Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts and the Department of Classics for Elemental Readings III: The Matter of Earth, a symposium spanning three days and various locations from Thursday, April 23 through Saturday, April 25. A performance of BIOphelia will take place on Thursday, April 23, from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, in Room 121, Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. The Earth Symposium show will take place on Thursday, April 23, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm, in the Black Box Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. See below for a complete list of events, including guest speakers, panel discussions, art exhibitions, and workshops. Free and open to the public. First-come, first-served.
“This event presents us with a wonderful opportunity to bring together scholars, artists, and performers from across Cornell, the local community, and beyond who are invested in the environmental arts and humanities,” said Professor Verity Platt, a creator and organizer of this symposium. “We are excited to celebrate Earth Week by looking to the element of earth itself – celebrating that which nourishes us whilst also exploring the many ways in which it has been handled, understood, or exploited over human history.”
Of all the ancient elements, earth is the one that holds most affective power. For the Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder, earth was “the element that is never angry with mankind”: in her capacity as our "mighty parent” or “mother,” Earth is embodied, personified and feminized; she nurtures us during life with all that she produces and receives our bodies in death, “even bearing our monuments and epitaphs and… extending our memory against the shortness of time.” Yet Earth’s generosity also opens her to abuse, whether through violent extraction and pollution or fascist ideologies of “blood and soil.” As the element associated primarily with “matter,” earth provides the materials that make artistic expression possible, especially through the medium of clay (from which humankind was itself crafted in many mythological traditions) and pigments (many of which, like ochres, are derived from earths). In dualist ontologies that denigrate ‘mere matter’ (in contrast to transcendent form, or intellect), terra is all too easily cast as territory, subject to measurement, ownership, conflict, and predation. Earth models and invites the most utopian of projects (co-constitutive visions of symbiosis and sustainability) but is also co-opted into the most dystopian and contested.
These tensions will be explored in Elemental Readings III: The Matter of Earth across diverse periods, cultures, and media. Whilst classical antiquity’s relationship to earth (as mater and matter, as site of both nourishment and burial) will play a key role, contributions come from across the arts, humanities, and sciences, especially as they engage with both indigenous epistemologies and environmental studies.
This symposium is co-sponsored by the Department of Classics, Department of Performing and Media Arts, Society for the Humanities, and Central New York Humanities Corridor.
Artwork by Jenifer Wightman, Chester River Mud Painting, 2023
COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS APRIL 23-APRIL 25
April 23: Day 1
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm, Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Room 121
BIOphelia performance
Performed by Amanda Vialva, New York-based actor, dancer, and singer. Design by Adam Washiyama Shulman, multidisciplinary ecological artist and theatrical designer. Script and Staging by PMA Senior Lecturer Theo Black
Hamlet tells us that the purpose of playing is to hold "a mirror up to Nature.” Yet Ophelia’s ecological affinity is often overlooked. What if Ophelia's herbs and flowers were given a central place on stage? What if Ophelia’s seeded potential were to be cultivated, enhanced, and empowered in our shared era of ecological crisis? In this world premiere performance, actor Amanda Vialva revives Ophelia’s journey, to evolve Shakespeare’s story beyond the binary of Hamlet’s existential question (you know the one) and look at how we may adapt as part of nature, and better learn to inter-be. Read more about BIOphelia.
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm, Black Box Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts
Earth Symposium Show
Performed by the students in PMA 4801 Advanced Acting: Arin Sheehan, Josh Martin, Mark Lee, Alina Lee, Kate Moran, Ava Alvarez, Lasya Vadlamani, Ashley Dorais, Naomi Buckle. Directed by Theo Black.
April 24: Day 2
9:00 am – 2:30 pm, Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts
9:00 am – 10:20 am: Panel 1
11:00 am – 12:20 pm: Panel 2
1:00 pm – 2:20 pm: Panel 3
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm, The Soil Factory
Clay workshop with Taylor Rae. REGISTER HERE
Hands-on session with Adam Shulman
Viewing of exhibition curated by Anna Davidson
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, The Soil Factory
Shared evening meal
April 25: Day 3
9:00 am – 6:30 pm, Klarman Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
9:00 am – 10:20 am: Panel 4
11:00 am – 12:20 pm: Panel 5
12:20 pm – 1:20 pm: Lunch, History of Art Gallery (Participants only)
1:20 pm – 2:40 pm: Panel 6
3:00 pm – 4:20 pm: Panel 7
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm: Staged Reading of Hurricane Diane produced by Cog Dog Theatre Troupe, a Cornell student organization
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, History of Art Gallery
Reception and Dinner (Participants only)
