Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Intermediate Studio - Permanent Flux - Research - Sublime and Beauty - Edmund Burke

Throughout my experiments it has become clear that I am trying to effect the viewers perception of something, but what, I couldn't work out. I have now worked out that it is the audiences view of beauty and the sublime that I am questioning. Now first of all it important to state that the sublime and beautiful are not the same, they can be linked but still are no the same. Very much like black and white can make grey but when viewed next to each other are not similar. In this case though I simply need to understand them and don't need to go into the vast detail of what makes them the same and what makes them different, so for this purpose I will simply refer to them as "Beauty."

Edmund Burke states that for something to be beautiful it must cause "love" or somekind of other passion similar for it. Simplicity is seen to be the key and beauty is not just physical, for example a beautiful woman automatically doesn't make men fall in love with her. It is the actual desire for something that makes it beautiful and unique. It demands no assistance from our reasoning and it does this by using proportion. Flowers are beautiful as they have the soul of proportion in their makeup.

The way we perceive beauty and the method to which my piece is questioning is in relation to the fact that we must analyze something first before we can state whether it is beautiful or ugly. It is important to note as well that although crisp, clean, balanced colours and soft, clear, looping sounds may make something perfect is doesn't make it beautiful. Gradual variation is needed very much like in my piece for the audience to analyze and appreciate beauty.

With this research in mind I am going to continue with my experiments and delve deeper into the subject of beauty and how we perceive it by taking photographs and sounds of my own to use in the piece that I think best represent it.

Source: Edmund Burke - A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

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