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Abstract
This presentation explores emerging forms of spirituality within the contemporary digital landscape, through the lens of techno-spirituality. In an era marked by the dematerialization of experience and the proliferation of immersive environments, we are witnessing a reformulation of the sacred and the sublime, articulated through artistic practices, audiovisual languages, and immersive technologies (VR/AR).
Phenomena such as glitches, algorithmic randomness, and digital oracularity are examined as aesthetic and cognitive devices that reactivate archaic dynamics of access to the transcendent, redefining the very notion of a "constructed" spirituality. The analysis focuses particularly on how contemporary art—from video art to immersive light- and sound-based environments—has progressively shaped a non-confessional but experiential imaginary of the sacred, grounded in perception, architectural space, and sensory engagement.
Through a critical and interdisciplinary approach, this intervention reflects on how the contemporary subject continues to develop symbolic and ritual structures to navigate the technological present, confirming the persistent human drive toward transcendence—even within the languages and devices of digitality.
About the speaker
Natalie Zangari is a PhD candidate in Visual Arts and Technological Humanism at the Santa Giulia Academy of Fine Arts in Brescia, and an independent curator. Since 2021, she has collaborated with BELLE ARTI, an association directed by Massimo Minini, focusing on curatorial work, cultural project design, and the development of artistic initiatives. For the past two years, she has served as gallery manager at A+B Gallery in Brescia and, since 2023, as curator of the Andrea Boghi Collection. Her doctoral research investigates techno-spirituality and the contemporary reconfigurations of the sacred in digital culture, exploring how immersive environments, glitch aesthetics, and algorithmic randomness open new spaces for transcendence in art and experience. More broadly, her work explores the ritual, technological, and social dimensions of art, with a particular interest in emerging artists and in inclusive, community-based practices. In parallel, she is actively involved in designing educational workshops in libraries and museums located in areas of severe educational deprivation, experimenting with new approaches to art accessibility and engagement.
The video recording of the event will be available on our YouTube channel Spirituality and the Arts Special Interest Group
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The SIG Chairs: the Rev. Prof. June Boyce-Tillman, Dr Lila Moore, Annalisa Burello.
In medieval Britain, plant-based healing practices not only utilised the plants’ biochemical properties, but also utilised their magical and spiritual properties and correspondences. Central to this tradition was the Wortcunner (Wort = Plant and Cunner = knowledge), whose spiritual and magical work became marginalised and declined in popularity under pressure from the expanding Christian Church and a male-dominated scientific medical establishment. In recent decades, plant medicine in Britain has experienced a resurgence in popularity; however, the extent to which plants continue to be engaged with on a spiritual level remains under-explored in academic literature. The sociocultural implications of spiritual identities, such as those embodied by the Wortcunner, also remain overlooked.
In this presentation, I will discuss preliminary findings from semi-structured interviews with contemporary Wortcunners living in Britain who engage with plants and the wider ecological world in a myriad of spiritual ways. The Wortcunners shared rich and nuanced narratives that reflect embodied, eco-spiritual engagements with plants and the wider other-than-human world. However, alongside these affirmations and moments of enchantment, they also described instances of testimonial injustice where their spiritual knowledge and experiences were dismissed by perspectives held within dominant epistemological frameworks. They also exhibited traits that can be attributed to hermeneutical injustice, where they were seemingly unable or unwilling to express their feelings or articulate their spiritual identities. I argue that this research shows how the marginalised ontologies held by these Wortcunners are subtly, yet persistently devalued, not only through overt ridicule, but through silencing and misrepresentation and that these voices deserve to be respected, as part of a richer, more inclusive way of living in an ecologically spiritual and non-dualistic relationship with the world.
Dr Clare Lesley Hughes is a Spiritual Ecologist, Hedgewitch and Herbalist with research and vocational interests in complementary wellbeing, traditional plant knowledge, spiritual epistemologies, and posthumanist thought. She is the founder of Herbal Hegemone, offering bespoke plant-based remedies, spiritual tools, an educational blog, and additional specialist services. Her first PhD, in Biology, was awarded by the University of York. She is currently undertaking a second PhD in Humanities, Religion, and Philosophy at York St John University, exploring Vibrant Plants and Enchanted Lands: A Posthuman and Epistemic Exploration into the Worlds of the Contemporary British Wortcunner. A dendrophile, thalassophile, and ailurophile, Clare brings a deeply rooted love of nature to all aspects of her work and life.
Website: www.herbalhegemone.co.uk
ORCID: 0009-0000-3493-1514
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