Journal of Aesthetics & Culture

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The register of the artist

Elizabeth A. Hodson

To cite this article: Elizabeth A. Hodson (2021) The register of the artist, Journal of Aesthetics &
Culture, 13:1, 1920693, DOI: 10.1080/20004214.2021.1920693

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JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE
2021, VOL. 13, 1920693
https://doi.org/10.1080/20004214.2021.1920693

The register of the artist

Elizabeth A. Hodson
The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Central to art was once its relationship to the imaginative interior of the artist. The legacy of Anthropocene; posthuman;
romanticism and the sublime has been systematically eroded throughout the 20th and 21st sublime; technology; nature;
centuries. Although for some not entirely lost. Contemporary discourses around the posthu­ subjectivity
man have played their part in the erasure of the artist, through the breakdown of the
centrality of our bodily self in the world, and correspondingly, our imaginative interior as
previously conceived has been jettisoned. Through the rise of the anthropocene, attention is
now paid to the more or other-than-human, and even for those who take the person as part
of this schema, the body is no longer closed, its interior bracketed off from the world, but part
of a wider nexus, where fundamentally for the posthuman, the body-mind of the artist is not
necessarily the originating source for creativity. This paper seeks to consider the material
embodiments of these developments through exploring the working practice of artist Katie
Paterson. Multidisciplinary and cross-medium, her work is concerned with immensity and
particularity; her material is the stuff of the world, through which she tells the story of
nature’s elusive phenomena. The artist is quelled and transformed in Paterson’s work through
a re-articulation of the structures and processes normally hidden from us. In this way the
register of the artist shifts and the subjective self is dispersed and reconstructed through
alternative frames of reference, most notably geological time and the space of the cosmos.
Heir to the romantic sublime, her work offers a reappraisal of the place of artistic subjectivity
in the era of the posthuman. In so doing her work reveals the potential for a new posthuman
sublime.

Introduction developments. Whilst once the internal thinking

mind of the artist underpinned how we approached
The interrelationship between the body and the phe­
art through the legacy of romanticism and the sub­
nomenal world is premised on the relation of self to
lime, this approach has been throughout the 20th and
world. Further to this is the interior of the body as
21st centuries systematically eroded. Although for
the site of subjectivity. As Lajer-Burcharth and
some not entirely lost. What is of interest here is
Söntgen (2015) rightly note, the assumption of sub­
how contemporary discourses around the concept of
jectivity as an interior space is longstanding with
the human have fed into the reappraisal of the role of
a varied genealogy. Central to its development in
the artist for those whose work is heir to this roman­
the twentieth century is Freud’s conceptualization of
tic lineage, in which the presence of the artist has
the psyche (1930), which has held sway over its
historically been indelibly inscribed upon the work.
theorization. For Freud, the psyche can be conceived
Specifically, I want to call attention to the displace­
of in spatial terms as an “internal topography” (Lajer-
ment of the artist as the site of meaning and the
Burcharth and Söntgen 2015, 4) distinct but
mechanisms through which this occurs. For some,
depended upon the body and that which is exterior
authorial intention or agency has been revoked and
from it. Correspondingly, subjectivity is spatialised
with its artistic subjectivity as previously understood
and belongs to this internal realm. But as the home
through the heritage of the romantic sublime has
of subjectivity, the body is co-extensively defined as
been cast asunder. This has been felt most keenly in
autonomous and distinct for each individual but
our relationship to “nature” and the art that reflects
interdependent on other selves. With the rise of post­
it. Where once nature was a mirror upon which the
modernism, this model has been called into question
self could be explored, chiefly embodied in the con­
(see Callus and Herbrechter 2012). Transformations
cept of the sublime, nature is now contingent. Best
in the reach of technology have supported or perhaps
expressed in trans-disciplinary discourses of the post­
given rise to the consequential revision of the self and
human (see Wolfe 2010; Hayles 1999; Haraway 1985;
its delimitation (see Scharff and Dusek 2003). The
Braidotti 2013; Ferrando 2016; McCornmack 2016),
arts are a fertile ground from which to view these

CONTACT Elizabeth A. Hodson [email protected] Lecturer in Fine Art Critical Studies and Postgraduate Studies, The Glasgow School
of Art, Glasgow G3 6RQ
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
2 E. A. HODSON

