2002 & 2003

The project in Boulder was called “Interviews with the Contemplative Mind.” Starting with students at Naropa University and CU-Boulder, and then reaching out to more than 1,000 people in the Boulder community Dill “collected language” by interviewing people about their spiritual and contemplative experiences and moments of awareness. This “found poetry” has become the basis for a new extended musical work for unaccompanied chorus, assembled and composed by Lesley Dill and Ars Nova Artistic Director Thomas Edward Morgan. There is an I Heard a Voice 43 minute cd and 44 minute VHS.

“Interviews with a Contemplative Mind” is a project designed by artist Lesley Dill and sponsored by The University of Colorado Art Galleries. The project joined individuals and groups in the Boulder community to explore the possibilities of art as a participatory process. The intention of “Interviews with the Contemplative Mind” is to insert a pause in the daily rush of life and to create moments of reflection and aesthetic enjoyment via poetry, music, and art.

Lesley Dill worked with classes at the University of Colorado and Naropa University to “collect language” through interviews exploring individual experiences of contemplative awareness. Participants are then invited to extend the language collection process further into the community by setting up interviews with friends, strangers, colleagues, and family. In the fall of 2002, up to 15,000 cards were printed and distributed by students and other participants as small gifts – at grocery stores, shopping malls, bus stations, city parks, and other everyday public venues. One side of each card will feature a photographic image created by Ms. Dill in response to her experiences of Boulder and the language she collects here. The other side will have several lines of “collected language” from the community. Five separate cards were produced for the project. Some of the language will be printed in English, some on Spanish, and some cards may have a line embossed in Braille.