Adriana Garcia Stenftenagel
FINAL PAPER: A Comparison Between the “Beautiful” and the “Sublime”
Passage:
“Of the Sublime
Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about 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 which the mind is capable of feeling.”
Abstract
The notion of “beauty” has been considered an essential principle of good design for centuries. For Vitruvius, beauty was associated with proportion, fitness, perfection, and virtue. Yet, Burke believed that beauty existed in the quality of an object. For him, beauty was achieved by combining smallness with smoothness, cleanness with delicacy. He defines beauty as the body’s neurological response to objects rather than by mental operations. Later on, Burke is also captivated by the aesthetic category of the sublime. He believes that the notion of pain, obscurity, and terror are far more powerful than those of pleasure.
This essay is intended to draw a comparison between the notion of Beauty and Sublime. It is meant to illustrate beauty as a consonant, and sublime as a dissonant.
OUTLINE
Introduction
Passage
Abstract
The Sublime and Modern Architecture
Introduce Blur Building as a way to highlight that sublime architecture is not simply a historical phenomenon but a contemporary one as well.
Body
Comparison between the notion of “Beauty” and “Sublime”
“Beauty” as consonant/measured
“Sublime” as dissonant/visceral
The notion of “Beauty” in the “Sublime”
Establishing a relationship between the two notions
Introducing the concept of “presence” by Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht as a contributing factor to the idea of beauty in the sublime
“Presence” as spatial relationship to the world and its objects
Blur Building by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
“The radicality of an absent building”
Technological sublime
The fog
The formless atmosphere
Conclusion
Bibliography/References
Mallgrave, Harry Francis. Architectural Theory. (Vol. I, An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2006: 277-284.
Nesbitt, Kate. The Sublime and Modern Architecture: Unmasking (An Aesthetic of) Abstraction. (Vol. 26, No 1, Narratives of Literature, the Arts, and Memory). The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1995: 95-110
Ulrich Gumbrecht, Hans. Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey. Stanford University Press, 2004.
Diller, Liz. Technological Landscape: An interview with Liz Diller Regarding Blur by Amanda Reeser, Ashley and Ben Gilmartin. (Vol. 4, Landscapes) PRAXIS: Journal of Writing + Building. 2002, 94-107.
Kant, Immanuel. Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime. United Kingdom: University of California Press, 2004.
Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful: With an Introductory Discourse Concerning Taste. United States: Harper, 1863.