we have now begun to break down the centrality of and the imaginary, but part of a wider nexus, where
a unified bodily self in the world (Latour 2005), and the body-mind is not necessarily the originating
correspondingly, our imaginative interior as pre­ source for creativity. The posthuman turn is
viously conceived has been jettisoned and fragmen­ a collection of ideas that attempt to address how
ted. This rupture has been engineered through the the delimitation of people is now fundamentally,
breakdown of the normative distinction between the differently structured. The posthuman turn is repre­
human and non-human, and correspondingly or cau­ sentative of a line of thinking that has been arguably
sally that between nature and culture as traditionally forged though crisis, best epitomized in the anthro­
designated. pocene it can be seen as a call to arms. In theorist
Its breakdown is, however, not its erasure. The Donna Haraway’s book, “Staying with the Trouble”,
posthuman as a critical discourse across the huma­ she uses her platform to incite a need to remain
nities can be seen in part as a response to the anthro­ active and to push forward—often against the idea
pocene, that is, it is a re-imagination of the human, in that the anthropocene can be understood in the
light of what the anthropocene proposes.1 Confirmed singular. In her suggestion that “staying with the
in 2016 as a definable geological epoch, the age of the trouble requires making oddkin; that is, we require
anthropocene is characterized as one in which each other in unexpected collaborations and combi­
humanity has a defining effect on the planet. As nations” (2017, 4), we see the value that art may
Vincent Normand notes, “the anthropocenic stage play here.
organizes a collision of humans with the earth” This paper seeks to consider the material embodi­
(2015, 65). In the age of the anthropocene, we are ments of these developments through exploring the
witnessing the ever-increasing reach of the human. working practice of artist Katie Paterson. Her work is
This in turn has redefined what more or other-than- not a philosophical treaty on the posthuman, but
human is in an age where nothing is out of bounds a means of reworking how art can function. It acts
from us. But as theoretician Rosi Braidotti (2013) as an illustration of the conundrum that the posthu­
points out, the anthropocene does not designate one man, and the posthuman sublime in particular, poses
singular perspective. Indeed, the anthropocene is and is one example of the visualization of these dis­
a “condition”, which has acted as the foundational courses. It is to her work that I turn to next.2
catalyst for a number of schools of thought, including
the posthuman (McCornmack 2016). It is a symptom
Katie Paterson
that for some can only be addressed through a move
towards a more full post-anthropocentrism (Ferrando Multidisciplinary and cross-medium, Scottish-born
2016). The posthuman, then, as a neologism has artist Katie Paterson’s work is concerned with
ushered in a new vocabulary to voice and correct immensity and particularity. It alludes to a scale
the shifts that we are witnessing across the globe. beyond the human, that speaks to the vastness of
But as Cary Wolfe notes in the opening to “What is the planet or the cosmos. But this vastness is revealed
Posthumanism” (Wolfe 2010) there is not a broad through the smallest of sand grains or a singular
consensus as to its definition. Whilst it can be seen eclipse of the moon. The particular becomes a lens
as oppositional to humanism, with Foucault’s ([1966] through which we witness the immeasurable. To do
2001) prophetic image of humanity’s changeability as so her material is the stuff of the world, often millions
certain as the waning of drawings on the sand at the of years old, through which she tells the story of
edge of the sea acting as something of its mantra (see nature’s elusive phenomena. Not limited to the
Wolfe 2010), how this opposition is realized or boundaries of the earth however, her work reveals
accounted for is multiple. her fascination with the universe and in her telling
Residing in cultural posthumanism in particular nature and the cosmos are brought into a more inti­
(see Badmington 2000) is the invitation to re- mate dialogue with the work’s spectator. Resolutely
engage with the things of the world through decen­ conceptual, Paterson’s objects, installations, photo­
tering the place of the human in our analysis and in graphs and sound work are all inspired by the fields
so doing opening up a space for alternative materi­ of ecology, cosmology and geology. The abstracted
alities and affects. For New Materialism, which has and unknown knowledge of science that takes these
found particular resonance within the arts, and arenas as their subject is made manifest. The range of
which pays attention to the more or other-than- her output and its links to both art historical move­
human (See Barad 2007; Bennett 2010; Dolphijn ments as well as further afield in disciplines such as
and Van Der Tuin 2012), posthumanism is the geology, cosmology and biology means that her work
starting point from which their analysis unfolds. is subject to a host of descriptive terms such as;
The body within this schemata is no longer closed intermedia, new media, conceptualism, neo-
(if ever it was), its interior bracketed off from the romanticism, with each honing in on a different
world and the means of mediating between the real aspect of her work. It is the crossovers between each
 JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE 3

that is generative and allows the work to be rich in closer to the fragility of human and non-human life
depth and association. on earth.
This approach is best exemplified in her recurring Paterson’s ability to find a commonality between
motif of stars, such as in “All the Dead Stars” (2009) the cosmos and everyday life is played out in her use
(See Figure 1), in which she produced a map that of materials. For instance, in her piece “Streetlight
charts all 27,000 dead stars that have been observed Storm” (2008), set on a pier in Kent, UK, the artist
and documented. Following this, in 2011, she started strung up a series of light bulbs on the pier that were
her “The Dying Stars Letters” series, which is ongoing adjusted to pulse in tandem with lighting strikes
and sees the artist writing a letter to inform a person taking place across the world. A similar technique is
about the recent death of a star. This approach is employed eight years later in “Ara” (2016).
markedly distinct from more normative representa­ Suspended across a gallery space, each light bulb’s
tions of the sky and stars, such as can be seen in the shine corresponds to the luminosity of a star. In
work of Latvian-American artist Vija Celims. Over both pieces, as Tufnell notes, “impossible vast cosmic
her career Celims has produced a number of portfo­ events are rendered at a domestic scale” (2014). In all
lios of work based on the stars and cosmology; from of these works a mediating technology, such as an
the 1990s the artist completed a suite of charcoal antenna housed on the pier in “Streetlight Storm”,
drawings entitled “Night Sky” which itself built on expands the literal range of things we live alongside,
early bodies of drawings from the 1960s and 1970s. into a new arena through which they tell a new story
All of which were drawings made from images of the or narrative. This habit of combining the quotidian
night sky gleamed from newspapers, photographs, with the cosmos is commonplace across her art; from
magazines and books (see Relyea, Gober, and Fer light bulbs to LP players and candles, the seemingly
2004). These works were not directly observed nat­ simple materials she uses, mostly manufactured or
ural phenomena, rather her interest was in how synthetic, belies a complex engagement with matter
representations of stars function. Again this can be and artefacts. These items are co-opted into playing
seen in a more recent mezzotint print from 2010 a new role, recast into an engagement with something
entitled “Falling Stars” which captures the view more profound than they were originally engineered
from a telescope of a particular moment of observa­ for. Her utilization of these materials and the pedes­
tion of the night sky. But as “The Dying Stars Letters” trian technology that they symbolize does in many of
reveals, Paterson’s approach to this subject is not her work stand, potentially, in stark opposition to the
purely representational. She does not set out to illus­ technology used to realize this data. Often the
trate the findings of astronomy but instead seeks to method of display she uses is deliberately simple, if
transform our relationship with it through an inter­ not outmoded. For instance, “History of Darkness”
vention that is both methodological and philosophi­ (2010) consists of a slide archive of images of dark­
cal. In writing a letter to address the death of a star, ness taken over a twelve-year period, the chosen form
she is proffering an alternative view from that nor­ of presentation, the slide, does not mirror the cutting
mally given in representations of stars as constella­ edge, technological innovation that is needed for the
tions, as patterned images. Here she evokes time in production of the images. These simple everyday
this presentation, as well as the fragility and finite prosaic technologies are juxtaposed against the highly
nature of the cosmos. Stars become in this approach engineered, esoteric technology that her presentation
implicitly reveals. The apparatus and findings of
astronomers and geologists which forms the subject
of Paterson’s work is then a means of aligning every­
day technology with feats of engineering usually the
preserve of the few. As Pryle Behrman notes,
Paterson uses technology to unite the “commonplace
and the cosmic” (2010, 25).
As a visual artist, this transformation is orche­
strated through a visual presentation of her subject
and whilst highly conceptual in content, her work
provides the viewer with a way of witnessing some­
thing more normatively out of reach; a means of
representing it and in so doing transforms our rela­
tionship not only with the phenomena explored but
the instruments used to articulate it.
Figure 1. Katie Paterson, All the Dead Stars, 2009 Correspondingly, the register of cosmological time
Photo © Mead Gallery Installation view, Mead Gallery, and space coalesces with the human. But the potential
Warwick Arts Centre, 2013 indivisibility between the human and the cosmos that
4 E. A. HODSON

