Friday 16th January 2015- Hannah Langfield
Void. Life. Void.
Through developing the idea of Void. Life. Void further, there were certain links and connections that were made that would further provide inspiration such as the aspects of Existentialism and Enlightenment.
First of all, the aspect of the Enlightenment period was introduced in the lecture, the era where the absence of God became more apparent, and the connection of Existentialism remained. It was a period approximately between 1650 and 1800 where the basis of rational beliefs was challenged. I found the aspect of the Enlightenment period was easy to digest, as the important information was brought to us in a way that made us additionally question the existential questions of life. As a whole I realised that the enlightenment period was a key period to lead up to Existentialism, building up to philosophers and general citizens questioning authority as well as current beliefs.
In times such as the medieval era, it was highlighted that peasants were expected to grow and provide food for the aristocrats and royalty, a highly run social class was brought upon the peasants, and the aspect of a higher power was used in a way to manipulate them due to their lack of literary education. However, despite the hundreds of years of empowerment the Enlightenment era came and challenged the very meaning of a monarchy and the aristocrats.
Existentialism began in the 19th century with Philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard, Nietzsche's piece 'God Is Dead - The Gay Science (The Joyous Wisdom)' questioned existence in detail for the first time in philosophy. I believe these philosophers were brave in questioning the matter of existence as well as being inspired by the brave act of the Enlightenment period, where the height of power was questioned. It began to express a freedom of choice, a questioning of value of life, and the opinion that there may be no core to existence. I was inspired by the fact that Existentialists believe that in order to except existence, you have to live life. The idea of living life to the full in the belief that nothing follows afterwards is truly inspirational and I truly support the idea of trying to make the most out of life.
During the lecture, it began to influence how to produce visualisations of Void. Life. Void. and has influenced me further into more research of Existentialism and how other artists have picked up the theme and visually represented it.
I additionally like the fact that Existentialism highlights the aspect of Spirit, Reason and Creativity, something that would easily transpire into artwork and visual forms. The aspect of Enlightenment had previously highlighted the aspect of independent thought, and superstitions were removed to be left with a blank space, thus the reason behind Nietzsche's piece 'God is Dead' reinforcing the idea that in the enlightenment era and due to continued questioning of existence we have killed God, we have removed the belief not completely, but enough to kill away the legends and replace it with curiosity.
"We create to protect and shield us from the void"- Friedrich Nietzsche
As well as this lecture inspiring me more into visualising what Void. Life. Void. would actually look like, and how metaphorically the aspect of enlightenment and existentialism can be highlighted, it also applied other underlying themes into the project that could be further explored.
Myth was linked into the aspect of Enlightenment and Existentialism, with the fact that the peasants were manipulated and the myth of God drilled into their lives. Due to the peasants not being taught the key points of education such as reading and writing, they evidently believed in the things and beliefs that the aristocrats thrust upon them. For them, the myth was that the monarchy were chosen by God, and therefore inherited the power of God, and if anyone was to challenge this very monarchy would have to face the wrath of God. Therefore in such belief, the power of myth was eventually challenged where light was shed on the aspect of what they believed in, with more freedom from power, leading to the Enlightenment period.
In such a lecture, connections could then be made to present and future beliefs, the idea of democracy throughout history, how feminism became empowerment, how gender became unbalanced, and how the way equality was expressed through democracy such as now, in present day the monarchy still obtains power, but not nearly as much power as history inherited, and additionally, we live in a democracy where all beliefs and thoughts are equally accepted. It became clearer to me during the expansion of the lecture, that the aspect of equality would have originated from such a moment in the history. Additionally considerations such as gender equality and human rights would have transpired from the Enlightenment period and Existentialism.
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