SACRED SPACE STUDY
Framing the Sacred: A Study of Sacred Spaces and Experiences
“Not all sacred experiences occur in sacred spaces, and not all sacred places are experienced as sacred.” This is the general conclusion we reached through our discussion of texts, places, and experiences over the course of a semester exploring the sacred in New York City. In these documents, we describe our working process represented through a series of diagrams, and the model we developed to reach this conclusion.
We began our project by selecting a number of readings considered to be foundational in understanding sacred space and organizing a series of excursions into the spaces of the city. The sites we visited together included churches, museums, restaurants, and the Metropolitan Opera, and we also discussed places we experienced on our own like Yankee Stadium, the Brooklyn Bridge, bars, and parks. As the project progressed we added readings to address specific topics such as pilgrimage and tourism, everyday sacred places, and sacred landscapes. We each wrote statements about our understanding of sacred space and began to consider how we could develop a model of sacred experience. Our attempt to diagram this idea began with a word-mapping exercise in which we each contributed index cards with significant words, phrases, or concepts. The cards were then organized according to what appeared central to our discussion and how those issues were connected. Our word-map was then reduced to a few key terms and concepts that were mapped again through a series of diagrams. We thought of these diagrams as a way to structure and frame the recurring themes we found, and for the most part we agreed that these elements could be generalized in a model.
Our model, contingent as it is, emerged through this series of diagrams as we discussed the relationship and significance of the concepts from our readings and experiences. The concepts could be grouped into four major areas that we began to think of as the paths people take into sacred experience: Rhythm, Body, Place, and Meaning. Our readings and experiences suggested that Rhythm is manifested in the Everyday; the Body is transformed through Activity; Place arises through Affordance; and Meaning is found through Affect. At the same time we recognized that there is no sure way into sacred experience and that the sacred is at times experienced in ways not forecasted by these paths.
Our later diagrams introduced a bracket around the aspects of sacred we had identified, but at that point we debated what the brackets indicated—something that constrained, mediated, facilitated, or framed sacred. We noted that the bracket worked to separate "us" from "them" and "sacred" from "profane." At one point we also indicated that death, disease, and ideology were in some way outside the frame. Later diagrams began to consider the dimension, thickness, and density of the frame. We thought of the frame as the calcification of our cultural, social, political, economic, institutional, and religious ideologies, or alternately, as a lens through which certain things come into view. In the end we recognized that while this frame is fixed for any given individual, it also changes moment to moment and depends much upon the context. In that way we allowed the page itself to suggest both the edge and infinitely expanding boundary of sacred experience.
Collaborators: Frank Muscara, Collette Sosnowy, David Chapin
Related Projects: Place Analysis, Urban Walking Tours
Related Materials: Sacred Space Reading List; Framing Sacred Presentation
