“If we practice treating a text as sacred, we can practice treating our lives and others as sacred.”
- Vanessa Zoltan, researcher Harvard University and host Harry Potter and the Sacred Text
ITEM III
In the story the Madman Friedrich Nietzsche writes about religion slowly disappearing from society and with it all moral. But is it true that without a bible there are no socially acceptable rules and guidelines?
For me art, every kind of art, is a reflection of society. An expression of our humanity. Can we find a meaning in art when we treat it the same way religious people treat a sacred scripture? Can we create a spiritual space without the presence of a higher entity of God?
To respect the privacy of the participants I decided not to share the documentation of the meetings.
Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix 2007, David Yates
Scene between Harry and Sirius. Harry tells Sirius he’s afraid he’s becoming more like Voldemort. He feels a lot of anger and is torn between good and bad emotions. Sirius tells him the world isn’t devided into good and bad people. We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.
I asked the group: How do you know you’re a good person? And how important is this question when you look at the political climate and the so called “post truth”-era we live in.
The result was an interesting debate about moral and who decides what the definition of morals are.
Afterthought: Sometimes we confuse humanity with good moral. When someone suffers while committing a bad act it doesn’t mean the act itself becomes acceptable. Also, there are laws for the bigger morality question like murder. The smaller morality questions, like: "when is it acceptable to lie?", are more interesting.
Bathers at Asnières Her 1884, George Seurat 2013, Spike Jonze
Her: Theodore is lying in bed and roams the web for women who just like him are alone and searching for some human contact.
In both artworks we see technological advancements that enhancences the ability to contact other people. The train in Bathers made traveling easier and the world a lot smaller. In Her the device Theodore is using makes communication easier. Still the artists decided to show characters who feel like the loneliest people in the world.
I asked the group if they recognized the feeling of being alone together on the internet. I’ve experienced the great communities and mountains that can move because we have social media. But also the depression and alienation that Facebook contributed to.