Ann Harris

"Entangled Ecologies: Community, Identity, and the Modern Future of the Medieval Past"
This is what Ann Harris of DePauw University named her sermon. Here is a medieval painting she showed:

Ann Harris described this medieval zodiac painting like this: she says it has a layered sense of time, place, and space. See for yourself. The people in the painting have a permeable sense of self. The two people are parts of the same person, or rather, a more universal representation of humanity. their identity is entangled in the environment and the stars. "Body is contingent, entangled, permeable."

Mchluhan has something to say about art that has abandoned, or rather not yet taken up, perspective:

"Primitive and pre-alphabet people integrate time and space as one and live in an acoustic, horizonless, boundless, olfactory space, rather than in visual space. Their graphic presentation is like an x-ray. They put in everything they know, rather than only what they see. ... the primitive artist twists and tilts the various possible visual aspects until they fully explain what he wishes to represent." 56/7

it obviously is not a primitive or prealphabet painting... but I think that it was obvious this part of the statement was an exaggeration anyways...



she then sagwayed (no idea how ur supposed to spell that)((I really could use some flinks))  into talking about rock raising and tipping and reraising. specifically in the case of some rocks in france (or scotland (I think it was scotland but Johnnie doesn't think so)) ...  So these stones had been moved and then raised as some sort of religious thing by some pagan rock folks.. and then the Christians got mad and tore them down. What I thought was the most interesting thing she said was just that the debate around reraising the stones is just as significant as the other two. It simple but I never thought about it like that. history in the making. It actually probably isn't as significant tho.. because the first one is necessary for the other tow events / community decisions. and because we alter our environment much more radically and often in present times..

I don't believe in conclusions.