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• SASIG: Open Members Discussion - Is Spirituality Expensive?

  • When
    28/10/2025
  •  
    6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom
  • Spaces left
    86
  • Registered
    14 registrants

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  Dear members, for our next meeting we would like to invite you to an open discussion. 
  

  At our last SASIG meeting, we explored how new technologies like AI and VR might offer new forms of spiritual experience. Annalisa raised the ontological question regarding the difference between a digital work as entertainment (for example Team Lab interactive museums) or purely aesthetic pleasure (for example Rafik Anadol's digital hallucinations) or as spiritual (for example Illusionaries and Alex and Allyson Grey's meditative and contemplative multisensory installations). Lila noted that some artists view certain digital immersive installations as commercial displays rather than art. While such works offer audio-visual experiences, their impact can overshadow the need for critical context and aesthetics. The allure of the numinosity of capitalist images has been explored in post-Jungian film and cultural studies. Yet the operations of capitalist modes of social and cultural entertainment do not contradict the fact that artists often lack the resources they need and should be able to make a living from their work. As a digital artist pointed out, immersive, transcendent experiences don’t come cheap. His timely  comment reminded us of the cost of producing art. Any art.
  

  That sparked a larger deontological reflection: Should spiritual artists charge for their work? Can spiritual practice coexist with material exchange? As our co-chair June Boyce-Tillman framed it: Is spirituality expensive?

  History suggests it always has been. In Rome — where I’ve just returned from — spirituality was expressed in opulent ways. Classical temples, baths, and sanctuaries were built to uplift the soul. Even private homes were richly decorated with frescoes, mosaics, and sculptures of gods and nature, because beauty was seen as essential to spiritual and emotional wellbeing. People were prepared to pay artists and craftsmen generously, knowing that art and beauty sustained life and meaning.

  So when — and why — did we lose that awareness?
  When did we stop seeing beauty, art, and nature as necessary goods, worth investing in?

  As we prepare our next SASIG gathering, we invite you to reflect with us:
  

  • Should spiritual work be freely given, or fairly priced?
    
  • Can art that heals and transforms also sustain those who create it?
    
  • What is the true cost — and the true value — of spiritual experience?

  We look forward to our discussion.

  

  Join our  Facebook Group called Spirituality and the Arts using this link. 

  For more details, see https://spiritualitystudiesnetwork.org/Spirituality-and-the-Arts-SIG

  The SIG Chairs: the Rev. Prof. June Boyce-Tillman, Dr Lila Moore, Annalisa Burello MSc. 

  

  

  

  The video recording of the event will be available on our YouTube channel Spirituality and the Arts Special Interest Group 

  

  
  

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