Category: Research

Posts and contents related to research projects, especially those that involve Dr. SerenaGaia, aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio.

FRIDAY NOON COLLOQUIUM Presents “AMOROUS VISIONS” – Oct 28 – 12 Noon @ OF, UPRM

Dear fellow educators, colleagues, students, film buffs, lovers of cinema:

Friday Noon Colloquium is the new research-in-progress series hosted by Michael Huffmaster, in the German Studies program, Humanities at UPRM.

The series begins at noon on Friday, October 18 in the lobby area (Sala de Conferencias) of the OF-Edificio de Profesores building at UPRM. It’s wonderful to have this space to share for those of us active in the humanistic and cultural studies research arena. Check the series flier here.

What’s the topic of this inaugural event, you may ask?

The presentation of Amorous Visions, a book proposal for a study of Italian cinema from an ecosexual and Deleuzian perspective. Look above or download the descriptive flier here.

Yes.

This is the project that took me to Connecticut some years ago, when I won the external fellowship of the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute and also received support from the College of Arts and Sciences at UPRM to use it.

This is ALSO, and very significantly, a project that has emanated from the course in Italian cinema that I have been teaching at UPRM over the years, beginning in and around the year 2000. This course has been an inspiration to me and to many groups of students over the years. What does it mean to appreciate, participate, enjoy, observe, learn from, and think about the art of the 20th century that studies the relation of “time, space and movement,” as Gilles Deleuze put it? Students have been my most valuable teachers. From them I’ve learned to look at cinema anew. My study of ecosexual perspectives on Italian cinema is a direct emanation from this experience. It is time to share about it with our local and regional intellectual community.

What is an ecosexual perspective in the study, practice, creation, and appreciation of cinema? How can this kind of perspective relate to Deleuze’s cinema theories? Italian cinema is a particularly fertile terrain for this epistemic inquiry. So many “sheets of the past” emerge from the mise-en-scene of art cinema from Italy. So many personal, intimate scenes invite a reflection on how our amorous lives are impacted by the ecosystems that we live in.

My project has evolved alongside with my contributions to the vibrant ecosexuality movement. In 2015 i was privileged in c-editing the first collection of writings on this topic, an arena of emerging knowledges where nature inspires humans to practice the arts of love. It encourages our amorous expressions to sustain the health and well being of our own and our surrounding ecosystems. A change in metaphors is due. When we treat the Earth as a lover, we become aware of how much we need the blessings of this partner we all share.

We have successfully hosted the first symposium on this topic in the Caribbean last year, and plan a new edition in 2017.

In this presentation, I will outline how my book project on Italian cinema evolved alongside my participation in the ecosexual movement while I also evolved as a a professor and scholar of cinema.

Join us in animating the event. Participate and invite your own students. Below please find more information about the event.

Thank you!

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Title:

Amorous Visions: Ecosexual Perspectives on Italian Cinema

Presenting a Book Proposal

This presentation traces the evolution of the book proposal Amorous Visions from the idea of teaching a course in Italian cinema from a philosophical perspective while attending the desire of UPRM students to explore the direct connections between a film’s mise-en-scène and its erotic/amorous scenes. The proposal is organized around the philosophy of Deleuze and his study of cinema, as well as the cultural discourses of sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness. The proposal benefits from the in-depth study made possible by externally funded research also sponsored by Arts and Sciences at the RUM.

The presentation will be a 20-minute plus 10 minutes for a Q & A session.

It will be done on a laptop with stills and clips.

The format is suitable for a small audience.

About the Author

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD, is the author, editor and co-editor of Women and Bisexuality (2003), Plural Loves (2005), Eros (2006), Gaia (2009), Bisexuality and Queer Theory (2010), and BiTopia (2011). Her articles have appeared in DisClosure, New Cinemas, Rhizomes, Nebula, WSIF, and VIA. She is the author of The ‘Weak’ Subject (1998), and the co-translator of In Spite of Plato, by Adriana Cavarero (1995). Anderlini-D’Onofrio has spoken about polyamory on Italian public television.

More recently, Anderlini-D’Onofrio has adopted the sacred name of Dr. SerenaGaia. At the helm of the ecosexual movement, she has keynoted at various symposia, and is co-editor of Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires the Arts of Love (2015), the first collection on this topic. Dr. SerenaGaia is the convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium at UPRM, and is at work Amorous Visions, a study of Italian cinema from an ecosexual perspective.

News and project updates at www.serenagaia.org

Thank you!

CLASE ABIERTA: Italian Cinema Presents “ECOLOGIES of LOVE and TOXIC ECOSYSTEMS”

Dear fellow educators, colleagues, students, film buffs, lovers of cinema:

In the spirit of challenge and renewal at UPRM and in Puerto Rico, the current course in Italian Cinema opens its doors to invite you for a CLASE ABIERTA event.

Please join us on Tuesday, November 1st at 5:30-7:00 PM in Chardon 226, for a presentation from the research project Amorous Visions, followed by a bilingual Questions and Answers period. Look above or download the descriptive flier here.

The course in Italian cinema has been an inspiration to me and to many groups of students over the years. What does it mean to appreciate, participate, enjoy, observe, learn from, and think about the art of the 20th century that studies the relation of “time, space and movement,” as Gilles Deleuze put it? Students have been my most valuable teachers. From them I’ve learned to look at cinema anew. My study of ecosexual perspectives on Italian cinema is a direct emanation from this experience, and has evolved with multiple support from internal and external sources. It is time to share about it with our local and regional intellectual community.