Paterson’s work points towards is not realized the now populist approach by artists to draw not only
through the display of the artist’s personal subjective on the knowledge of the sciences but also their meth­
experience of the phenomena. Indeed, it commonly odologies and language to realize a work of art, as
functions to decentre the artist from the artwork. Larsen notes she “works like them” (2016:224 italics
This becomes most apparent when we see the occa­ in original). This mirroring of sciences’ specifications,
sional artwork that does not function in this way. For its regulations and guidelines, provides a means of
instance, as writer Lars Bang Larsen argues “Candle structuring the work, avoiding the fanciful and main­
(from Earth into a Black Hole)” (2015) (See Figure 2) taining a validity in what she expresses. Whilst this
is the most subjective of Paterson’s work (2016). For may appear to be a straightforward process of trans­
this piece a candle is infused with a series of scents lation, in which the unreachable, abstract knowledge
which are designed to evoke the planets and stars in contained within the sciences is made into material
the cosmos, with each celestial body aligned with form, in order to show the world’s sublimity, it is
a hand-picked smell, chosen by the artist to conjure under the stark minimalist presentation she employs
up her own ideas about how each should be best a subtle dialogue with science rather than is elucida­
represented. The moon, for instance, is symbolised tion. Again, it is through the juxtaposition of the
by the smell of burnt almond cookies and Jupiter by quotidian and the highly engineered that this is oper­
ammonia. As the candle burns, each smell is released ationalized. Larsen suggests this is potentially
in turn and a journey across space between the Earth a confrontation between science and its “platforms
and a black hole is olfactorily portrayed. But what is and procedures” and the domestic, which results for
critical here, as Larsen notes, is that the scents used Larsen in the admission of a “certain fragility or
by the artist are entirely arbitrary and in fact “lay bare message-ability of science” (2016, 222).
her own cultural programming” (2016, 225). There is Science’s communicative efficacy is not assured in
no scientific rationale at play here that underscores her work and Paterson presents the fault lines of our
the association of one scent over another and it is in relationship to science. Her work becomes
fact a window onto the artist’s own preferences and a serigraph to wider societal, including its technolo­
tastes. This more obvious reference to Paterson’s own gical developments and, importantly the issues our
personal perceptions is pared back and almost extin­ advancing progress raises. The role of observation is
guished across the rest of her oeuvre, where it could crucial for Paterson in teasing apart these ideas. She
be suggested that the work functions to rid the art mirrors scientific procedures through adopting their
piece of any marker of the artist herself. strategies of observation and processes of looking, but
in the presentation and display of her work she
undermines the very methods used to produce them
Scientific methodologies through failing to contextualize her findings. That is,
her work does not reinforce science’s authority. As
The displacement of the artist in Paterson’s work is Mary Jane Jacob (2016) notes, Paterson’s work shares
operationalized through her recourse to the methods with science a commitment to observation. This can
and procedures of science. This, however, is entirely be seen in her 2016 piece “Totality” (see Figure 3).
collaborative and Paterson’s work with those such as Decorating the outside of a mirror ball, which when
biologists, scientists, and geologists forms the back­ exhibited is hung from the gallery ceiling, the artist
bone of her practice. In this respect, her work typifies has covered the surface of the ball with 10,000 images
of all known solar eclipses. Ranging from early

Figure 2. 1.Katie Paterson, Candle (from Earth into a Black

Hole), 2015
Photo © Cui Junjun Exhibition view OCAT, Shanghai, 2016 Figure 3. 1.Katie Paterson, Totality, 2016
Courtesy the artist and the British Council Photo © Ben Blackall, 2016 Courtesy of the Lowry
 JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE 5

