Option 2.2 : Lesson 2

Project No.: 2021-1-FR01-KA220-HED-000027504

Optional Module 2.2: Introduction to Contemplative Art

Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

Start

Welcome to Lesson 2!

In this lesson, you will embark on a captivating journey of artistic exploration as we delve into the diverse world of contemplative art. This lesson aims to broaden your artistic horizons by introducing you to various contemplative art forms and practices. We will delve into the unique attributes of each medium, uncovering how they can be harnessed for meditative and mindful experiences. Through a series of engaging sub-topics, you will gain insights into the profound connections between contemplation, creativity, and personal expression.

Project No.: 2021-1-FR01-KA220-HED-000027504

Index

Welcome to this lesson

Lesson 2 Overview

C) Mindfulness, Contemplation and Art Appreciation

B) The Diversity of Contemplative Art

A) Introduction

Resources and References

Project No.: 2021-1-FR01-KA220-HED-000027504

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

Lesson 2 Overview

In this lesson, you will gain a broader understanding of the contemplative art landscape while embracing mindfulness as an integral part of your creative journey.

Throughout lesson 2, you will develop the following skills and knowledge: Understanding the Diversity of Contemplative Art, Exploring Contemplative Art Forms and Discover how the natural world can be a profound source of inspiration and mindfulness.

Let’s embrace this opportunity to explore the diverse and transformative world of contemplative art.

A) Introduction

Project No.: 2021-1-FR01-KA220-HED-000027504

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

A) Introduction

Contemplation, Creativity and Artistic Expression

In this lesson we will learn to draw an interpretive line that can adequately represent the evolution of mindfulness thinking and the way in which such thinking has entered literature and been used by literature, especially in the case of poetic texts and artistic expressions. The Renaissance features a reinvigorated interest in humanity’s greatness, defined by their capability to analyze the natural world empirically. Artists and Poets were particularly interested in the depiction of natural forms. During the Renaissance, artists used temporal phenomena—such as wind, rain, thunderstorms, and snowfall — to evoke a range of moods and to engage the spectator in the experience of the landscape. The tiniest insect to the most foreboding mountain could hold deep significance. The works in this section highlight the many meanings behind individual aspects of a landscape composition, from flowers and rocks to water and sky, and explore the ways in which each actively participates in the narrative and contributes to the prayers, songs, or meditations

B) The Diversity of Contemplative Art

Léonardo Da Vinci

The Contemplative Practice

Drawing and writing as a Form of Meditation: Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

Suspendisse potenti

Definition of SELF-FORGIVENESS

Project No.: 2021-1-FR01-KA220-HED-000027504

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

B) The Diversity of Contemplative Art

Léonardo Da Vinci

In exploring the branching of trees with their leaves, Leonardo da Vinci noted that “the branching of some trees, like the elm, are wide and thin, in the manner of an open hand seen in foreshortening.” In another note, On the Shadow of the Leaf, Leonardo detailed that “a leaf with a concave surface seen in reverse from below sometimes appears half shaded and half transparent.” This methodological approach to painting aligns with contemporary Humanism, which stressed the renewed interest in human subjects and their worth, greatness, and beauty; humans were regarded highly enough to analyze nature.

Léonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) “In a painting that so clearly interweaves a fabric of both images and ideas regarding water, geology, and slow processes of time, is it wise to reject outright any symbolic or thematic meaning for the bridge, and its visual role in the composition? If not, even hypothetically, it is worth asking if the meanings of the bridge and the spiral shawl could be related”

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

B) The Diversity of Contemplative Art

The Contemplative Practice

At the basis of this process is the misunderstanding that mimesis, one of the possible visions of the world, has been considered and perceived as the sole purpose of artistic creation? In this lesson we want to express the true nature of the meaning of contemplating, imitating, representing, particularly in the pictorial act. A long history that technical simulation and artificial reality have altered by adopting fictions and pretenses in place of the truths of feeling and living. In the twentieth century these techniques gained the upper hand. the point is that the spirit of contemplation lives where words are born, in the magic of the enchantment of the world. Aspects of post-modernism and the ultimate outcome of modernism have betrayed this distant collective memory, replacing it with surrogates mixing with new techniques. This fact pushed consciousness to move away and become extraneous to a natural process of wonder that gave living forms to the world.