Italian cinema is a particularly fertile terrain for this epistemic inquiry. So many “sheets of the past” emerge from the mise-en-scene of art cinema from Italy. So many personal, intimate scenes invite a reflection on how our amorous lives are impacted by the ecosystems that we live in.

In this invitation, we will present a study of two classics of Italian cinema from the 1970s. Remember The Conformist and The Night Porter? Very ecosexual. Very Deleuzian. Right? If you’re a cinephile, you cannot have missed them. If not, this is a perfect time to meet these two majestic films. Students in the current Italian Cinema group are quite advanced in Deleuzian and ecosexual approaches to cinema. They are excited to welcome visitors and other participants for this special CLASE ABIERTA EVENING. Many of them will surprise you with their participatory questions and observations.

Join us in animating the evening. Participate and invite your own students. Below please find more information about the event.

Thank you!

# # # # # # #

Title:

Ecologies of Love and Toxic Ecosystems:

Lessons from the Holocaust in Cavani and Bertolucci

Abstract

This study analyzes two classics of Italian cinema from an ecosexual perspective. Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970) and Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974) share a theme: the 20^th century Holocaust in Europe where circumstances are extreme and the ecosystems that host people’s lives are replete with toxicity. The study integrates elements of Deleuzian and film theory, political history, the history of cinema, and cultural discourses about fluid and inclusive practices of love like bisexuality and polyamory. It focuses on the relationship between mise-en-scène, or representation of the physical, emotional, interpersonal, and political ecosystems where characters’ lives unfold, and the styles of sexual and amorous expression they deploy in their intimate scenes. Its approach is unique. It empowers a vision of how the energy of love behaves in toxic ecosystems, surviving as love for love or erotophilia. When the auteurs explore the inner landscapes of the films’ protagonists via Deleuzian time-image sequences, the sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness present therein become visible as a way to save love for love in the midst of extreme ecological toxicity. In Bertolucci the fear of love prevails: Marcello kills the woman who inspired love in him. In Cavani this expansive sense of love manifests the imagination of a world where “it is safe to live because it is safe to love.” The author claims that Cavani succeeds because her diegetic structure is organized rhizomatically. The inner landscapes of multiple interconnected consciousnesses are made visible in the interlocked time-image sequences of her dyad Max and Lucia.

Note:

The article that corresponds to this presentation will be published in Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledges, an open-source peer-reviewed journal. It uses numerous series of stills from both films. The conference presentation uses a series of clips. The latter will be presented in a 60-minute format, followed by Q & A sessions.

Stay tuned: In the Spring of 2017 we also plan a more formally organized event about Amorous Visions. It will be widely announced and open to the wider Arts and Sciences community at UPRM, and beyond.

About the Author

News and project updates at www.serenagaia.org

Essential Filmography and Bibliography

Anapol, Deborah. Polyamory in the 21st Century. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010.

Anapol, Deborah. Polyamory: The New Love without Limits. San Rafael, CA.: IntiNet Resource Center, 1997.

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. Gaia and the New Politics of Love: Notes for a Poly Planet. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009.

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, SerenaGaia and Lindsay Hagamen, eds. Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires the Arts of Love. Puerto Rico: 3WayKiss, 2015.

Bertolucci, Bernardo. Il conformista/The Conformist. Rome: Green Film, 1970.

Cavani, Liliana. The Night Porter. Rome, Italy: Ital-Noleggio, 1974

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema I: The Movement Image. (Original appeared in 1983.) Hugh Tomlinson tr. University of Minnesota Press, 1986.

______ . Cinema II: The Time-Image. (Original appeared in 1985.) Hugh Tomlinson tr. University of Minnesota Press, 1989.

Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Tr Brian Massumi. University of Minnesota Press, 1987.

______. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. New York: Penguin, 2009.

Anderlini/Ecologies of Love/Abstract, 3

Diamond, Lisa. Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2008.

Kline, Jefferson. Bertolucci’s Dream Room: A Psychoanalytic Study of Cinema. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1981

Marrone-Puglia, Gaetana. The Gaze and the Labyrinth: The Cinema of Liliana Cavani. Princeton University Press, 2000.

Moravia, Alberto. The Conformist. London: Steerforth, 1999. (Originally published as Il conformista in 1951.)

Veaux, Franklin and Eve Rickert. More than Two: A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory. Thorntree Press, 2014.

Te Amo Playa Azul I Love You Three

Rituals to Bond with the Partner We All Share: The Earth

PROGRAM – Te Amo Playa Azul I Love You 3
When: February 4, 2017, 11 AM 7 PM
Where: Playa Azul, Punta Arenas, Carretera 102, Km 11.6, Joyuda, Cabo Rojo.

This is our basic program for the day:

11 am: Meet and Greet on Playa Azul, Music, Contact Dance
12 noon: Workshops
1. Know and Love the Ecosystem Called Thyself
2. Know and Love your Most Compersive Lover: Earth
3. Know and Love those Who Share this Lover with You: Humankind

Each workshop is about 75 minutes, including teaching, translation, practice, and debriefing. If we start at 12 noon, we should be done by 6 pm, with plenty of break time for connecting, meals, and socializing.

In between workshops: the famous Oxytocin Group Hugs that fill your personal ecosystem with enchantment and loving energy.

Refreshments, foods, water, amenities: on the sidelines and during breaks.