drawings to photographs from the 19th century, the foregrounded and with it the seeds for notions of
ball reveals on the gallery walls the movement of the artistic genius, which found greatest notoriety in the
moon and sun through a solar eclipse from crescent early years of the 20th century, were sowed.4 In its
to full. This collage of solar eclipses forms one image stress on the primacy of the individual, it was paired
through displaying multiple, individual representa­ with the sublime, for as Lyotard suggests “the word is
tions. In this, she has foregrounded the observations from a romantic vocabulary” (1991, 126).
of science but her presentation stops short of an Like romanticism, which Baudelaire (cited in
interpretative exposition of her findings, or indeed, Vaughan 1994) described as not belonging to an
revealing those of the experts in the field. There are object or theme but a “feeling”, the sublime was not
no analytical interpretations to accompany the visuals restricted to one style or genre but was instead sug­
she provides and instead she presents the barebones gestive of qualities or sensibilities within the work of
of what is observed without any contextual frame of art. This sensibility accords with the word’s etymolo­
reference. In this choice she deviates from imitating gical root: for sublime derives from the Latin “sub­
science’s approach and the corresponding authority limis” meaning elevated or lofty. The sublime as
that it imbues upon its subject. The apparatus that a subject reached its zenith in the 18th century, and
provides science with its legitimacy is absent and we spanned an array of disciplines, from philosophy to
are left with ideas and data that are denuded of their the sciences. It took particular hold within the arts
traditional power. The artist then is not the handmai­ and within aesthetics and literary studies (see
den of either the established tenets of science or Courtine 1993; Battersby 2007), where various itera­
technology. Instead, her work is in correspondence tions of the concept were proffered. Its relevance and
with scientific endeavor. But this correspondence is continual reappraisal has persisted apace since its
one that is mediated through particular art historical inception, moving on from classic conceptions of
concepts and categories, namely that of the romantic the Kantian sublime in the 18th century towards
sublime and conceptualism. It is this prism between contemporary technological and eco-sublime in
the heritage of romanticism and the sublime and the recent decades (see Bell 2013). The persistent rein­
technological innovation within her work we find vention of the term has for some meant it is now too
a rumination on the self as the author of the work, diffuse to be meaningful (Elkins 2011). However,
and leading on from that, to the notion of selfhood taken collectively, these iterations of the sublime
embedded within these new paradigms. This link has map the shifts in conceptions of the self through the
been further reinforced in recent years through her prism of the natural world. This can be witnessed in
2019 exhibition at Turner Contemporary in Margate, one of the earliest treatises on the subject, Edmund
in which the artist is shown alongside the great Burke’s 1757 “A Philosophical Enquiry into the
British romantic visionary JMW Turner. Here we Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful”,
see the centrality of romanticism for Paterson: it where the author abandons nature in favour of the
anchors the artist’s work whilst simultaneously allow­ experience of it, and in so doing shifts the analysis
ing her to move beyond it and suggest some­ towards the psychological.
thing new. Similarly, Kant’s theorization of the sublime,
which followed in the wake of Burke, was principally
concerned with mapping the egotistical sublime,
The romantic sublime and conceptualism
which reinforced the contention that the sublime
At its height, romanticism, circa 1780–1830, was the was not descriptive of the appearance of concrete
prevailing artistic and literary genre across Western phenomena, but instead a subjective response which
Europe.3 Its emphasis on heightened emotion, happens internally within the mind of the beholder.
through the prism of the psychological and our rela­ For Kant, this reaction is predicated on having
tionship to the natural world, was formed in opposi­ a primary first-hand experience in nature. Through
tion to the rise of modernity seen in the industrial which the individual undergoes feelings of terror and
revolution. As a backlash to the dominance of neo­ uncertainty in the face of a direct threat. But to
classicism and its measured restrained aesthetic, achieve a sense of the sublime the danger is witnessed
romanticism’s antecedents were found in the myths but not actual, and through this distance a pleasure is
and symbolism of the medieval world. From the realized. For Kant, in the recognition that we have
visionary, apocalyptic rendering of William Blake to not succumb to the risk posed by the natural world
the sublimity of J.W.M Turner, romanticism stressed there is an affirmation of our sovereignty. Thus, the
a reverence for natural landscapes alongside advocat­ sublime both evokes the limits of our comprehension
ing unbridled imaginative expressions of originality and also our ability to transcend it. Central to this
that ensured the artwork became an index of the theorization of the sublime is the role of nature in
artist’s subjectivity (see Larmore 1996; Vaughan creating this experience. In respect to art, this inter­
1994). The personal expression of the artist was pretation also ensures that works of art in themselves
6 E. A. HODSON

cannot be sublime, and are derivative only. form. Neudecker’s iteration of the sublime is even
Philosopher Emily Brady (2013) adheres to this line more removed from the natural sublime that was its
of thinking, and advocates that art cannot fully emu­ original source, but this distance is purposeful. In
late the experience of being in nature. For Brady, Neudecker’s work there is a concern with the visua­
Kantian sublimity is the most accredited and far ran­ lisation of the sublime. Paterson and Nuedecker
ging treaty on the sublime that still holds sway today. exhibited together in 2018 in an exhibition entitled
But within her writing Brady proposes Kant’s inter­ “Scaling the Sublime: Art at the Limits of landscape”,
pretation of the sublime can be understood as non- curated by Nicolas Alfrey, Rebecca Partridge and Neil
anthropocentric, based as it is on a relationship Walker, at the Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham. In the
between us and nature, in which nature is autono­ exhibition text for the show Neudecker’s work is
mous. As she says: “the core meaning of the described by Alfrey and Partridge as explicitly con­
[Kantian] sublime, as tied mainly to nature, presents cerned with the socio-cultural history of the sublime:
a form of aesthetic experience which engenders “in her work she lays out some of the processes,
a distinctive aesthetic-moral relationship between perceptions, apparatus, and conventions by means
humans and the natural environment” (2013, 3). of which landscape is constructed” (2018, 38). In
This accords with more recent thinking on the agency comparison, there is no such questioning in the
of the non-human, as seen across theories of the work of Paterson, which is more intent of revelation.
anthropocene and the posthuman more broadly. But However, in her opening essay for the exhibition
for the work of art as a second-order sublime only, catalogue Partridge designates all the work shown as
the register of the human is still ever-present. Central embodying a “critical subjectivity”. As she says:
to any discussion on sublimity in works of art then is
the contention that the sublime is a first-hand experi­ ‘It is a space built on objectivity; on looking, calcu­
lating and mapping, but which leads us to incalcul­
ence only. Whilst Brady’s position has been critiqued,
able perceptual experiences, to emotional responses
most recently by Nicola A. Hall (2020), who advo­ such as wonder or self-transcendence’ (2018, 22).
cates more ambitiously that art can potentially be
sublime through situating it as an imaginative faculty, But for Paterson’s work the applicability of this des­
it is still the argument for this paper that the sublime ignation needs to be questioned. Arguably in the case
in art is usually only indirectly given. The work of art of her work it is more accurately an emotional
is most commonly an index of the artist’s experience response of the audience to the work that Partridge
conveyed in pictorial form across the canvas. In these is referring to, not the artist’s subjectivity per se.
evocations of the sublime, the centrality of the artist Whilst a critical subjectivity is certainly apparent in
is reinforced. For however much the artist may the work of Neudecker, through her presentation of
experience a moment of transcendence in nature the social-cultural underpinnings of the sublime, it is
which forms the inspiration of their work, once sub­ misplaced in analysing Paterson and would be better
limity becomes a representation on canvas then it understood as a potential move to its negation.
speaks back to the point of origin of its expression: As the exhibition “Scaling the Sublime” attests, the
the artist themself. This is where we see a divergence sublime is still a topic that garners interest in con­
with the work of Paterson, which arguably bypasses temporary practice.5 In recent years, this interest has
the artist as the origin for the work. This is not to gathered pace but as is evident in the work of
advocate that Paterson’s artworks offer a first-hand Paterson, the contemporary sublime now is filtered
experience of the sublime but to more tentatively through the subsequent developments in contempor­
suggest that her work is symbolic of a shift in the ary art that have occurred during the twentieth and
how the natural world is engaged with in contempor­ twenty-first century. For historically the classic sub­
ary art. A shift in which the artist is no longer the lime in art as a subject was only taken up for
thread that connects the viewer to nature’s a relatively short time. Its affiliation with natural
phenomena. motifs led to it suffering the same fate as landscape
To clarify this argument we can turn to the neo- art more generally, which saw a downturn in popu­
romantic work of German artist Mariele Neudecker. larity at the beginning of the twentieth century. From
Neudecker articulates her work through the prism of which time the personal expression of the artist was
the sublime in a myriad of ways. Early in her career no longer filtered through a response to landscape
she began to reference the romantic sublime through and environment. However, as Simon Morley notes,
casting models of landscapes found in quintessential following World War II, we see a return to the search
romantic paintings, such as those by Caspar David for transcendence and awe in the abstract expressio­
Fredrich. These castings were subsequently shown in nists. Then, again in the 1980s, the sublime was
glass vitrines, filled with water as replacement air. picked up by such artists as James Turrell (Morley
The vastness of the landscape that is implied in the 2010). In more recent decades themes pertaining to
paintings is condensed down, contained in sculptural ecology and the environment through the prism of
 JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE 7

