"I loved being part of this symposium on shadow play, which felt truly collaborative. It's a great model for the kinds of creative and intellectual cross-pollination that can happen when we bring people from arts and humanities disciplines together to think about a shared topic. Few places are better equipped for that than the University of Iowa, and having artists-in-residence like Manual Cinema offers such an ideal opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration." - Michael Cowan

The symposium featured a rich and varied program that explored the artistic and conceptual possibilities of shadow, film, and performance. In the first session, Michael Cowan (Professor of Film Studies at the UI and outgoing chair of Cinematic Arts) opened with a presentation titled Film Shadows Between Index and Animation, examining the unique allure of shadows in film, as well as their genealogy in visual media going back to the 18th century. 

Cowan's presentation was followed by an excerpt from a new musical score composed for Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 film The Adventures of Prince Achmed, bringing fresh auditory life to a landmark of silhouette animation.Composed by the group Jamshid Jam, made up of Jean-François Charles (Associate Professor of Composition at the UI) and Ramin Roshandel (composer and setar player), the piece blends classical Persian music with modern experimental sounds via live electronics. Jamshid Jam's music has been described as "The sonic dust of a country that has been burned to the ground several times over the centuries and yet has formed some of the most elaborate musical structures to have ever existed".

The next project presented was Haag Cykell, led by visual artist, performer, and educator Johanna Winters (Assistant Professor, Indiana University) and writer, interdisciplinary artist, and educator Sarah Minor (Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the UI). Since 2017, Winters and Minor have been working as a collaborative pair to create visual narratives that combine shadow figures with live performance, poetic language, and analog animation technologies. 

After a brief discussion and Q&A, the second session of the symposium started off with Putu Hiranmayena (Assistant Professor of Music at Grinnell College) and Dewa Ayu Putri (Lecturer of Theater, Dance, and Performance at Grinnell College) who offered an engaging artists talk, providing insight into their collaborative practice. The two are artist-scholars specializing in traditional and contemporary Balinese Arts. Shadow theater has not only been a part of their professional lives, but also a form of sociocultural knowledge. 

Heather Parrish (Associate Professor of Printmaking in the School of Art, Art History and Design) presented her piece Constructed Atopia: An Otherness of the Shadow Screen. Parrish explores the inherent relationality in boundaries as sites of entanglement and exchange through experimental printmaking, photography, and installation. The experience as a participant and co-organizer granted Parrish and her fellow organizers with a unique perspective on the different forms of Shadow Play and how they are presented. According to Parrish, the biggest challenge was not organizing all of the participants and their presentations, but rather fitting them all into a single evening event. 

"I deeply valued the opportunity to invite practitioners from the region to present along side our University colleagues, expanding our connections within and beyond the campus. Pairing the symposium with an exhibition felt particularly rich for me as a visual artist, allowing for even more forms of expression and participation in Shadow Play.” - Heather Parrish

The second session wrapped up with a presentation by Sarah Fornace and Julia Miller of Manual Cinema, an Emmy Award-winning performance collective, design studio, and film production company, currently in residence with the Hancher Auditorium. The two described Manual Cinema and their dynamic exploration of shadow as both medium and metaphor. They performed their latest work The 4th Witch at the Englert Theatre on April 17th.

Following another Q&A session, the symposium was closed out by an interactive exhibition, which featured a history of shadow play in visual art, as well as a new film by Hope Tucker (Associate Professor of Film and Video Production) titled Shadowgraphs and created for the occasion. The film is part of Professor Tucker's work documenting the afterlives of institutional, social, and environmental decisions. The exhibition also included a table with tools of shadow puppetry, where attendees could engage directly with the materials and techniques discussed throughout the day, transforming spectators into participants.

"This event was a beautiful example of what is possible when experts get the chance to collaborate across disciplines. Even the organizers were surprised by the variety of approaches we saw using very old form—the shadow silhouette—for very contemporary creative and scholarly projects. I learned that in Indonesia, shadow puppeteers perform for up to 8 hours at a time and are considered “translators” of the spiritual world, that Hollywood films often use shadow silhouettes for world-building a foundational myth, and that early silhouette makers were called 'scissor artists'. - Sarah Minor 

In bringing together artists, scholars, and performers from across disciplines, Shadow Play Across the Arts and Humanities illuminated the enduring versatility and relevance of Shadow Play as both medium and metaphor. The symposium not only showcased a wide spectrum of creative and critical approaches, but also fostered meaningful discussion and collaboration, revealing unexpected connections across traditions, technologies, and cultural contexts. Ultimately, the event underscored the University of Iowa’s unique capacity to support interdisciplinary exchange, leaving participants with a deeper appreciation for how even the most ancient artistic forms can inspire innovative, contemporary work.