6:00 pm: Invocation of Earth Goddess, Gaia. Vows to Playa Azul: the Ecosexual Bride. Kiss the Bride. Drum Circle.

6:30: Enter the Body of Water: Bathe in the Caribbean Sea

Fun time till exhaustion of creative energy:
Includes watsu, reiki, more dance and drumming, assorted improvised co-creations, aguinaldos, burlesque . . .
–What to bring: your charming selves, a cheerful mind, a lovely smile, an open heart, swim suits, towels, comfort food, water, comfortable beach clothing for workshops time, pillows and soft stuff to find comfort on beach floor, eagerness, participation
–What to expect: magic, beauty, enchantment, love, healing, sharing, company, fun, joy, moderation, respect, continuity, togetherness
–Videographers in action: they may ask you to be filmed and/or interviewed, and it’s up to you to accept
–Once we start the workshops, the group will be formed. We will expect continuity, and admission to subsequent workshops is subject to participation in previous ones. Presence is required. The degree of participation can vary.

Parking: Please park on the street and Access the beach from the callecita to the south of the Condominio Punta Arenas. At the beach, turn right and go toward to oak tree, palm tree, and uva playera trees.

For more detailed information on program, see template for Plural Weddings of Ecosexual Love here:
http://drserenagaia.wpengine.com/ecosexual-weddings/

For a series of pictures of the first edition of this ecosexual wedding, go to this link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0ByyLWBkJreh3aV9maWM4QXdVS3c

This program is part of the project Islas Maravillas: Ecosexual Education and Extensive Research at UPRM, for PI Dr. SerenaGaia, aka Serena Anderlini.

The project is under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences, UPRM, and is supported by Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural Resources.

We look forward to sharing this magic day with you!

In love,

Practices of Ecosexuality and Sex-Positive Education: Symposium Too

Prácticas de Ecosexualidad y la Educación al Sexo Positivo: Simposio Dos

CALL FOR PROPOSALS – CONVOCATORIA
OPEN NOW – Expires Nov 30, 2016

This event is an EXPLORATION of #ECOSEXUALITY and #SEX-POSITIVITY for the people of Western Puerto Rico, for all interested students, colleagues, community members of UPRM.

• What is #Ecosexuality?
• What is #Sex-Positive #Education?
• Where #Ecosexual #Health and #Love an #Sex-Positive #Education converge?
• How can the #EcosexualMovement and the #Sex-PositiveMovement help us co-create abundant ecosexual health, expression, and love?
• What is the transformative potential of these practices for our ecosystems, our regions, ourselves, and the partner we all share: the Earth?
• How can we bring their excitement and effervescence into our lives, communities, learning practices, and academic discourse?

A bilingual event – Un evento bulingüe
Deseas experimentar el simposio de manera mas profunda? Solicita unirte a nuestro equipo bilingüe
Want to experience the Symposium more deeply? Ask to join our bilingual team

These and more questions will be addressed in three days of symposium activities designed to offer a diversity of participating options.

Suggested topics include:
Ecosex, Sex-Positive Ed, and any or all of the following:
Health, diversity, consent, ecology, intersectionality, amorous behavior, relationships, fluidity, inclusiveness, genders, orientations, colonialism, nature, science, the internet, sex work, the adult industry.

Welcome contributions include:
Panels, videos, keynotes, films, dialogues, staged readings, book presentation, poems, songs, workshops, and more.

WHERE/WHEN:
ANNEX TO THE CAFETERIA (aka SALON TARZAN), RUM, FEB 1-3 – 10 AM – 8 PM
Followed by TE AMO PLAYA AZUL THREE and visits to local initiatives on Feb 4-5

Symposium Too is based on Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires The Arts of Love, Serena Anderlini and Lindsay Hagamen eds. The first world-wide collection of writings on this topic, the book brings together the voices of 30 leaders to converge the multiple energies of the ecosexual movement.

Ecosexuality and Sex-Positivity are global and local movements. We welcome contributors from anywhere they might come. Welcome to Western Puerto Rico, a nature’s paradise in the dry season of February. We support you in enjoying a fun, healthy stay. We regret that we cannot cover travel, accommodation, or ground transportation expenses. We strongly encourage donations that will help us cover homemade meals, tasty and healthy. We will connect you with our generous and helpful welcome team!

Wonder what’s #Ecosexuality, what’s #Sex-Positive #Education? No mystery. Here are some taglines for inspiration:

• The Sex-Positive Movement embraces sexual diversity and expression and emphasizes safe sex and consent. It advocates education to sex and has its roots in the work of Wilhelm Reich.
• Ecosexuals envision the Earth as a lover and Eros as the untapped renewable energy of our time.
• Ecosexuality is the cultural practice that enables our species to reconnect our metabolism to the metabolism of the Earth.
• Ecosexual Love reaches beyond genders, numbers, orientations, ages, races, origins, species, and biological realms, to embrace all of life as a partner with equal rights.
• Make love is the ecology of your life. Love the Earth you make love on.

Abstracts and bios to serena.anderlini@gmail.com. Keep the total under 500 words. November 30 very last day. Make sure you use your favorite language.

This event is part of the multi-clustered project Islas Maravillas: Ecosexuality Education and Extensive Research at UPRM. Interested? Ask us about it.

Join us! Invite your students, colleagues, family, beloveds, neighbors, partners, friends.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook, Twitter, Blog www.serenagaia.org/blog-2/

Lodging and travel info posted to Facebook event, here.

DOWNLOAD the CALL for PROPOSALS here.

