Terrible Objects
I found the words 'terrible objects' in Mountains of The Mind quoting Burke.
"What is fitted in any sort of excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant with terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion with the mind is capable of feeling...When danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight, and are simply terrible; but at certain distances, and with certain modifications, they may be, and they are delightful, as we every day experience."
I've been meaning to research into this for some time to see if there are any visuals to inspire me.
I was expecting to find objects that might be shard or jagged, perhaps quite ominous but my first search on Google took me to things such as 15 Hilarious Bad Designs For Everyday Objects. I was thinking very much along the line of terrible in regards to the sublime and forgot that terrible objects can simply relate to pretty rubbish objects.
The search did take me however some links to sources quoting Edmund Burke. One interesting source was The Sublime Object of Psychiatry: Schizophrenia in Clinical and Cultural Theory. In this, the author quotes Philip Shaw who has summed up the sublime:
"In broad terms, whenever experience slips out of conventional understanding, whenever the power of an object or event is such that words fail and points of comparison disappear, then we resort to the feeling of the sublime. As such, the sublime marks the limits of reason and expression together with a sense of what might lie beyond these limits..."
This is a pretty good summary. It seems that I am always finding new ways to define the sublime, all linked but all worded in different ways.
I moved over to my sketchbook to note down some info from this as I work better there. Bellow are some of the notes (my phone camera is old school).
Something quite prominent has come from this and that is DISTANCE. Also that the MIND IS FILLED WITH THE OBJECT, TEMPORAL SUSPENSION. I have made more notes in my sketchbook but I am going to get back to looking at what would be seen as a terrible object.
A search on Pinterest took me to this piece:
This is a sculpture by Michele Oka Doner called Branble, find the site here. This is the sort of thing I had in mind when I was thought about terrible objects. Is there a way I can combine this with my ideas? maybe a case of a book should be made of a dangerous material. Michele Oka Doner also makes artist books and is very involved in nature. One of the books can be found here there's a pretty good video that goes with this. I think I will keep looking into this artist.
More of a search under this took me to a lot of these uncomfortable looking chairs such as this peice by Jan Howlin, here.
"What is fitted in any sort of excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant with terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion with the mind is capable of feeling...When danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight, and are simply terrible; but at certain distances, and with certain modifications, they may be, and they are delightful, as we every day experience."
I've been meaning to research into this for some time to see if there are any visuals to inspire me.
I was expecting to find objects that might be shard or jagged, perhaps quite ominous but my first search on Google took me to things such as 15 Hilarious Bad Designs For Everyday Objects. I was thinking very much along the line of terrible in regards to the sublime and forgot that terrible objects can simply relate to pretty rubbish objects.
The search did take me however some links to sources quoting Edmund Burke. One interesting source was The Sublime Object of Psychiatry: Schizophrenia in Clinical and Cultural Theory. In this, the author quotes Philip Shaw who has summed up the sublime:
"In broad terms, whenever experience slips out of conventional understanding, whenever the power of an object or event is such that words fail and points of comparison disappear, then we resort to the feeling of the sublime. As such, the sublime marks the limits of reason and expression together with a sense of what might lie beyond these limits..."
This is a pretty good summary. It seems that I am always finding new ways to define the sublime, all linked but all worded in different ways.
I moved over to my sketchbook to note down some info from this as I work better there. Bellow are some of the notes (my phone camera is old school).
Something quite prominent has come from this and that is DISTANCE. Also that the MIND IS FILLED WITH THE OBJECT, TEMPORAL SUSPENSION. I have made more notes in my sketchbook but I am going to get back to looking at what would be seen as a terrible object.
A search on Pinterest took me to this piece:
This is a sculpture by Michele Oka Doner called Branble, find the site here. This is the sort of thing I had in mind when I was thought about terrible objects. Is there a way I can combine this with my ideas? maybe a case of a book should be made of a dangerous material. Michele Oka Doner also makes artist books and is very involved in nature. One of the books can be found here there's a pretty good video that goes with this. I think I will keep looking into this artist.
More of a search under this took me to a lot of these uncomfortable looking chairs such as this peice by Jan Howlin, here.
Another image of interest is bellow:
There are many images that go with this. It is from the book Emblemata Sacra (1624) by Daniel Cramer (image and info from the article Objects of Intrigue: The Trials and Terrible Tribulations of a 17th-Century Heart
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