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

B) The Diversity of Contemplative Art

Drawing and writing as a Form of Meditation: Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

Michelangelo, though best known for his sculpture, was also a poet. His literary work allows us not only to explore the connection between poetry and the visual arts as a form of self expression, but also Michelangelo as a man with his own feelings and concerns as a Renaissance artist and men. There are so many legends surrounding Michelangelo's motivations and actions that it is very difficult to determine what is true and what is simply propaganda or intrigue. There is no way to decipher what is true and what is false, without knowing Michelangelo as a Man. The best way to do this is by looking at his work. Just as a person may learn who an author was through his writings, we can learn who Michelangelo was through his poetry and visual representations. This short lesson will be a concise discussion of the connection between Michelangelo’s poetry and his visual arts as a form of self expression, and what Michelangelo's self expression can tell us about Michelangelo as a man.

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

B) The Diversity of Contemplative Art

Drawing and writing as a Form of Meditation: Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

As Umberto Baldini says in The Complete Works of Michelangelo "In designing the human shape of the first non-heroic Christ he gave him an almost boyish body, as if to exalt an extreme chastity, an absolute and uncorrupted purity despite the seemingly hermaphroditic beauty." This is very interesting since Michelangelo viewed himself as being corrupted by his own sexual desires, which are very much linked to his own sense of manhood. To chose to depict Christ with a boyish and slightly feminine presence, Michelangelo tries to show the extreme diversity between how he views the purity he sees in Christ versus the corruption he sees in himself. Mary looks down at the boyish Christ with sadness and love. These are the same emotions that Michelangelo had towards God, his love of God's grace and the awe inspiring quality in all God's creation, yet at the same time the sadness Michelangelo felt from being detached from this state of holiness.

Sculpture and Mindfulness: Michelangelo’s sense of guiltDespite this, Michelangelo did have a great deal of affection for God which can be seen in some of his other poems, as well as his religious sculptures. If one looks at the Pietá for example, the subtlety and care that was taken in sculpting the beautiful, loving, and yet sorrowful face of Christ, clearly points to the fact that Michelangelo truly loved God and had a very clear image of how he wanted Christ to be depicted.

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

B) The Diversity of Contemplative Art

Suspendisse potenti

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

Definition of SELF-FORGIVENESS

Self-forgiveness, according to Horsbrugh (1974) is a process that leads to the diminishing of negative emotions towards oneself (self-hatred, contempt, self-rejection or in the milder forms self-criticism and self-annoyance) and to the recovery of a positive attitude (kindness, self-respect and self-acceptance), even in the face of awareness of mistakes made towards ourselves and othersa motivational shift from a paralysing state of self-rejection to a condition of self-respect and acceptance: it is from the awareness of being imperfect and fallible and sharing this condition with all other human beings that restorative behaviour can be enactedfocusing, rather, on increasing competence and tangible activity

in artistic expression the authentic creative process is often linked to recent educational practices based on theories of awareness as a spontaneous process of detachment from the perceptive automatism of reality put into practice unconsciously by the artist

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

This approach has also been used successfully in an activity that prompted urban dwellers to note the good things in nature. pathways can help ‘tweak’ existing activities or inspire new ideas. be more creative in their programming, inspired to make small but high impact changes, and being given a ‘licence to talk about emotions’. identify your favourite route around the estate and the places where you found peace or a ‘place to think’

Nature-Inspired Contemplative ArtNature connectedness matters because it brings benefits for both humans and nature; it is a factor in improved mental wellbeing and increased pro-environmental behaviours. The research identified five types of activity associated with nature connectedness. These were contact through the senses, emotion, beauty, meaning and compassion.