Be part of the project! We look forward to your enthusiasm and participation.

UPDATES–

The Symposium is now also a CURSO CORTO that students at UPRM can take for one credit.

To view and download the course flier go here.

Student will need an enrollment sheet pre-signed by the Director of Humanities.

To view and download the Hoja de Matricula Prefirmada go here.

We hope to see you all at the symposium and course.

In love,

Practices of Ecosexuality @ UPRM: First Academic Symposium Speaks – From Day One in the Caribbean

Dear Earth Lovers–

It’s been a joy to convene #PracticesOfEcosexuality@UPRM, the first symposium about #Ecosexuality hosted at UPRM, an academic institution located in the region I’ve elected as my third Matria, the Caribbean.

Day One was Thursday, January 28, and we were in the Teatro Figueroa Chapel, a beautiful amphitheater at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, whose air conditioning system needs urgent refurbishing for calibration and sustainability. It was FREEZING! Despite the balmy temperatures and caressing breezes of the dry season in the blessed region of the Islas Maravillas, we had to wear coats and sweaters to resist the low temperature air conditioning. The university contributed performance spaces and technical skills, with Dean Gilbes’s special blessing. Speakers donated their time, travel funds, and expertise. Volunteers donated their organizational skills. My non-profit, 3WayKiss funded the necessary hospitality and publicity.

This was a day of ideas. A little too cerebral, considering the excessive air conditioning. The really hot gift that made it all worth while is Dr. Susan Block, who came with her husband, Captain Max, all the way from Los Angeles to educate people in our region about the inspiring behaviors of our kissing cousins from the primate kingdom, the Bonobos. Also known as Dr. Suzy, Susan Block is a renown sexologist and sex educator who devoted her energies to studying these gentle creatures who evolve peace through pleasure. Students had been lining up in the Lobby to sign attendance sheets. I rushed them in so as to start on time.

The theater was full. Our speaker was absolutely charming. She spoke ad lib presenting her findings on a background of eloquent videos where the diverse amorous behaviors of various Bonobo communities could be admired. These include kissing on the mouth, intercourse while gazing into a partner’s eyes, various styles of pleasure, inclusive sexual play with partners of various genders, respect for the wisdom and experience of older females, and solidarity among “sisters” when annoyed by male insistence.

What a nice place to be! I want to sign up for Bonobo camp next summer. I’ve been called bonoboesque before. But I bet I can learn a lot more too. Dr. Suzy eloquently explained how, if inspired by Bonobos, we humans could find ways to use our intelligence more efficiently than we do today. We too could evolve peace through pleasure instead of endangering terrestrial life with our cruel weapons. Yes, I agree! That’s ecosexual intelligence, or ESQ, right, Dr. Suzy? And I’m so happy that the public could feel validation for these practices and ideas. A whole batch of student reports was due this week. Dr. Suzy’s keynote was a big hit. Some students felt an alignment with their own way of thinking. Others were exposed to entirely new ideas. Many responded with enthusiasm. Others considered Dr. Suzy’s proposal seriously. All response were equally significant. Some of these reports will appear on this blog in an upcoming series. Stay tuned!

Lunchtime was a great occasion for community members, students, and volunteers to intermingle with speakers. Tables were organized with attendance sheets, books, and foods. We served Sancocho, a specialty of the Caribbean that brings out the richness of local ingredients. It was made with love by our volunteers. This tasty soup is healthy and complete, revealing the ancient culinary wisdom of the region. Dr. Suzy was so eager to answer questions about her book we had to remind her to eat her soup. People’s ecosystem absorbed the love found in the food.

The day continued with two favorite presentations. Marsha Scarbrough, from New Mexico, focused on the Orishas, these African deities that reside in elements of nature and remind us to sacralize what sustains our lives. An onstage dance made it all more real. Another favorite was the self-revealing tale of Maria Virginia Sanchez Cintron. a bilingual world traveler, social worker, and musician in Mayaguez. She revealed how ecosexual love can work for people seeking openness in relationships, and especially for Latino women who experience sexual expression on a continuum. This presentation was a favorite with attendees. It was very spontaneous and reached to the heart of many bicultural people’s experience in our region.

As the program unfolded, an audience formed that continued attendance, well beyond any required hours, which is what makes symposia real. It was great to see such diversity in attendees: ages, colors, attires, genders, origins, disciplines, interests. It was a true manifestation of the motley nature of the Caribbean. Speakers had been asked to be cognizant of bilingual needs, and to leave 25 percent of their time for open questions. It was a great joy to me to notice that we always had more questions form students and other attendees than speakers had time to address. Participation was eager and real!

Next was my presentation from my brave co-editing experiences. As some of you know, I am the co-editor of #Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires the Arts of Love, published by 3WayKiss in 2015 here in Puerto Rico. I wanted to share about the complexity of this collaborative experience, where I worked elbow to elbow on a par with with a number of people spread world wide and all willing to go on record as ecosexual authors. What a great adventure it was! And a major joy in it was the evolution of a loving collaborative alliance with my faithful co-editor and mentee Lindsay Hagamen. She appeared long distance from her community in Washington State. This was a technological feat. It all worked really smoothly thanks to the careful technical assistance of Antonio Ramos and Pepe Garcia. I did not perform to the best of my abilities. I was a bit too overwhelmed with production and emceeing responsibilities. But it was great to read poems by Yemisi Ilesanmi and Kamala Devi, and excerpts from the book, along with Susan Block and Lindsay.

