation, gives rise to action, and so on and so forth.  

Interestingly, Chelle notes that McIntosh “…favours a ‘God-centric’ definition of spirituality as opposed to a Human-centric definition.” This she contrasts with perhaps a more popular understanding; that which is provided by US Catholic nun Sandra Schneiders:

“…just as one says that a person has a certain ‘psychology’, a shape or pattern to their psychic life, so one could well say that every human being has a spirituality, that is, a ‘fundamental dimension of the human being’ … [i.e.]… that dimension of the human which is oriented towards self-transcendence…”

“… [There is a distinction between] ‘the lived experience which actualizes’ one’s spirituality … [and the] … inherent feature of human existence…”

“… [the academic discipline of spirituality is] the experimental and theoretical study of human efforts at self-transcending integration and to the pastoral practices aimed at fostering the spirituality of individuals and groups…” 

If you want more insight into McIntosh’s writing, you’ll find a summary, by Andrew Brower Latz, of the first part (chapters 1-3) of the first part of Divine Teaching: An Introduction to Christian Theology. Mark A. McIntosh. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing (2008), here. Well worth a slow reflective read if you don’t have the book. There are some really rich nd evocative quotes and thinking contained in Latz’s review.  

For more on Schneiders see, for example, her essay Biblical Spirituality in the April 2002 issue of Interpretation journal. You might also enjoy this essay: An Architectural Reflection on Sandra Schneiders and Philip Sheldrake’s Understanding of Christian Spirituality, which I read quite a few years ago (it featured on this blog at that point). It is fascinating! And the bonus for me was that it introduced me to the work of US-Architect Christopher Alexander and his understanding of wholeness in the field of architecture (and of course the wider implications). She also has two useful essays (The Study of Christian Spirituality: Contours and Dynamics of a Discipline; and A Hermeneutical Approach to the Study of Christian Spirituality), while McIntosh has one (Lover Without a Name: Spirituality and Constructive Christology Today) in Minding the Spirit: The Study of Christian Spirituality (pub. 2005).

 

The New Asceticism and Sarah Coakley

Paul writes – enviously reading this post from good friend Steve Taylor reminded me of a book I pre-ordered some months ago, and which is due out in September 10 or in 2011 depending on what sources you read. It’s by Sarah Coakley and is titled The New Asceticism.

Description 

Each chapter in this new book concentrates on a highly contentious issue in contemporary theology - the role of women, homosexuality, celibacy and so forth, but in a way to argue for an entirely new ascetical theology. 

Professor Coakley is familiar with the Bible and the Early Fathers as she is with the writings of Freud and Jung and her thesis is entirely original and may start to heal many contemporary wounds.

Coakley draws heavily upon the theology of St Gregory of Nyssa in her argument. For Gregory desire as thwarted, chastened, transformed, renewed and finally intensified in God, bringing forth spiritual fruits. This points the way through the false modern alternatives of repression and libertarianism, between agape and eros and has curiously many points of contact with Freud. 

In this way homoerotic desire at least could be potentially released from its cultural and biblical associations with promiscuity and disorder. 

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Pleasure Principles: A theology of desire
2. The Woman at the Altar
3. Other Voices Other Worlds: Homosexuality
4. Trinity Prayer and Sexuality
5. Deepening Practices: Ascetial and Mystical Theology.

Southern Star Abbey

Paul writes  - A recent NZ publication featured in its pages a piece on New Zealand’s sole Cistercian Abbey at Kopua. Specifically the article talks about the guesthouse, which I can vouch from first hand experience is both stunning and very relaxing and soothing. He abbey also has a great new website.

Below you will find a PDF of the article.

Download Kopua Article - HOME New Zealand - Dec - Jan 2010 

Architecture, Space, Spirit and the Journey of a Church Community

   

Paul writes – From time to time I get some really interesting e-mails in response to something I’ve written. The latest was a recent e-mail from Karynn @ 3six0 Architecture, who was browsing Theooze.com when she came across an article, "The 'Body Art' Of EmergingChurch " which I wrote for Theooze back in 2003. She writes:

“…I was especially intrigued by your attention to the "space" of a church and the questions you raise around it, "How is beauty manifested in your church community or building? How does your community process decisions about church buildings and the 'creation of' and usage of spaces within those buildings? What might your building say about your theology of mission? Of worship? Of community? Of your local context and story?"

 

Your questions made me think of a chapel that we recently completed for Shepherd of the Valley United Methodist Church in Hope, Rhode Island…. All of these questions came to bear as we worked with Shepherd of the Valley to design the worship space.

We thought the story of the chapel's design and the congregation's journey in bringing the chapel from conception to consecration is a great example.

 

I leave you with these words from Shepherd of the Valley's minster:

 

"Smell the newness, smell the wood, smell the aliveness of this place…

To begin, I just want to invite you to open your imaginations today…

When we built this, we were not absolutely certain how it would be used because we are a church and we don't determine the use of our lives and the use of our materials and the use of our abilities. We leave that to God. I just heard this little one here stepping, and I can imagine dancing in this place. I can imagine candle-light services in this place. I can imagine lively conversations of the church council in this place. I can imagine the youth praying in this place, praying through their bodies. I can imagine all kinds of things, and I want you to be part of that imagining with me. Live into this space as the launching pad formation."

- Reverend Starbuck, at the chapel's consecration, October 16, 2008"

 

A many of you will know I’ve always had a fascination with the linkages between space, story, architecture and spirituality. Architecture documentaries are a fairly regular part of my viewing diet, particularly when the architect is engaged with, e.g. Sketches of Frank Gehry; My Architect: A Son’s Journey. TV shows like “Grand Designs” are equally fascinating.

 

In NZ an architect Hugh Tennent has really captured my imagination. Hugh is a Buddhist and has done some really interesting work in respect to meditative and contemplative spaces, e.g. the design work for NZ’s sole Cistercian Abbey and their future building project.

 

I’ve reflected a little on the theme, here, here, and linked to this article about architecture and spirtuality.  

 

For more on the Shepherd of the Valley chapel, here’s a link to a news piece Karynn sent me. Included in the post are some photo’s Karynn sent. Click to enlarge. Some notes on the project are also attached.

Download Shepherd of the Valley - Notes  

Learning to Listen – the perspective of an architect.

Paul writes – On day 3 (last Saturday) of the Missional Church Leadership course in the Anglican Diocese of Waikato we talked about listening – the importance of listening, why we need to listen, and how we can listen within missional contexts.

I was therefore interested when I read the following section of an interview with visiting Japanese architect Kengo Kuma published recently in a NZ architectural magazine (not online):

Question: “…When you are overseas, how do you make a connection to the locality?

Reponse: When I initially go to the site, I want to feel its essence through my ‘real’ body, without the help of any visual images or texts. I want to sit on the site and hear its voice. That’s the starting point for the project. After that, where possible I like to collaborate with people who know the site better than I…

My basic philosophy is that real communication is better than knowledge from books. Information from books is of the past, but through  ‘body-to-body’ communication I can feel the reality of the present. That’s very important for my practice – I want to create the architecture of the present, not a frozen architecture…”

For more on architecture and spirituality go here (“An Architectural Reflection on Sandra Schneiders and Philip Sheldrake’s Understanding of Christian Spirituality”) and here (from a 2005 post on this blog – New Science, New Urbanism, New Architecture, Spirituality? - Christopher Alexander).

Google-image “Kengo Kuma” for a whole lot of images of his architectural work. For a different interview with Kengo Kuma, go here.