Towards A Sensualist Re-Production of The Sublime

Abstract

This article puts forward the possibility of questioning the use that, from a position endorsed by philosophy, institutionalised art discourse has given the concept of the sublime. If art is understood as a semiotic game and works of art as sign relations, the physiological and psychological aspects of the relationship between works of art and their viewers become of marginal importance. The disturbing emotional reactions provoked by certain works of art, as part of their function, have been ignored by institutionalised discourse. Works that foster these disturbing reactions as part of their function have been and are still separated from the everyday sphere, from entertainment or from the media spectacle. When not set apart, these works are submitted to a uniformalising semiotic logic that silences the disturbing emotional qualities that form part of their function. Bearing in mind that this character is associated with the sublime in the first definitions of the concept, the silences or contradictions of institutionalised art discourse in this respect provide the key for offering alternatives to the theoretical, linguistic or philosophical modes it promotes.