Linda Rodrig PES-Linda uez is the brave colleague who became involved in the project from the beginning. A graduate of the UCLA School of Film, she staged a scene from her film script Children from the Sea. It was exciting to see the stage filled with props and performers in this in-progress staged reading. While listening to Linda and watching the stage business, one could really understand the secrets of script writing techniques. People could really relate to her theme and their questions were very interesting.

Last but not least for this day of ideas was Taber Shadburne‘s active learning exercise on the

theme Spirituality in the 21st Century. In half one hour this Master Trainer from Oakland, California, got everyone to speak out and loud about their most hidden secrets. His simple sentence: “I pretend to . . . . but I really . . . ” worked its magic as people started to fill out the blanks with what’s in their heart. Participants lost their fears and shared their intimate thoughts. What a relief! Impacting the whole person is a significant goal in teaching. Education is a voyage of personal transformation. And it is through practices like these that we can achieve it.

The day ended with the screening of two films. Playa Azul I Love You

is a short film about the first Plural Wedding of Ecosexual Love in the Caribbean, performed in 2014. It’s my first and I was very shy when introducing it. It’s co-direcred and co-produced with Shaison Antony. It is still incomplete. But was good enough to show to a supportive audience. The second films is a classic of Ecosexual cinema, Goodbye Gauley Mountain, by Beth Stephens with Annie Sprinkle.

By the time of the screenings, most people in our audience could not stand the cold any longer. Many braved the adversity and stayed anyway. But it was a small group. Some of the feedback I received on my film is that it requires more drama. Its accented English was amplified by the large screen. Gauley Mountain is a favorite in my courses and was appreciated here too. In a future edition, I would place films at a more favorable time in the program.

This is my report on Day One. I want to thank all the speakers, volunteers, facilitators, organizers, technician, and attendees. Collaboration was at a very high point, with everyone staying tuned and willing to pitch in. There was a lot of peripheral vision. Students enrolled in Huma 4996-001 did a great job of manning their teams, bilingual/hospitality team, attendance team, technical team. Everyone was very responsible and present. We met many new people willing to help us power events like this. My beloved assistant, Paola Pagan, a UPRM alumna, was as appreciated, organized, and attuned as ever. Thank you Paola! I was, at times, overwhelmed with trepidation about how all this would pan out.

This big Day One was a big challenge for me. And I sometimes became bossy and bitchy as a

way to fend off tension and cope with things. I apologize to anyone who might have been in the way. I’m glad I can think back to this experience with calm and wisdom. Firsts are a way to gather stronger teams. And when we do another edition we will have more calibration, delegation, and wisdom.

Thanks for listening. I hope this was useful. If you find this report interesting, please share with your networks. We will post more on Day Two, the in-the-body day, and, eventually, on Day Three, the spice-on-the-beach day.

Te Amo Playa Azul I Love You Two – A Plural Wedding of Ecosexual Love

This plural wedding of ecosexual love will be the second of its kind in the Caribbean. Mark your calendars for Saturday, January 30, 2016. The event is designed to guide participants in experiencing the earth as the lover we all share, and to practice the love that reaches beyond limitations to embrace all of life as a partner with equal rights. The daylong ritual one the magic beach of Playa Azul, culminates in an inclusive wedding ceremony with the beach as the bride all participating “spice” share.

The event was a memorable success on its first edition, which called for a return. Check the photos and memories. Read the detailed description of its template.

The event is free of charge and open to the public. Space is limited to save your spot early. Let us know you are coming by email at serena.anderlini@gmail.com, or mark yourself as attending on the Facebook event.

What Rituals Will Help Us Bond with the Partner We All Share?

Program – Te Amo Playa Azul I Love You Two
When: January 30, 2016, 11 AM 8 PM
Where: Playa Azul, Punta Arenas, Carretera 102, Km 11.6, Joyuda, Cabo Rojo.

This is our basic program for the day:

In between workshops: the famous Oxytocin Group Hugs that fill your personal ecosystem with enchantment and loving energy.

Refreshments, foods, water, amenities: on the sidelines and during breaks.

6:00 pm: Invocation of Earth Goddess, Gaia. Vows to Playa Azul: the Ecosexual Bride. Kiss the Bride. Drum Circle.

6:30: Enter the Body of Water: Bathe in the Caribbean Sea

Fun time till exhaustion of creative energy:
Includes watsu, reiki, more dance and drumming, assorted improvised co-creations, aguinaldos, burlesque . . .
–What to bring: your charming selves, a cheerful mind, a lovely smile, an open heart, swim suits, towels, comfort food, water, comfortable beach clothing for workshops time, pillows and soft stuff to find comfort on beach floor, eagerness, participation
–What to expect: magic, beauty, enchantment, love, healing, sharing, company, fun, joy, moderation, respect, continuity, togetherness
–Once we start the workshops, the group will be formed. We will expect continuity, and admission to subsequent workshops is subject to participation in previous ones. Presence is required. The degree of participation can vary.

We look forward to sharing this magic day with you!

Planning a trip to the enchanting island of Puerto Rico for the occasion? It’s easy. Book flights into the Aguadilla/BQN airport. Reserve a rental car. You will be only a 40 minute drive from the events. For housing, let our local contact Maria Preston, in the Cabo Rojo/Playa Azul area, do the job, at 787 360 3396. She will reserve a beautiful and affordable beach front apartment you can share with friends. Enjoy!

