From the Perspective of Cultural Materialism, Traditional and Religious Art Serve as Dynamic Source Codes for Interdisciplinary Creation

Abstract

Contemporary interdisciplinary creation faces the dilemma of homogenization and symbolic appropriation, with traditional and religious art often simplified into superficial visual elements. The perspective of cultural materialism reveals the essential attributes of traditional and religious art deeply rooted in material practice and social context. As a "living source code", it includes three core components: formal rules, symbolic meaning, and bodily skills. Combined with new technological media, it can achieve deep innovation in interdisciplinary creation. This article analyzes practical cases in fields such as digital installation art, new media images, and architectural design to demonstrate the application logic of "live source code" - not replicating traditional symbols, but extracting their material practical logic for contemporary translation. Research has shown that the dynamic inheritance characteristics of traditional and religious art endow it with sustained creativity, providing cultural roots and practical paths for interdisciplinary creation, and promoting the dialectical unity of tradition and modernity in contemporary art and design.