2021-2022 SYLLABUS
Theme
In the religious imagination, water quenches both physical and spiritual thirst. In the most unexpected places wells and rocks become the bearers of story. Focusing on the Exodus narrative of Moses’ striking the rock, which reveals an aquifer, we will consider the power of water as sustenance, healing, and renewal. The seminar will explore how seemingly inanimate entities such as water and rocks might also be alive and help us rethink our relationship to the earth.
Key Texts:
Exodus 17:1-7
Numbers 20
We will be examining these texts within an environmental context. Focusing on the Exodus and Numbers narratives of Moses’ striking the rock which opens an aquifer, we will consider the power of water as sustenance, healing, and renewal. The seminar will explore how seemingly inanimate entities such as water and rocks might also be alive and help us rethink our relationship to the earth.
Faculty
Daniel Cueto, Composer, Performer, Associate Instructor, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Dr. Andy Findley, Associate Faculty in the IU School of Liberal Arts and Adjunct Instructor in the Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI
Shonda Nicole Gladden, IAHI Graduate Assistant
Dr. Jason M. Kelly, Professor of History in the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI
Stefan Petranek, Associate Professor of Photography in the Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI
Dr. Sandy Sasso, Rabbi Emerita of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck
Dr. Uranchimeg Tsultem, Assistant Professor, Edgar and Dorothy Fehnel Chair in International Studies in the Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI
Dr. Joseph Tucker Edmonds, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Religious Studies at IUPUI
Shari Wagner, Author and Indiana Poet Laureate (2016-2017)
Schedule
Sessions will be held for 2 1/2 hours weekly for a total of eight weeks and will meet evenings from 6:00–8:30 p.m. on 9/9, 9/23, 9/30, 10/21, 10/28, 11/4, 12/2, 1/13.
Because of COVID-19, our seminar meetings will be held online via Zoom. Participation will require a computer with a microphone and an internet connection. Based on artists interest, we may also schedule informal online gatherings for small discussion groups, artist sharing and collaborative sessions. Any potential in-person gatherings or events will be dependent on COVID safety precautions.
Session 1
September 9
Introduction
Presenters:
Jason M. Kelly, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
Readings:
Handout, Prepared by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
Alice Ostriker, “White Fire – The Art of Writing Midrash.” Reform Judaism Magazine 58 (1999).
Sandy Sasso, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” in The Sacred Earth: Jewish Perspectives on Our Planet, CCAR Press, to be published
Robin Kimmerer, “Animacy” in Braiding Sweet Grass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions, 2013.
Martin Buber, “Consider a Tree” in I and Thou, Charles Scribner, 1937.
Jason Kelly, “The End of Abundance: Water Infrastructure and the Culture of Cornucopianism” in DIlletante Army, Fall 2019.
Reading Questions:
In the article, White Fire -The Art of Writing, Alicia Ostriker, explains the Jewish process of interpreting biblical text. How comfortable do you feel reading between the lines of the biblical narrative, imagining what is left unsaid? Put yourself in Moses’ place, write what you imagine his thoughts might have been.
The selections provide different ways in which the text has been interpreted. Which material is the most surprising, stimulating, troubling?
The essay “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”, offers the legendary history of the Rock that Moses strikes. How does this change the way you understand the Exodus and Numbers passages?
How do the readings from Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweet Grass, Martin Buber’s I and Thou, and selections from Jeffrey Cohen and Jan Zalasiewicz change your thinking about the world of nature? How might you have the stone speak?
Additional Resources:
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, “Geophilia – The Love of Stone” in Stone - An Ecology of the Inhuman. University of Minnesota Press, 2015.
Aviva Zornberg, “Heart of Stone, Heart of Flesh” in Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers. Schocken Books 2015.
Brendan Wenzel, A Stone Sat Still. Chronicle Books, 2019
Jason Kelly, et al. An Anthropocene Primer, Version 1.0, October 23, 2017.
Jason Kelly, et al. Rivers of the Anthropocene. California: University of California Press, 2017.
Water in the Anthropocene. Available here: https://vimeo.com/66087863
Session 2
September 23
Poetry
Presenters:
Shari Wagner
Readings:
Additional Resources:
Session 3
September 30
Visual Art
Presenters:
Stefan Petranek, Andy Findley
Readings:
Simon Schama, “Nile Brought to Tiber,” and “Bernini and the Four Rivers,” in Landscape and Memory. Vintage Books, 1996.