Make sure you arrive early enough to also attend Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium, on January 28-29. This event is also part of our gift economy. You can attend and present too. We accept proposals until December 13, 2015. Check out details on the Facebook or Blog page.

This program is part of the project Islas Maravillas: Ecosexual Education and Extensive Research at UPRM, for PI SerenaGaia, aka Serena Anderlini.

The project is under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences, UPRM, and is supported by Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural Resources.

Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium – Practicas de Ecosexualidad: Un Simposio

This event will introduce #Ecosexuality to the people of Western Puerto Rico, to all interested students and community members of UPRM.

What is #Ecosexuality? How can we practice #EcosexualLove? What is its transformative potential for our ecosystems, our regions, ourselves, the world? What is the #EcosexualMovement? How can we bring its excitement and effervescence into our lives, communities, learning practices, and academic discourse?

These and more questions will be addressed in two days of symposium activities designed to offer a diversity of participating options, including: panels, videos, films, dialogs, staged readings, book presentations, poems, art, songs, workshops, and other kinds of creative events. Join us! Invite your students, colleagues, partners, friends.

–Thursday the 28 will be our theory day: Meet us in the Teatro Figueroa Chapel, Lobby, RUM.
–Friday the 29 will be our practice day: Meet us in the Cafeteria Annex, RUM.
–Ecosex movies are planned for both days.
–Local, fresh, and in-season delicious foods are also in the works.

The Symposium is free of charge and open to the public. You are welcome to mark yourself as attending on the Facebook page. The event can be attended for credit as a one-credit course by students in any department of the UPR Mayaguez system. For details see the description above. To enroll, download and print this pre-signed authorization form.

Here are some tag lines for #Ecosexuality:

–Ecosexuality is often thoughts of as the cultural practice that enables our species to reconnect our metabolism to the metabolism of the partner we all share: the Earth.

–Ecosexuals often imagine the Earth as a lover rather than a mother.

–Ecosexual Love is the love that reaches beyond gender, numbers, orientations, ages, races, origins, species, and biological realms, to embrace all of life as a partner with equal rights.

–It’s exciting to think of love as the ecology of life.

–Eros is an untapped renewable energy of our time.

–It’s great to love the Earth we make love on.

Our call for contributions is now open. Here to the right for details. Have you been thinking along any of these tag lines? Many exciting proposals have been pledged by participants, local and world wide. If you feel inspired to participate, please do send us your idea and will will consider it for inclusion in the program. Thank you!

Please make sure you tell us what you want to do on or before December 13. Thanks!

The Symposium is based on the recent publication, Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires The Arts Of Love, edited by Serena Anderlini and Lindsay Hagamen. The first world wide collection of writings on this topic, the book brings together the voices of 30 leaders to converge the multiple energies of the ecosexual movement, its versatility of styles and diversity of genres convey a compelling variety of perspectives on this emerging social movement.

The event is part of the UPRM-based project Islas Maravillas: Ecosexuality Education and Extensive Research at UPRM, whereby PI Serena Anderlini and her teams intend to “manifest a convergence of energies to awaken the Area Oeste, the Colegio, and the entire region that surrounds the University to the experience of ecosexual love naturally inspired by the gentle and caressing nature of the Caribbean.” It intends to design public private alliances that organize local resources into eco-sustainable initiatives across the region.

This Symposium a beginning. It will be followed by Te Amo Playa Azul I Love You Two, a Plural Wedding of Ecosexual Love, on January 30th. This event is also free of charge and open to the public. Here’s your invitation. Space is limited in both events. So save your spot early. Let us know you are joining on Facebook, or by email at serena.anderlini@gmail.com, or (for UPRM students) by signing up for the course. Thank you!

Planning a trip to the enchanting island of Puerto Rico for the occasion? It’s easy. Book flights into the Aguadilla/BQN airport. Reserve a rental car. You will be only a 40 minute drive from the events. For housing, let our local contact Maria Preston, in the Cabo Rojo/Playa Azul area, do the job, at 787 360 3396. She will reserve a beautiful and affordable beach front apartment you can share with friends. Enjoy!

For Islas Maravillas, with your collaboration we look forward to evolving much more. Clusters in the projects include courses, field trips, internships, events, and seminars, for a University that extends its transformative influence over the territory.

Be part of the project! We look forward to making this happen with your enthusiasm and participation.

Let the gift economy occupy your heart. Enjoy the Holiday Season and look forward to our ecosex events in January.

UCHI, Feb 28, 4PM – Amorous Visions: The Gaze of Love for Love, or Erotophilia, in Cavani and Bertolucci

Dear Earthlings,

The presentation of the year is coming up for me soon. You’re invited. I can’t wait to see you!

The Night Porter

What guides a director’s gaze into the web of memories shared by lovers whose circumstances were extreme? Does the fear of love dissipate when an auteur looks whose sense of sexuality is fluid and style of love inclusive? This presentation will discuss cinematic techniques of memory retrieval in two Holocaust-themed art films of the 1970s produced in Italy: Bernardo Bertolucci, in The Conformist (1970), and Liliana Cavani, in The Night Porter(1974). Each presents a gendered perspective on what happens when a species acts against its own best interest–when it becomes self-destructive. How can this behavior be exorcised? Can love for love prevail over the pall of fear? These are, I claim, the main questions the films posit for 21^st century viewers.

Amorous Visions: The Gaze of Love for Love of Erotophilia.

The Conformist

Presented by Serena Anderlini, PhD, and Research Fellow at U Conn’s Humanities Institute.