the anthropocene and climate change have once and Paterson’s work reveals these developments
again seen the sublime take centre stage, albeit whilst also reminding us of its lineage. Space is now
through a more diffuse lens. part of our landscape in a way that is distinct from its
Paterson’s artwork is heir to this trajectory and in previous conceptualisations. It has become part of
her work we see the confluence of the romantic sub­ our environment, subject to the same principles as
lime with conceptualism, in particular. Instigated in land and sea on Earth. Through scientific methods we
the 1970s, conceptualism advocated that art’s material can map, survey, enumerate and account for it.
reality was of secondary importance to the ideas that Through this the universe is no longer entirely alien
the artwork conveyed. With the theorisation of an to us and has become instead, as O’Reilly notes “a
artwork taking precedence, it was for many an oppor­ multiple of interrelated points with particular proper­
tunity to explore how far the process of artmaking ties that precipitate and participate in observable
could be discarded entirely. This approach was events” (2016). As writer Lars Bang Larsen (2016)
adopted as a way of countering the then prevailing notes, there has been a shift in how the cosmos is
authority of modernist formalism. For curator regarded through the development of technologies
Andrew Wilson (2016) this was achieved by concep­ that enable us to reach and see further. The safety
tualism through a rejection of visuality, medium spe­ of the historic sublime was premised on a largely
cificity and materiality. For each of these unreachable distance, a distance that has now been
conceptualism would proffer an alternative; a focus ruptured and correspondingly, our supremacy has
on language, everyday objects and events. As Wilson been called into doubt: “the cosmos is no longer at
suggests, the effect was the production of art that was a safe and antithetical distance to us—no longer
“not defined by its own conditions—its self referenti­ a wilderness to which astronomers turn their tele­
ality—but which drew its material and its content scopes—it is now a domain that is legislated and
from the world in which it existed and acted within” claimed” (2016, 222). The cosmos has shifted from
(2016, 53). With the process of making taking centre a place removed from us to one that is potentially
stage in presentations of work, to favour events rather governed over, and the certainty of the historical
than finished, closed objects, there was sublime that assumed our sovereignty over what
a corresponding reappraisal of how time and space was largely an imaginary space is now a relationship
were conceived and represented. As Wilson notes, in actuality. This has meant that it is now well suited
this shift from object to performance also ushered to the documentary approach so keenly used by
in a change for the art viewer who was moved from Paterson. But as Morley (2010) points out, our clas­
passive receptor to active participant. This change sificatory devices are arguably attempts at compre­
would find greatest expression in the decades that hending the cosmos only. For it is an example of
followed in participatory art of the 1980s and site- a reality too complex to fully understand, the evi­
specificity of the 1990s in which art moved out of the dence of which can only be discerned through
studio and gallery space and into the street and home. metrics. Within this new reality “the human subject
But in returning to conceptualism, we can note that disappears” (Larsen 2016, 221).
despite its claims to the contrary it did have a specific Writing on the role of the cosmos in art, curator
aesthetic that privileges a documentary style of pre­ Didier Ottinger suggests that art has gone through
sentation, which included the use of photographs as three distinct phases in its engagement with the cos­
well as presenting as art the material collected during mos: the Renaissance, the age of romanticism and
research and exploration of chosen topics. This aspect modern times (1999). The first is epitomized by
of Paterson’s work has the effect of further distancing artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and the indivisibil­
the artist herself from the work and is particularly ity of artist and scholar. The second is defined by the
effective when Paterson engages with the subject of irreconcilability between intuition and objectivity.
the cosmos. Here a conceptualist aesthetic is at play The third most recent phase is characterized by
and used in part to reinforce the work’s collaborative Ottinger as premised on the “irony generated by
association with science and science’s subjects. a scientism reduced to ‘technologism’, to the cult of
the machine” (1999, 282).6 Whilst it may seem at
firsthand that Paterson’s work speaks directly to the
The cosmological
final phase in Ottinger’s classification, this would
As a subject, the cosmos offers Paterson an opportu­ deny the persistent and enduring role that romanti­
nity to engage simultaneously with the history of cism plays in her work. For Skye Sherwin, Paterson’s
romanticism, the sublime and science. For early work follows directly in the wake of such Romantic
romantic painters such as William Blake the cosmos painter’s as Caspar David Friedrich. But for Sherwin
was an extension of the sublime landscape, terrifying this is not, then, perhaps in contradistinction to
and awe-inspiring but ultimately at the behest of the Ottinger’s proposition, oppositional to Paterson’s
human. Scientific enquiry has shifted this position use of technology. Indeed for Sherwin, her utilisation
8 E. A. HODSON