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. “Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael: Moses Striking the Rock, 1624.” In NGA Online Editions. (Read “Overview” and “Entry”).
"The Case for Land Art," in Smarthistory, April 9, 2018, accessed August 10, 2021.
Colin Waters and Jan Zalasiewicz. “The Anthropocene and Its Golden Spike” in Anthropocene by Burtynsky, Baichwal and de Pencier, Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), 2018.
Subjankar Banerjee and Karin Siguradottir, selections from Art in Action: Nature, Creativity and our Collective Future, Natural World Museum, 2007.
Susan Derges, selections from LiquidForm 1984-1999, 1999.
Reading Questions:
The Schama reading addresses some ways Artists and Donors in 17th-century Rome drew on antiquity in assignment meaning to public fountains and aqueducts. Can we identify any parallels to Exodus 17:1-7?
Consider the role of fountains from both a secular and sacred perspective. Can they be separated? Or do they represent the fulfillment of a sacred civic responsibility? How can aesthetics and artistic treatment enhance fountains?
In what ways did Dutch painters use color, gesture, and figural arrangement to suggest modern allegories for the Moses narrative?
How can we interpret land art as contemporary expression of water from the rock according to an environmental perspective?
From the biblical storyline, “Water from the Rock” is a miracle and its miraculousness encourages faith and belief in God and Moses. We understand this in the context of water’s essentialness for life and its scarcity within an arid landscape. In the era of the Anthropocene, what other insights or meaning might you as an artist draw from this phrase ‘water from the rock?’ What other meaning might this biblical saying have for you today?
When we have science, which can speak in pinpoint objective swaths about the importance of water to the planet and humanity, What role do the arts (music, visual arts, literature/poetry) play in contemplating water’s essentialness?
Additional Resources:
Peter Boswell. “Invisible Aesthetic: Revisiting Mel Chin’s Revival Field.”: https://walkerart.org/magazine/mel-chin-revival-field-peter-boswell-rufus-chaney-eco-art
Rebecca Taylor, "Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty," in Smarthistory, September 18, 2016, accessed August 10, 2021, https://smarthistory.org/robert-smithson-spiral-jetty/.
Karrie Jacobs, “The Woman Who Harvested a Wheat Field Off Wall Street,” in The New York Times, June 14, 2018: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/t-magazine/agnes-denes-art.html
Brenda Longfellow, “Roman Fountains in Greek Sanctuaries.” American Journal of Archaeology 116.1: pp. 133-155.
Susan Derges—The River Taw, the Observer and The Observed, Tadpole series.
Susan Derges—Video interview, River Taw series and water in her practice.
Robert Glenn Ketchum—Winter Portfolio.
Edward Burtynsky—Water Series.
Sama Alshaibi—Silsila.
Luminato Festival Oct 16 2021 (In The Wake of Progress by Edward Burtynsky, 22 min installation in Toronto, live FREE Streaming of Event).
Watermark (2013) — available for rent/purchase on Amazon Prime or Youtube. How we use and misuse water by Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier.
Session 4
October 21
Panel on Cultural Perspectives
Presenters:
Joseph Tucker-Edmonds, Uranchimeg Tsultem, Julia Muney Moore
Readings:
Ashanté M. Reese. “‘We Will Not Perish, We’re Going to Keep Flourishing’: Race, Food, and Geographies of Self-Reliance.” Antipode, Vol. 50 Issue 2, 2018.
Tyler Parry, “The Role of Water in African American History” in Black Perspectives, May 4, 2018.
Kevin Dawson, selections from Introduction of Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora. UPenn Press, 2018.
Esther Jacobson-Tepfer and James E. Meacham, "The Sacred Mountain Shiveet Khairkhan (Bayan Olgiy aimag, Mongolia) and the Centering of Cultural Indicators in the Age of Nomadic Pastoralism," in Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 0(0) 2016.
Dashdorjin Natsagdorj, "Things They Had Never Seen," in Simon Wickhamsmith (trans) Suncranes and Other Stories: Modern Mongolian Short Fiction. Columbia University Press, 2021.
Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni, The Story of the Weeping Camel. https://archive.org/details/TheStoryOfTheWeepingCamel
San Pedro Creek Culture Park in San Antonio: San Pedro Creek Culture Park - Flowing with Purpose | San Antonio, Texas
Mary Miss: StreamLines project in Indianapolis: StreamLines — City as Living Laboratory (CALL)
Watershed+ in Calgary (ongoing project): https://prism.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/handle/1880/107767/9781552389980_chapter09.pdf and WATERSHED+ Public Art
WorksOnWater projects: https://www.worksonwater.org/
The public art practice of Jackie Brookner: http://jackiebrookner.com/
Stacy Levy https://www.stacylevy.com/
Additional Resources:
Excerpt from Ras Michael Brown, African Atlantic Cultures and the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Excerpt from Anissa Ward, Water and African American Memory.
Unai Miguel Andres, “Estimated 200,000 Indy Residents Live in Food Deserts” in SAVI, November 29, 2018.
Byambasuren, The Story of the Weeping Camel (2005). DVD.
Hamid Sardar, Horse Tamer (2021).
Otto Bell, The Eagle Huntress (2016). DVD.
USA Water Alliance: http://uswateralliance.org/sites/uswateralliance.org/files/publications/uswa_artsculture_FINAL_PAGES_RGB_0.PDF
The Nature of Cities: https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2018/07/14/artists-conversation-water/
The Water Bar: https://www.water-bar.org/
Session 5
October 28
Music
Presenters:
Daniel Cueto
Readings:
Frederick Foster, "The Springs of Salvation", (Hymnal and Liturgies of the Moravian Church, Chicago, 1969)
John Monsell, "I Hunger and I Thirst" (Hymns Ancient and Modern, Church of England, London, 1907).
CPE Bach, "Die Israeliten in der Wüste" (Im Verlag des Autors, Hamburg, 1775)
Text: https://cpebach.org/pdfs/librettos/IV-1-Libretto-Translation.pdf .
Musical numbers:
Nr. 13: https://youtu.be/3ygaVLztAcA?t=1824 (link leads directly to timestamp 30:24)
Nr. 20: https://youtu.be/3ygaVLztAcA?t=3315 (link leads directly to timestamp 55:15)
Virgil Thompson, "Suite from The Plow That Broke the Plains" (G. Schirmer, New York, 1942)
Watch about a 3-or-4 minute excerpt of the documentary, starting at timestamp 17:16 (https://youtu.be/hzaV5FdZMUQ?t=1036), where the story turns to focus on the topic of “drought”.
Here is a link to a more polished performance of Thompson’s score, which is sometimes performed as a standalone musical piece in concert settings:
Reading Questions:
While listening to Bach, pay attention to how the composer brings out the emotional content of the text. Mark, in the lyrics, two or three of your “favorite” musical moments in these two pieces. Maybe you like how the composer brings out a certain mood in a specific word, or you notice unexpected resolutions or surprising turns in the music. Reflect briefly on what you think makes those “favorite” moments so special, and try to put into words what you like most about them. Bring these ideas as notes to use in class discussion.
How do the musical features of Monsell‘s hymns relate to the sung words? Are there certain gestures in the music (maybe the way in which the melody moves, or the moods created by the chords) that seem to match specific ideas in the lyrics?
How would you describe the music of Thompson? What are its features? Does the music stay the same along these 3-4 minutes, or does it change in rhythm or mood? Why do you think this happens? How would you describe the relationship between the music, the images and the narration? How does the music help to convey the story that is being told? Is music, as the abstract art form that it is, able to convey a concept as specific as “drought”?
Do you know of other music (no matter what genre) that reminds you of some of the themes in our course? If so, you are welcome to share sound links with me in advance (dacueto@iu.edu) so that we can incorporate them into our class discussion!
Session 6
November 4
Reflections
Presenters:
Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, Shari Wagner, Joseph Tucker-Edmonds, Andy Findley
Session 7
December 2
Group Critique and Consultation Session 1
Presenters:
Sandy Sasso, Stefan Petranek, Andy Findley
Session 8
January 13
Group Critique and Consultation Session 2
Presenters:
Shari Wagner, Joseph Tucker-Edmunds, Daniel Cueto