Where: UCHI, CLAS/Austin Building # 301. 215 Glenbrook Road, Unit 4234. Storrs, CT 06269.

When: Thursday, February 28h, at 4:00-5:30 PM.

Free of charge and open to the public.

For more information call: 860 486 9057

Note: The presentation will be enhanced by numerous selected clips from the movies under discussion.

Bernardo Berolucci, director of The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, and many other films, including, recently, The Dreamers.

Liliana Cavani, director of The Night Porter, Beyond Good and Evil, and The Berlin Affair, known collectively as The European Trilogy, and many other films.

Note: The presentation will be followed by an open questions and answers period.

About the Presenter:

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Ph.D, is a Professor of Humanities, Italian, and Cinema at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. She is a current Research Fellow at UCHI. A UCR graduate, she is the author and editor of numerous award-winning books, including Gaia (2009), Eros (2006), BiTopia(2011), Bisexuality and Queer Theory(2011), Plural Loves (2005), Women and Bisexuality (2003), and The ‘Weak’ Subject (1998). She has charted new fields, including ecosexuality and the arts of loving sustainably and inclusively. Her new work includes a study of sustainable practices of love and a collection of writings on ecosexuality.

Find out more about UCHI’s presentations, programs, and activities: UCHI

As a comment: I feel an immense gratitude for this Fellowship research year. My spirit feels rejuvenated and revitalized by the inspiration and creativity that it’s been immersed in. It has been a wonderful gift to be in the company of fellow Fellows and their projects, and to have access to the abundant research resources of U Conn, Storrs. Also, it’s lovely to be immersed in discourses across disciplines and a campus abundant with Centers and Institutes where these conversations flourish.

This is the most important presentation in my Fellowship year. It’s a public presentation designed to offer the pulse of where my project is at and where it’s headed to. It’s been a pleasure to prepare it, with abundant technical assistance at the Institute. And I hope it will be well received and inspire a generous amount of questions and genuine debate.

Thank you, U Conn. Thank you, UCHI.

Photo by Mina Bast

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.

We offer a seminar this summer: Ecosexuality: Becoming

a Resource of Love. Join us in Portland, OR, July 17-21,

for this amazing experience. It’s still early-bird time for

those interested. Register now here!

Come back for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Website: www.serenagaia.com

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Author’s Page/Lists all books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

UCHI Series – Intro to “Amorous Visions,” on Video

Dear Earthlings,

Did you get to read my notes and watch the clips about my intro to “Amorous Visions: Fluid Sexual Moments in Italian Cinema”? They appeared last week. Now you can take a shortcut and simply watch this video of my presentation to the Fellows group.

I can’t go into as much details as i would like to. But it’s a good scoop. If you’d like more details, go back to the posting of November 12, 2012. You’ll find out all about why these “fluid” and “inclusive” scenes are so pivotal. You’ll get to watch the clips, with the finale of a “three-way kiss.”

It’s great to share some of what I’m doing here at U Conn Storrs in my Fellowship year.

Stay tuned for more posting on Mondays in this series. We will go back in time to the beginning of the Fellowship period, when i introduced the project to the group.

Oh, I almost forgot this:

Want to know more about yours truly’s new book? What Is Love dares to engage the million dollar question! Would like to pre-read? Find out how to endorse the book here.

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.

Come back for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Fellow at UCHI

Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Website: www.serenagaia.com

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Author’s Page/Lists all books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini

PostaHouse: Apennine Eco Community

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

UCHI Series – Intro to “Amorous Visions: Fluid Sexual Moments in Italian Cinema”

–>

Dear Earthlings:

As promised, the intro to my UCHI project presented on September 12, 2012. Check it out an watch the three beautiful clips, with a finale of a “bisexual kiss.”

I’ll stay tuned for your comments.

Introduction

Amorous Visions: Fluid Sexual Moments in Italian Cinema

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Anna and Giulia in Bertolucci’s The Conformist, 1970

Intent

Providing evidence for the argument that “sexual fluidity” and “amorous inclusiveness” are natural elements in the human expression of love.

Using Italian cinema as an art form that bears witness to that truth.

Abstract

This study articulates a new interpretation of pivotal scenes in selected classics of Italian cinema based on the cultural constructs of “amorous inclusiveness” and “sexual fluidity” elaborated in recent cultural analyses of human sexual, erotic, and amorous behavior (Ryan and Jetha 2010, Diamond 2009). These classics include Pasolini’s Teorema(1968), where a mysterious guest awakens the erotic libido of all members in a nuclear family, and Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970), where a charming hostess similarly awakens both members of a newlywed couple. Based on these new interpretive paradigms, these scenes acquire a new meaning that discloses the bisexual and polyamorous content therein. This enables more positive and complete understandings of the films as projects that artistically express love for love, or erotophilia. As an experienced scholar who charted new research fields that study love as the art of crossing beyond sexual divides and exclusivity (BiTopia, 2011), I am uniquely prepared to articulate these interpretations.