of contemporary technology does not rupture this to the moon may at first glance suggest a cynicism in
lineage but in fact supports it. In this, we can see Paterson’s regard for the romantic sublime, highlight­
a confluence of Ottinger’s second and third category ing the disconnection between the representations of
of approaches to cosmology. We can see this played a thing, in this case the musical score, and its actu­
out in her 2007 piece, “Earth-Moon-Earth ality. As Alfrey also notes, the playing back of the
(Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the musical score through a pre-programmed piano flies
Moon)” (see Figure 4). For this piece, Paterson took in the face of the stress of heighten individual expres­
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and converted into sion that underlies romanticism.
Morse code before sending it as a radio signal to Within Paterson’s piece the artwork is devoid of
the moon, from where it bounced back to Earth. In any human intentionality in its final form. Initiated
the process of transmission, the surface of the moon by the artist as an idea, its realization is left to the
interfered with the score and only sent back a partial vagaries of satellite signals and a moment in which it
recording. In the subsequent exhibition, a self- touches the surface of the moon. The appropriation
playing, pre-programmed Disklavier Grand piano of this sophisticated technology is not at the behest of
plays the new score, translating the indentations and the idea itself, and Paterson does not use it as
crafters of the moon as breaks and gaps in the music. a platform to champion our technological achieve­
In his analysis of this piece, art historian Nicolas ments. This is not then the celebration of an unfalter­
Alfrey reflects on Paterson’s choice of music. As the ing advancement of science. Alfrey offers this caveat:
epitome of romantic music, the Moonlight Sonata is “Paterson is an artist who is genuinely engaged with
an icon to this particular sensibility that has arguably scientific ideas, but she is wary of making any easy
lost its ability to invoke “authentic feeling” (2009, 8), connections between, say, the traditions of the sub­
and in making this choice, Paterson is not only enga­ lime in western art and hitherto unimaginable new
ging with the music but the wider narrative in which domains revealed in fields such as communications
it is embodied. For Alfrey, sending Beethoven’s piece technology or space research” (2009, 8). But this is
not to deny that Paterson is not herself interested in
the possibilities offered by these art historical tradi­
tions. “Earth-Moon-Earth” has been exhibited in
a number of locations, and with each the association
between the work and its possible antecedents is
heighten and made more complex, as its recent inclu­
sion in her 2019 exhibition at Turner Contemporary
attests to. Prior to this in 2008 the piece was pre­
sented at the Modern Art Gallery in Oxford, UK.
Here the artist was shown alongside the sublime
landscapes of Anselm Adams. A secondary piece
entitled “Earth-Moon-Earth (4ʹ33”)” was produced
in Japan in 2007 during which time the artist sent
a new signal to the moon. Its title suggests its associa­
tion with the composer John Cage, and as Alfrey
notes, the movement from Beethoven to Cage is tell­
ing. For him a represents a shift from “romanticism
to modernism and from a found musical object to an
avant-garde work structured by an interval of time
but entirely open to chance” (2009, 15). It is clear
from each of these iterations that Paterson’s practice
is premised on offering us an altered, transformative
version of the sublime, which I would argue is best
allied with the notion of the posthuman sublime. It is
to that I now turn.

The posthuman technological sublime

Early theorization of the posthuman sublime linked it
to the rise of technology (Lyotard 1982; Jameson
Figure 4. 1.Katie Paterson, Earth–Moon–Earth (Moonlight
Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon), 2007 1991). Cultural theorist Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe in his
Installation view, the Slade School of Fine Art, 2007 text “Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime” (1999),
Photo © Kathryn Faulkner, 2007 characterized it as the “posthuman technological
 JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE 9

sublime”. For him the role of technology is definitive releasing her art from its reliance on the intention
in the modern manifestation of the sublime. of the artist for the final form of the work. This opens
Technology has absorbed nature and unlike its pre­ up a space in which other voices can be articulated.
decessor it is potentially without end: “technology has Technology is not then the intentional agent in this
subsumed the idea of the sublime because it, whether process, as Paterson’s work demonstrates, but it
to a greater extent or an equal extent than nature, is enables the subject of the work to (potentially) bring
terrifying in the limitless unknowability of its poten­ forth its own. For instance, in 2007–2008, Paterson
tial” (1999, 128). Gilbert-Rolfe’s interpretation of the connected a live phone line to an Icelandic glacier via
new sublime comes in the wake of the work of David an underwater microphone. The piece entitled,
Nye, and his book “American Technological “Vatnajökull (the sound of)”, allowed participants to
Sublime” (1994). Nye ties this new iteration of the call a number and listen to the sounds emitting from
sublime to the rise of industrialisation in the US, inside the melting glacier itself. This explicit message
which produced awe-inspiring engineering feats that on climate change situates the work firmly within
ensured that technology replaced nature as a site of discourses on the anthropocene, and chimes with
wonder for the spectator. Nye develops a series of Davis and Turpin’s definition of the anthropocene
categorisations of the technological sublime that as being a “sensorial phenomenon: experience of liv­
speak specifically to the American context he is work­ ing in an increasingly diminished and toxic world”
ing within, culminating in the sublime of the consu­ (2015, 3). But this experience belongs to the audience
mer. In his analysis the products of our technological as viewers of the artwork and not the artist who
advancements replace nature as the foci for the view­ engineered its telling.
er’s gaze. This line of thinking retains the more clas­ We can see this disavowal or decentring of the
sic understanding of the sublime which sees artist realised even further in Paterson’s “Future
a phenomena, be it nature or technology, as its site Library” (2015–2115) (See Figure 5). Highly colla­
of origin; now artificial landscapes emanate sublimity. borative and ambitious in scale, “Future Library”
Gilbert-Rolfe’s interpretation of the new sublime will only be completed in 2115 and will outlive the
aligns with Nye’s focus on technology, but incorpo­ artist herself. For it Paterson has to date planted 1000
rates the posthuman to stress technology’s distance trees in a forest just outside Oslo in Norway. Upon
from the human. Our relationship to technology in their maturation, the trees will be felled and made
the posthuman sublime is fractured with technology
achieving a degree of autonomy from us to the extent
that we are redundant. Gilbert-Rolfe also posits that
the sublime can only now in fact be found or
expressed by technology not nature, due to the limit­
lessness of the former over the latter. Critically for
Gilbert-Rolfe, this means that there is no “single
determining form” (1999, 55) from which the posthu­
man sublime issues forth. What is central to this
manifestation of the sublime is the platform it effec­
tively gives to the non-human: it is a movement that
allows for the realization of the voice of multiple
others that are no longer relationally constituted
by us.
This is where we can see an alignment with
Paterson’s work. The posthuman sublime at work in
Paterson’s art is a pincher movement through the
coming together of the new sublime, which takes as
its subject variegated landscapes and environments
beyond human control, and the posthuman which
proposes the decentralization of the human more
broadly. This sublime enables the rejection of artistic
subjectivity as the mediating framework for the work.
The most consistent means through which this is
actualized in Paterson’s work is through the harnes­
Figure 5. 1.Katie Paterson, Future Library
sing of technology. However, technology is not Photo © John McKenzie 2015. Future Library is commissioned
a replacement for nature and in this respect it does and produced by Bjørvika Utvikling, and managed by the
not align with Nye’s interpretation of the technologi­ Future Library Trust. Supported by the City of Oslo, Agency
cal sublime. Instead, technology is instrumental in for Cultural Affairs and Agency for Urban Environment.
10 E. A. HODSON

