This thesis focuses on the concept of the sublime, within the digital universe.
The sublime is the experience of overwhelming greatness, beyond the realms of human contemplation. It can occur in any form, be it aesthetic, philosophical or spiritual, however is always, like any emotion, unique to the individual.
In terms of our own world, it can be inspired by vast seas, infinite skies, or enormous cliffs; scenes so impressive and fearsome, yet also beautiful and transfixing, unfathomable in their scale and form. The philosopher Immanuel Kant saw the sublime as a negative experience of limitation, in which the mind is moved to the edge of understanding, unable to process the information presented. It is on this definition of the sublime as infinite yet restrictive that I have represented the digital sublime.
The digital universe runs alongside our own, an invisible entity sharing many parallels. Like our own universe, the digital is infinite, constantly expanding, un-ownable and un-mappable. All digital matter is made up of millions of strings of binary, the equivalent of atoms. Completely unreadable, technology must calculate and translate the enormous quantities of coding to give the viewer something understandable.
Arthur Schopenhauer proposed that the fullest feeling of the sublime was the contemplation of the size and duration of the universe.
This idea is examined through the form of an installation containing a projected animation, which takes filmed footage of the night’s sky above the University for the Creative Arts; a personal view of a tiny segment of the universe, before breaking down each unique second into binary, and then reassembling the enormous quantities of code generated as new footage, which is programmed to violently emit as individual particles, using the original footage as its catalyst. Beacause the projection is created by two separate layers, the viewer will witness a unique moment, which will never be repeated.
By using the binary code as opposed to the original image, the animation highlights the jarring contradictions created by the enormity of the digital world in comparison to the minutiae of its building blocks; incomprehensible complexity from two digits, a single engulfing image made from thousands of minute images with scale created by minutiae, unique seconds of animation through endless repetition, easily interpreted numbers becoming unreadable, and the invisible data of an invisible universe becoming almost concrete in an enlarged, projected state.
Visualizing binary demonstrates the huge, expansive intricacy of the digital universe by effectively showing the opposite. This brings about a state of confusion, where the visuals override any form of logic and ordering, as the data displayed is impossible to arrange. Trying to count or order the binary would prove as fruitless as counting stars.
As a personal experience, the sublime is daunting, isolating, and above all else, reminiscent of the indifference of the universe. It is a measure of time as minute and finite, reducing the moment, despite its lofty feelings of importance, to something so minuscule, so insignificant that it is forgotten and is dead within a fraction of its arrival.
While the uniqueness of the sublime experience may not transcend, this piece of work intends to suggest this interpretation as felt by the author, in the hope that it is will evoke an emotional response in you, the viewer.