EVENT: WORLD HISTORY AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF BELIEF

Lecture Series Overview:

Before the advent of modern materialism, secularism and the Nation State as we know it, people lived in a world dominated by spiritual geography. These talks are about the continuity of beliefs and the places with which they are associated. They will also look at the visual culture especially architecture and architectural decoration of contested places. They will attempt to show how contestants sent visual messages to their adversaries and to those who loyalty they desired. The lectures will be illustrated and also accompanied by 'soundscapes' and visual essays: animated images and film set to sounds (music, markets, etc.) recorded by Chris Wood in Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, China, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran.

Lecture 1. SPAIN 0520051 Mon 7.30-9pm May 9 $27 Hola! The Roots of Spanish Gestural Culture in Ritual, Music, Art, Architecture and Social Interaction Why does Spanish culture have a 'gestural' quality absent in those of France, Britain and other trans-Pyrenean cultures. It suggests that Iberia's experience of context between Islam and Christianity sensitised Spaniards to the cultural implication of gesture in all aspects of life and the arts.

Lecture 2. ROMANIA AND BULGARIA - 0520052 Tue 7.30-9pm May 10 $27 Cultural Fault Lines: Architecture and Landscape in Romania and Bulgaria. An exploration of Dennis P. Hupchick's thesis that the recent Balkans conflict has roots deep in the past, because the Balkans stand on a 'cultural fault line' between Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and Islam. Contestation has led to a fascinating and stunningly beautiful architectural culture in Bulgaria and Romania.

Lecture 3: THE SILK ROAD 0520053 Thu 7.30-9pm May 12 $27 Untold Riches: Empire, State, City, Tribe and Belief along the Silk Road Get to the root of why the great Silk Road, which ran from China to the Middle East. is important to world history. This great 'highway' through the vast Taklamakan, Kizilkum,Karakum and Syrian deserts was a zone of interaction between Chinese, Tibetans, Persians, Sogdians, Kushans, Huns, Arabs, Mongols and a myriad Turkic tribal confederations. It is also a zone of contestation and cross-fertilisation between their beliefs: Confusianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Nestorian Christianity, Islam and Russian and Chinese Communism.

THREE LECTURES: 0520054 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 7.30-9pm May 9 10 12 $75

Booking essential - online http://www.extension.uwa.edu.au - click on Extension Courses and go to Intellectual Adventures or phone 6488 2433