into an anthology of books. The anthology will be Aligning Paterson’s work with the posthuman sub­
made up of a collection of writings by selected lime offers an interpretation of her work that attempts
authors, one per year, over the next hundred years. to qualify the artist’s relationship to her practice. But
Each volume will only be read once printed and this is not without its drawbacks. Like the criticism
housed in a purpose-built library in 2115, in levelled at the posthuman itself there are a number of
Norway. As this work indicates, we see in Paterson issues that this alignment raises. Perhaps the posthu­
the transformation of the role of artistic subjectivity man claims too much. In its attempt to convey alien
shifting from the person to multiple points across otherness, whether it is of the cosmos or technology
a collection of objects, materials, and networks. As itself, the self is side-lined. But this otherness is never
Nicholas Bourriaud suggests, Paterson’s work “pre­ truly adequately conveyed and there exists a residual
supposes a way of seeing that is beyond human”. And anthropocentrism that is at odds with the claims of the
whilst her work is certainly the outcome of an indi­ posthuman, and indeed, within Paterson’s work too.
vidual’s agenda and labor it also functions to move Through her work, she posits, and arguably celebrates
beyond it. The internal intention for a work of art as the potential of art to no longer be subject-centred.
an expression of an individual self, as previously How this affects our self-understanding is one reper­
conceived, does not then frame the operations cussion of her work. This, however, is not really her
through which this process occurs. aim. Instead it is more accurate to suggest that she asks
Paterson’s “Future Library” revolves around play­ us to consider how the world turns without our input.
ing with scale and time, both of which are central to This is not a nihilistic move but an acknowledgement
her articulation of the posthuman sublime (see Le that there are forces greater than us. Larsen advocates
Feuvre 2017). Again, the everyday objects she uses a similar stance in relation to Paterson. In his writing
to convey her findings are instrumental. They anchor he takes as given the rise of the anthropocene and the
the cosmos to the earth, collapsing the distance self-destructive nature of how we treat the environ­
between them. In so doing the assumed separation ment, what he terms a negative anthropology. But he
between us and the cosmos is ruptured. This is as sees within Paterson’s work what he defines as an
Tufnell (2014) notes a sensibility that underlies much intuitive suggestion which refuses to give way entirely
of the artist’s work; for whilst the object may be to this line of thinking: her work “departs from this
present before our eyes they never the less denote disintegration between anthropological and cosmolo­
something elsewhere, often not only across distances gical domains” (2016, 221).
but also time. Others, such as curator Nicholas This disintegration is kept at bay by the spectre of
Bourriaud, suggest a potentially counter reading in the self in Paterson’s work. As we have previously
relation to Paterson’s work. Invoking the writing of mentioned in relation to the piece “Candle” (2015),
art historian and cultural theorist Aby Warburg in sometimes this is a more obvious reflection on the
thinking through Paterson’s work, Bourriaud suggests artist’s own subjective feelings. But more often the
that Paterson’s use of the cosmos is akin to artist is absent entirely and instead she provides us
Warburg’s use of the term for it “represents a space the opportunity to reflect on our place in relation to
that is empty, open and receptive, a space for projec­ the phenomena she displays. Thus, the refutation of
tions. In short, the opposite of the immediacy of the person is not complete. More broadly, this is
contemporary communication, which eliminates achieved through her reliance on the historic sublime,
time and distance” (2016, 5). The ambiguity that which acts as a relational component of her work,
pervades Paterson’s work ensures that both readings and alongside conceptualism is the framework
are legitimate and can exist side by side. In this, they through which she articulates her ideas. But whilst
reflect a wider uncertainty over how our relationship setting up the sublime as a straw man to enable her to
with time and space has altered with the advent of illuminate the voice of other non-human actors, she
technology. And whilst some may suggest that never takes this to its conclusion and the shadow of
Paterson’s work reveals the unequivocal authority the artist remains. But this indeterminacy is arguably
we now have over our world and the stars, this is in the purpose of her work in which resolution is not
fact more accurately a recognition of a new relation­ the point. The power then of her work is in its ability
ship with the natural world and the cosmos beyond, to offer competing, contradictory positions that each
in which it speaks back. It has gained an authority sheds light on the other. Like theorist Donna
that it was previously lacking. With this we can Haraway (2017) in her commentary on the anthro­
clearly see a breakdown or a renegotiation in the pocene, Paterson seems to suggest that we should stay
terms that once framed the historic sublime. The with the trouble of the sublime. If the sublime is
affirmation of the human that the sublime once sup­ essentially an exercise in trying to find our place in
ported is called into question in the posthuman the landscape, then there is still much to be gained
sublime. from engaging with this aesthetic category. Have we,
 JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE 11

