Saturday, October 15, 2010, 9:00am – 10:30am
“Correspondence Schools: Zen Buddhist Ecologies in Contemporary Canadian Art.”
Melissa Curley (University of Iowa). Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Canadian artists working in what is broadly characterized as the alternative tradition in contemporary art made important contributions to transnational networks of artistic production and exchange. Vancouver was a key node in these networks, home to at least three major alternative arts organizations: the Vancouver chapter of the New York Correspondence School, Image Bank, and Intermedia. Like others working in the lineage of John Cage and the Fluxus movement, these Canadian artists understood Zen Buddhism to be an important intellectual resource, and sometimes even positioned themselves as producing Buddhist work. And, like others working during the 1960s and 1970s, these Canadian artists were caught up in an epistemic shift that Anthony Wilden has characterized as a move “from atom to system and thence to ecosystem.” In this paper, I present the ways in which artists associated with the NYCS, Image Bank, and Intermedia take up ideas about Zen and ecology from John Cage and apply them, both in the production of environmental art, and in a theory of “cultural ecology.” I then argue that if a Buddhist environmental movement is taking shape in Canada now, it is the second such movement in our history, and further propose that Canadian Buddhists who are serious about the environment will be better served by taking the alternative art tradition as their basis than by turning to more authentically Buddhist sources.
“Reading Buddhist Fiction in Canada: Preliminary Fieldwork Findings.”
Kimberly Beek (PhD Candidate, McMaster University). Buddhist Fiction is an emerging genre of fictional prose in short story and novel forms, dramatizing the dharma and Buddhist worldviews for a contemporary, English-reading audience. The genre of “Buddhist Fiction” is still emerging, so it is difficult to situate it within the contexts of Buddhist Literature and developing Buddhism(s) in Canada. As with any emerging genre, however, Buddhist Fiction raises a number of important questions. What is Buddhist about this fiction and who is the intended audience? Can the dharma that teaches what is real be fruitfully conveyed through Western forms of fiction? Is Buddhist Fiction a true-to-life reflection of Buddhism in the West? In an effort to answer these questions, I have been conducting reader response focus groups at various “ethnic” and “convert” temples in Canada. The focus group discussions center on what is “Buddhist” about two carefully chosen short stories of Buddhist Fiction. This line of questioning generates discussion about Buddhist stories in general, Buddhist ontology, whether fiction is an effective medium for dramatizing the dharma, and, most important, what is “Buddhism” according to the readers in “ethnic” and “convert” focus groups. My presentation will introduce some preliminary findings from this research as well as suggest that while stories have always been an important medium for the integration of Buddhism into different cultures, how stories are told is a key element of this integration.
“Canadian Buddhists on the Web: Push, Pull, and Practice.”
John Negru (Karma Yönten Gyatso) (Independent Scholar). How are Canadian Buddhists using the internet? Who are the people making best use of web technology to get their Dharma message out, and what can we learn from them? How is the internet changing the way people seek out Buddhist teachings and Sangha connections? Where are the fault lines between digital immigrants and digital natives within the Canadian Buddhist community? What are the new opportunities and threats presented by social media, collaborative open-source computing, e-books and mobile computing? Where is the boundary between practice and politics on the web? Is the web a substitute for practice, a new way of practice, or nothing to do with practice? These are the questions we will examine in a pilgrimage through temple websites, blogs, portals, Second Life groups, YouTube channels, LinkedIn groups, iTunes offerings, and cyber-espionage reports. Our goal is to define some best practices, isolate some common pitfalls, and celebrate some incredibly inspiring global Buddhist initiatives coming out of Canada. In part two of my presentation, I will introduce participants to a variety of web traffic analytical tools (7zoom, Alexa, Compete and Web.Archive) that offer new research methods for the study of Canadian Buddhism as it is lived on the web today. In conclusion, I will delve into the spiritual assumptions and tensions implicit in mixing dharma and the web, such as: traditionalism versus modernism, digitally disadvantaged communities, empowered but uninterested youth, cultural mis-appropriation and fluid group identification, authority vs the wiki model, no-self vs celebrity branding, giving freely vs commercialism, retreat versus engaged practice, local activism vs global citizenship, inter-community alliances, exclusions and norms.
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