I have just uploaded the video stone in the fog to YouTube and then embedded it into my website, [http://www.mauricelockart.co.uk/]
I will probably do some more work on it before the piece is finished but it will be something like this.
Tomorrow I have a meeting with one of the Psychologists at Bangor University who researches into emotion. The purpose of the meeting is to explore the emotional basis of the sublime experience…should such a thing exist. This is based upon the frequently described experience of the sublime as being “delightful terror”. I am interested to know if this is a compound experience involving fear generated in the “old brain” (amygdala) being moderated by the pleasure centres of the brain…we’ll see!
stone in the fog 1.0
I am at the point with my dissertation research (working title: The nature and representation of the sublime) where ideas are starting to gel. It is a pleasant point, where half-formed ideas, associations etc. are swimming around in the head and all things are possible. I have decided to do the option of a shorter dissertation with a 30 minute presentation. This fits with a talk I am giving in early November on “German Romantics, Minimalism and the Sublime” to Bangor U3A and Probus. There is nothing like a deadline to focus the mind.
I have now just completed my website [http://www.mauricelockart.co.uk/] to the point it can go live. In addition to showcasing my previous work it will become a growing repository for my Final Year work. The assembly of the site was a new experience and one entered into with some trepidation. However, the response so far has been very positive, even if it is mostly from “family”!
My next task was to start this blog in Degrees Unedited and then get down to spec-ing and ordering materials for the piece, Stone in the fog. It is based around a video of a dark stone in a stream enveloped in a waxing and waning liquid nitrogen fog. The video will be played on a HD screen embedded within an oblong box-like object, sheathed in lead, to resonate with the ‘coldness’ of the film.