for instance, really abandoned the artist’s voice in dissolved across competing articulations. Paterson’s
favour of the non-human? At its best Paterson’s ability to convey the philosophical implications of
work suggests there is room for both. Haraway’s our technological advances within the realms of the
work on the anthropocene is relevant here and speaks quotidian ensures that her posthuman sublime is not
to the benefit of maintaining an equivocal stance. For the rejection of the human but something closer to its
Haraway, the anthropocene has been used as a means opening out. Not explicitly transcendent however, for
of suggesting an inevitable fate. Here Haraway evokes her work does not offer the resolution that this would
two terms to qualify and counter this: firstly, the entail.
“capitalocene”, which recognises the role that capital­
ism has played in the destruction of the planet, and
Notes
the allied power inequalities that fuel it; secondly, the
“chthulucene”, which Haraway uses to draw attention 1. The genesis of the posthuman, for Wolfe, orientates
to the earth itself and the critters that live on it as with systems theory. First articulated in the late 1950s
a way of seeing a path forward. Etymologically by Gregory Bateson, Warren McCullouch, Norbert
Wiener (see Wolfe 2010).
derived from the word “chthon”, meaning “earth” in 2. Images of Katie Paterson’s work can be viewed on her
Greek, the concept for Haraway posits a “third story, website: http://katiepaterson.org.
a third netbag for collecting up what is crucial for 3. The idiom of the sublime has been a category that has
ongoing, for staying with the trouble” (2017, 12), that been in flux since classical antiquity. First articulated
the anthropocene and capitalocene fail to provide. by the first-century Greek writer Longinus, in Peri
Hupsous, who limited to a literary style (see Guerlac
Specifically, here she suggests that we should look to
1985), it rose to prominence in the 18th century with
“multispecies stories” and their practices of living. Edmund Burke in his treatise on the subject
For the chthulucene is a call to take seriously the A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas
voice of others species and in so doing concede that of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) and following that,
humanity is part of a wider compost, in Haraway’s Immanuel Kant’s The Critique of judgment (1790).
terms. This is a means through which we “stay with 4. Romanticism was instrumental in shaping the figure of
the artist-genius, which saw a transformation from the
the trouble” that the anthropocene proposes. For her, artisan craftsman in the 18th and 19th century. An
citing the title of the book that takes this topic as its early text that instigated these ideas is Edward Young’s
subject, the inevitability that is characteristic of the Conjectures on Original Composition from 1759. As
anthropocene is entirely misleading and unwar­ Parker and Pollock state “these developing notions
ranted. We can see something of this played out reached new heights with the genesis of the
Romantic myth of the eighteenth and nineteenth cen­
across Paterson’s work, for staying with the trouble
turies when the artist not only inherited the mantle of
of the sublime is to stay with the trouble of the self. priests and became the revealer of divine truths but
The individualism that is under threat within the assumed a semi-divine status as an heir to the original
posthuman sublime is entirely warranted. This is as ‘creator’ himself” (1981). And as they go on to suggest
it should be. But Paterson’s work is also a gentle “today, to be an artist is to be born a special person;
reminder of the hurt of its entire abandonment. We creativity lies in the person not in what is made”
(ibid.). Thus, the concept of the genius for the roman­
see played out in her work the question of the role of tic sublime ensured that the artist was subjectively
the artist in the interstices between science, technol­ linked to the work they produced. And whilst this
ogy and the arts. Is the artist to be merely the spokes­ trend has both continued apace into the 20th century
person for the voice of others? Is the posthuman self with artists who are closely aligned with the traditions
to be entirely premised on its absence? of this movement, there are artists that pushed back
against the romantic sublime. Paterson is directly heir
to this lineage, and so the role of artistic subjectivity
Conclusion and how she works with and against it is directly
relevant to her practice. For an overview of the legacy
The individual artist is quelled and correspondingly on romanticism more broadly for modernism see
transformed in Paterson’s work through her ability to Cavell (1979). There are also scholars that suggest
articulate the structures and processes normally hid­ that romanticism has had a lasting influence on post­
modernism through its blurring of the distinction
den from us. In this way the register of interiority between the real and the imagined, and their focus
shifts and the artistic subjective self is dispersed and on the fragmentary nature of experience (see Bowie
reconstructed through alternative frames of reference, 1990).
most notably geological time and the space of the 5. See the Tate’s research project, The Sublime Object:
cosmos. Overall Paterson’s work functions to ques­ Nature, Art and Language, which held a summative
symposium in 2007 at Tate Britain. In addition, some
tion the role of the artist, which for her is more akin
key exhibitions include: “The Sublime Void”, Musée
to that of a facilitator for the voice of others, others des Beaux Arts, Brussels (1993); “The Big Nothing”,
which are often, increasingly, non-human. In doing the ICA in Philadelphia (2004); “On the Sublime”,
so art can no longer be pigeon-holed to a singular Guggenheim, Berlin (2007); “Various Voids:
subjective, internal, self but is realized or even A Retrospective”, Centre Pompidou (2009).
12 E. A. HODSON

6. For further literature on the cosmos in art see Clair Hall, N. A. 2020. “On the Cusp of the Sublime: Olafur
(1999). Eliasson’s Ice Watch.” Journal of Comparative
Literature and Aesthetics 43 (2): 3–21. Summer.
Haraway, D. 1985. “Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science,
Disclosure statement Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s.”
Socialist Review 80: 65–108.
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the
Haraway, D. 2017. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in
author(s).
the Chthulucene. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Hayles, N. K. 1999. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual
Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics.
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