Research and Contribution

Based on Deleuze’s postmodern philosophy of cinema (1986), a film scene is a “movement-image” that stills time for future generations of viewers and can inspire transforming practices and movements. In many classics of Italian film, these scenes reflect pre-modern belief systems that precede monogamy and hetero/homo-normativities. As the expression of a 20^th century cinematic culture and tradition, Italian film encodes many of the contrasting beliefs that have historically characterized the multiple cultures that have inhabited the peninsula. For example, the notion that love is an art and desire is fluid was common in antiquity, when the modern concept of sexuality did not exist. This situation provides a fertile context for the study of a film’s diegetic structure that pivots on scenes where the socio-sexual conventions of monogamy and monosexuality are momentarily suspended. Are these cinematic moments “bisexual”? Are they “polyamorous”? In this cinematic culture a director is considered the “author” (or auteur) of a film. What do the scenes reveal about this author? Is the director’s gaze coded in them? Why do the films appear so “queer” even though they are not part of an LGBTQ film tradition? To what extent do new generations of viewers get to redefine what these moments mean?

Interpretive Perspective

The interpretive perspective I propose is authorized by numerous recent studies of human sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness that converge in assessing its biological and cultural roots. Lisa Diamond’s longitudinal study of women’s sexual desire proves that sexual orientation exists alongside with variable degrees of sexual fluidity (2009). Matthew Ripley (et al.)’s study of bisexual men registers an increasing degree of comfort with this practice and identity at least in the secular world. Based on recent findings in Clinical Psychology at Northwestern University and from the Human Rights Commission, bisexual behavior turns out to be natural and healthy for a large number of humans (Rosenthal, LGBT Advisory Committee, 2011). Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha’s study of the prehistoric origins of human sexuality proves that inclusive behavior in both sexual and parental love has been prevalent in human cultures and communities over the course of the prehistoric life of our species (2010). Monogamy is a social construct that becomes normative with history. Our species is not biologically programmed for it, which explains why so many people have trouble adjusting to it.

Revisiting the “Fluid,” “Inclusive” Scenes

If sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness are “natural” for humans, then it is a good idea to look again at classics of Italian cinema for scenes of “sexual fluidity” and “amorous inclusiveness.” What do these scenes mean? Why are they significant? What new visions do they authorize if interpreted as cinematic moments that establish an early legitimacy for behaviors subsequently found to be natural for our species? Why do we still so often perceive these behaviors as “queer”? Can our vision of what is natural transform to include these behaviors too? How does the authority of new science about sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness in humans legitimate these new visions? These are questions in my mind as I plan to revisit the erotic awakening of Francesca and Silvana in Riso amaro (1948); the one the guest bestows on the frigid nuclear family members of Pasolini’s Teorema(1968). The charming French hostess, in Bertolucci’s The Conformist(1970) similarly awakens the newlywed Italian couple writhing with erotophobia from the Fascist regime; and a number of other similar scenes.

Silvana and Francesca bond as confidantes in Riso Amaro

Anna and Giulia dance together in The Conformist

As the new paradigms of “sexual fluidity” and “amorous inclusiveness” are put to work toward interpretations of classics of Italian cinema whose world fame exceeds their original cultural location, these interpretations will bring up unsuspected continuities. Binaries around which human sexual, erotic, and amorous behaviors have been organized include homosexuality and heterosexuality, monogamy and polyamory, modernity and antiquity. The cultural polarizations these binaries produce are in the way of envisaging worlds beyond these binaries. Directors whose key scenes represent “fluid” and “inclusive” moments produce visions of worlds possible beyond these binaries, were love for love, or erotophilia, prevails over erotophobia, or fear of love. A recent example of this is the fluid, inclusive kiss scene in Ferzan Ozpetek The Ignorant Fairies (2001).

Antonia and Michele exchange a “bisexual kiss” in The Ignorant Fairies

The Million Dollar Question:

How can we create a world where Massimo, the shared lover who binds Michele and Antonia erotically, wouldn’t have to be dead for Michele and Antonia to kiss?

How can humanities-based interdisciplinary research help to make this happen?

Thank you!

Work Cited List

Primary Sources

Bertolucci, Bernardo. Il conformista/The Conformist. Rome: Green Film, 1970.

De Santis, Giuseppe. Riso amaro/Bitter Rice. Rome: Lux, 1948.

Ozpetek, Ferzan. Le fate ignoranti/His Secret Life. Rome: Medusa, 2001.

Pasolini, Pier Paolo. Teorema. Rome: Aetos Film, 1968.

Secondary Sources

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. “Bisexual Games and Emotional Sustainability in Ferzan Ozpetek’s Queer Films.” New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film: 2: 3 (2004): 163-174.

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. Gaia and the New Politics of Love: Notes for a Poly Planet. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009.

______ ed. BiTopia: Selected Proceedings from BiReCon 2010. Routledge, 2011.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Tomlinson, Hugh, tr. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986.

______ . Cinema 2: The Time-Image. Tomlinson, Hugh, tr. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota press, 1989.

Diamond, Lisa. Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2008.

LGBT Advisory Committee. Bisexual Invisibility: Impacts and Recommendations. San Francisco: Human Rights Commission, 2011.

Ripley, Matthew, Adrian Adams, Robin Pitts, Eric Anderson. “The Decreasing Significance of Stigma in the Lives of Bisexual Men: Keynote Address.” In BiTopia: Selected Proceedings from BiReCon. New York: Routledge, 2011.

Ryan, Christopher and Cacilda Jetha. Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. New York: Harper, 2010. Kindle Edition.

Dear Earthlings,

Courtesy of Poliamore Italia

Remember to come back on Thursdays for more snippets of what yours truly is up to.

Want to know more about yours truly’s new book? What Is Love dares to engage the million dollar question! Would like to pre-read? Find out how to endorse the book here.

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love. Come back for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Fellow at UCHI

Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Website: www.serenagaia.com

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Author’s Page/Lists all books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini