Disseminated Primatemaia
This image is the uncannily uncanny cover of Straw Dogs by John Gray. This book was recommended by Caroline (thank you)I assume because the philosophical content refers to the shaping of mans destiny and his place on earth which is linked to my ideas about 'fear of the future' and a rise in uncanny art.
I have read the first chapter and in it Gray quotes James Lovelock who writes:
Humans on the Earth behave in some ways like a pathogenic organism, or like the cells of a tumour or neoplasm. We have grown in numbers and disturbance to Gaia, to the point where our presence is perceptibly disturbing ... the human species is now so numerous as to constitute a serious planetary malady. Gaia is suffering from Disseminated Primatemaia, a plague of people.
I like the phrase, 'our presence is perceptibly disturbing'.
Agot also recommended a good book (thank you) called 'Regarding the Pain of Others' by Susan Sontag. I have only read an excerpt from this text but essentially Sontag poses some interesting questions about contemporary media reportage such as 'are viewers inured -- or incited -- to violence by the depiction of cruelty? Is the viewer's perception of reality eroded by the daily barrage of such images? The notion regarding perceptions of reality are particularly pertinent to the cultural context of my work.
Does anyone have any views on uncanny aesthetics?
posted by maria edney at 4:01 PM
7 Comments:
Hi Caroline, thank you so much for your thoughts. It is interesting that you identify fear as your personal response to uncanny aesthetics. Freud himself describes it thus, 'The Uncanny is the class of frightening things that leads us back to what is known and familiar.'
Ernst Jentsch, (psychiatrist and pre-Freud) wrote a study on the uncanny and concludes that there are two kinds of uncanny experiences. One is a fear of the unfamiliar and the other is based upon personal intellectual uncertainty. Freud developed Jentsch's ideas and approached the uncanny from various and more complex angles.
As for John Gray, his book is scary.
At first I thought Straw Dogs was a seedy '70's film with Dustin Hoffman and group sex! So glad I did a Google search and found the real Straw Dogs that you were
referring to. Or did I?!
Mx
Uncanny aesthetics:
In general I welcome disturbing images - like the picture of an African warriors holding a big head of his enemy - it is disturbing but somehow one feels attracted to viewing it and trying to find out what happened, why he was able to do it, etc... In general one has a morbid desire to see, to be an expectator...
Talking about seeing shocking images - there is a new exhibition at Earls Court Exhibition Centre - London called "Bodies" of Prof. Gunther Von Hagens - They are showing once again dissected and preserved human bodies and organs...last time it was exhibited - it was packed!! Could you call this an uncanny exhibition?
There is a video called "Korperwelten" by Prof Gunther Von Hagens at Kingston University which I have been watching and will take back next week on Wednesday.
I have also taken out "Un Chien Andalou" by Luis Bunuel(considered the father of cinaematic Surreallism and one of the most original dirctors in the history of film) with collaboration of Salvador Dali - this is an uncanny film from L'Age d'or of Spanish film! Just been watching it and it is surprising how interestingly shocking the images are presented for a film made in 1929 - it is sometimes disturbing for our times - imagine when it was first seen!!! They have it at Kingston University in both video and DVD - the DVD contains biographies of both Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali.
Hi Marcela, I think we must have similar taste!
I went to see Von Hagens Bodyworks when it was first exhibited about 4 years ago. It is fascinatingly macabre and maybe uncanny too? As for Un Chien Andalou it is one of my favourites!! I wrote a paper on this film during my BA. I especially love the cut eyeball. M,x
I too went to see the Bodyworlds exhibition at Brick Lane - absolutely fascinating - in fact I went twice, I made my family go with me for my birthday treat (I know, I know, but it's the only day of the year they will go with me unquestioningly wherever I want!).
I'm not sure you can call this uncanny though? Perhaps an uncanny view of something, insomuch as the body is never normally seen in this way, therefore this is something unexpected, but I rather expect more of the term 'uncanny'. To me it means - strangely odd, weird - something at variance with its environment, and I found Bodyworlds none of this. I found it illuminating, educational, rather more aesthetically pleasing than expected not horrid. I thought the current exhibition at Earl's Court was a different one though? - suddenly everyone has a plastinated body to slice up.
The programmes on TV recently where Von Hagens carried out the autopsies were amazing - especially, I thought, the one where he compared the body of a 20 year old woman to that of an 80 year old woman! At the end this naked, shrunken, grey old lady with large, heavy features smiled as she was thanked and her face lit up - and I cried.
As for the Gaia theory - well it makes sense to me that everything is interrelated and interdependent and I especially like the phrase 'a plague of people', but I'm not familiar with John Gray's book.
I have a book called 'The Art of Looking Sideways' (I think Marcela has the same book) and it is full of uncanny images and ideas - I'll bring it in when I'm next in Kingston.
I am looking forward to finding uncanny references when we are in Cushendall!
Thanks Lynda. With regard to Bodyworks, I thought the pickled babies were very uncanny, especially the two headed one!
Love,Mx
PS I shall be doing my SIP in Cushendall as there is no electricity nor telephone let alone a pc! Get real!!
Fair enough the pickled babies were definitely weird...
I thought I might be able to photograph some uncanny objects in Cushendall? Is there no internet cafe there? Where are we going to?
Lynda, I reckon we will drink Guinness, eat potatoes and play Scrabble plus the odd bit of drawing.
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