Coelynn McIninch

AIB MFA

September 2008

Beautiful Sublime -Virtually

For thousands of years, philosophers, writers, and artists have been debating the definitions and applications of the terms Beauty and the sublime to such depths that their meanings frequently overlap and blend together. It is possible to have one without the other but it is the shift from one to the other that has fueled countless debates on nature and what it means to be human. As cultures and philosophies change, so do the definitions of beauty and the parameters of sublime experience. Our current Digital age is the perfect testing ground for a fresh set of interpretations. Surrounded by altered senses, virtual reality, and commodified aesthetics, we test the boundaries of beauty and the sublime daily.

Before we can discuss how beauty and the sublime fit into the digital age, it is necessary understand some of the most common philosophies regarding the relationship between beauty and the sublime. In ancient Greece, Pythagoras and his followers believed beauty was a simple matter of mathematic proportions. The guiding principles could be applied to all things, whether it is art, music, and the movement of the planets across the heavens or, the human form. An object’s beauty could be determined by noting its coherence with the ideals of order, symmetry, and the golden rule. Jumping forward to the mid 1700s, Edmund Burke states that beauty occurs, “when any body is composed of parts smooth and polished without pressing upon each other, without showing any ruggedness or confusion, and at the same time affecting some regular shape.” This is a basic assessment of what makes objects pleasing to the senses. It could be applied to a lamp just as easily as to a human form. In general, the beautiful is considered safe and controllable, posing no threat to reason. It is the easy recognition of something as cohesive, and satisfying to the senses.

The sublime would be the polar opposite of this idea. Although beauty is thought to be perfection and order, there are times when beauty is so inspiring that it overwhelms the senses and all surrounding things appear disorderly and ugly in comparison. As our perception of an object or idea slides beyond the boundaries of order and reason it shifts into the realm of the sublime. Perception is the important part of this shift. Ultimately, it is human emotions, senses, and perceptions that are the determining factors for assessing beauty or the sublime. “The sublime need[s] a human observer (Haden-Guest) and, “any contemporary notion of the sublime will inevitably be linked to what the human signifies” (Beckley)

Longinus is regularly credited with writing the first essays and letters discussing the sublime. Although historians tend to disagree about the actual dates of his publications, two thousand years later, we are still referring back to his basic idea of the terror-sublime. “The sublime is sheer chaos, beyond finity, beyond reason, beyond order.” (McEvilly on Longinus) A sublime moment is any situation where reason and the senses fail completely. The trigger for this may be any number of things, beauty, nature, grandeur, art or musical experience. In one of Artist Robert Longo describes the sublime as “something between dancing and dying which is, I think, the essence of the sublime. My impression of the sublime is that it implies death-it’s a beauty that implies death.” Kant’s notably rationalized assessments of the Beauty/sublime dynamic he states “the beautiful gives satisfaction, the sublime frustration.”

Romantic artists like Kaspar David Friedrich and J.M.W. Turner expressed the sublime by painting images of nature at its most spectacular and man as its silent and insignificant witness. Around the same time, in literature, one finds protagonists that willingly surrender themselves to oblivion in an almost spiritual act of ultimate sublime experience.

An important question to ask is why would anyone be attracted to sheer chaos and terror?

In actuality, may not be the terror itself that is attractive but the victory over the chaos that becomes an empowering and defining moment. When the thread that binds the mind to the sensual body is tensed, the fear of severance emphasizes the boundaries of each. To face terror and oblivion and then confront the reality of one’s own safety and sanity is the ultimate affirmation of the self. It is confirmation that the self resides outside the simple chemical reactions of the physical body and that the human spirit is stronger that the physical world. It is also the victory of reason over the sublime. Kant attempted to define the sublime specifically as separate from beauty. By doing this he gave order and structure to the sublime and completely negated the power or “terror” of the sublime experience.

Painters like Rothko and Barnett separated beauty and the sublime by exposing painting’s traditional figure/ground relationship as a physical representation of the relationship between Beauty and the sublime. They rejected the traditional figure of a painting as being loaded with pre-established meanings. The ground represents the sublime, greater plane, upon which all possible ideas may be expressed. The absence of a specific figure leaves room for the viewer to invest their own meaning into the work. Once an object is given tangible form it is then susceptible to judgment and categorizing by all the other senses as well as by others whereas; in the minds eye, all things can be perfect and all things are possible.

To add a more contemporary twist on the subject, we can apply the same figure/ground relationship to computers and cyberspace. “Contemplating nature requires that one take note of one’s continuity with it as part of the same life force but, one cannot experience the same kind of continuity with the technological.” (Gilbert-Rolf) When you look for order, structure and reason, you arrive at the physical technology and language that controls all cyber interactions. The design is a composite of science, mathematics and reason. Add to this, a beautiful package that is designed to offer all the pleasing sensual experiences that are unavailable virtually and essentially, you have the figure. When you look for the sublime chaos, the concept of cyberspace is a perfect example. Cyberspace is vast, senseless, formless, all encompassing and, for this argument, the ground to design’s beauty. “It is ungraspable because of its uncontrollable immensity where beauty is by definition complete . . .” (Gilbert-Rolfe)

From an artistic standpoint there are a few problems regarding expression of this comparison. If cyberspace has no form, how do you express it tangibly? If science is beauty, how do you artistically express the sublime nature of cyberspace without the artwork being overshadowed by the beautiful structure of the programming and technology used in its construction? Any use of a technology-mediated message exposes the structure behind the sublime and risks distraction, dilution or negation of the sublime intention. Virtual reality is only as good as the technology that presents it.

According to this mode of thought, artistically commenting on the sublime nature of cyberspace would necessitate the absence of the technology that created it. The greatest chance of success is achieved by making the science invisible but implied. Artist and Critic Anthony Haden-Guest suggests that “we seem more comfortable with work that sidles into the sublime, as if accidentally.” (Hayden-Guest) It is safer this way for the viewer because the risk of loosing oneself to the sublime is evident but beauty and reason are still within reach. A simple example of this would be going to see a movie in the theater.

In the digital age, beauty is used purposely as a vehicle for the sublime. A popular marketing ploy is to seduce them with beauty, deliver the sublime and offer an exaggerated beauty to compensate for the frustration caused by the sublime experience. To hold a viewer at this edge of empowerment and destruction appears to be the ultimate goal of any major entertainment company today. From the standpoint of an artist commenting in the digital sublime, the transitions between beauty and the sublime are key points of reference. Their use must be just as purposeful. To include enough science to imply reason but not enough reason to make it comfortable leaves the option of oblivion in the hands of the viewer.

Works Cited

Beckley, Bill, Ed. Sticky Sublime. New York: Allworth Press, 2001.

Freeman, Barbara Claire. “The Awakening –Waking up at The End of The Line.” The Feminine

Sublime Gender and Excess in Women's Fiction. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, 1997.

Lumpkin, Libby. “New Mexico.” Sticky Sublime. Ed. Bill Beckley. New York: Allworth Press,

2001.

Gilbert-Rolfe, Jeremy. “I’m Not So Sure It Is Sticky.” Sticky Sublime. Ed. Bill Beckley. New

York: Allworth Press, 2001.

Haden-Guest, Anthony. True Colors: The Real Life of the Art World. New York: Atlantic

Monthly Press, 1996.

Henric, Jaques. “The Sublime, as Love “a la Colle”” McEvilley, Sticky Sublime. Trans. Michael

Westlake. Ed. Bill Beckley. New York: Allworth Press, 2001.

McEvilley, Thomas. “Turned Upside Down and Torn Apart.” Sticky Sublime. Ed. Bill Beckley.

New York: Allworth Press, 2001.