C) Mindfulness, Contemplation and Art Appreciation

Mindful Art Appreciation in nature contemplation

Case Study: immersion and immersive art dimensions

Project No.: 2021-1-FR01-KA220-HED-000027504

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

C) Mindfulness, Contemplation and Art Appreciation

Mindful Art Appreciation in nature contemplation

On creative possibilities depends whether we will be able to suspend and stop our destructive expansion on planet Earth, the landscape of our lives, and create attitudes and behaviours of care for the world, for the nature of which we are a part and, therefore, for ourselves. For now, we persist mainly in a position of observation and action ‘at a distance’ of the planet and nature of which we are, however, an active and not merely contemplative part. The observer, of whom we are a part, does not decide to recognise that he is part of the event and behaves as if he can afford a distant and unrestricted observation and action of using the system of which he is a part. This is a process with strong implications on an emotional and cognitive level, the outcome of which is uncertain, but which would require in the first instance that we recognise that we are part of the event of life on planet Earth, and that the indubitable fact that, because of our symbolic competence, we are able to observe it ‘as if’ we were outside it, should increase our awareness of responsibility and induce us to discard an irresponsible use.

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

So not only is a discipline of attention fundamental now more than ever but probably a form of attention that isn't even present at school much more requested, that is, the attention paid to ourselves: from competing with nature to belonging to nature, a current and difficult objective, we find ourselves redefining the meaning and effectiveness of our presence. In search of the conditions to stop competing with nature and try to feel part of the environment, we now find ourselves redefining and connecting. The superiority, if we really want to identify one, lies in the fact that we are sentient beings and therefore have the ability to recognise the limit; the distinction might lie in knowing how to do this and actually being able to do it. The history of the relationship between human beings and the territory they inhabit, both natural and environmental, appears, upon observation, to be more attentive to drawing paradises, zones of ideal and abstract life, separate spaces that are in truth distant from our actual existences, which are always risky and problematic; or it appears attentive to delimiting existential hells in which we do everything, than to a responsible, ethical and aesthetic, effective praxis.

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

C) Mindfulness, Contemplation and Art Appreciation

Case Study: immersion and immersive art dimensions

Immersive exhibitions are a practice derived from those artistic experiences that have matured since the 1960s that have placed central attention on the redefinition of the spatial, technical and perceptual corollary. Artistic research has concluded by highlighting the public's need to become part of the work or art installation, seeking a form of experience that can be defined as total and in which the body becomes a true instrument of relationship, overcoming the modernist limitation of the primacy of the eye and contemplation alone. Here are some immersive experiences to be inspired: https://futureartecosystems.org/ https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/tree/overview/ https://hirshhorn.si.edu/kusama/infinity-rooms/ https://area15.com/

Immersivity is not a phenomenon exclusively related to new technologies and, therefore, by no means an exclusive form of contemporaneity. On closer inspection, in fact, it has its roots in the past, so much so that one can even trace a millennial history of it. The experiential forms of a physical body completely enveloped, encompassed by the image account for a relationship with the image itself that shifts from an expressly contemplative dimension typical, for example, of a framed painting, to an immersive dimension, where experience becomes presence. The immersive effect thus actualises issues that call into question precisely the dimension of the various media forms and the strategies of experience construction. There are many artistic groups that insist on the importance of immersiveness in the work of art.

Resources and References

Project No.: 2021-1-FR01-KA220-HED-000027504

Optional Module 2.2 : Introduction to Contemplative Art Lesson 2 – Contemplative Art - Exploring Different Forms and Approaches

Resources and References

List of Recommended Resources for Further Study

O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge-London: The MIT Press, 2003) https://blooloop.com/technology/in-depth/immersive-art-experiences/ Leonardo da Vinci: Of nature, weight and motion of the waters: the Codex Leicester Milano, Electa, 1996 Leonardo da Vinci, nature and architecture, ed. by C. Moffatt, S.Taglialagamba, Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2019 G. Cambon, Michelangelo’s poetry: fury of form, Princeton, N.J, Princeton University Press, 1985

See you in lesson 3

Project No.: 2021-1-FR01-KA220-HED-000027504