Immersion Into the Abyss: The Experience of the Sublime In the Georgia Aquarium
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Ehsan Sheikholharam Mashhadi
Department
CACM – Architecture
Abstract
What image comes to mind when you think of an aquarium? Is it a place that you went to as a kid, sticky hands and an abject fascination with fish you called “Nemo” indiscriminately, or maybe a place that you got dragged to by your younger siblings when you could care less? But if we ask German theologian Rudolf Otto, he might express his encounter as Holy, as “mysterium tremendum et fascinans”—an experience of divinity that is both terrifying and yet enchanting. The goal of this paper is to expound on an aquarium's capacity to evoke something sacred or holy. There is a long standing connection between religion and the ocean. Constantin Jurca and Alina Burzarna-Tihenea in The Sea, Cradle of Divine Spirituality go into the many ways the ocean is intertwined with Biblical texts—the way God reveals himself through the sea. An aquarium is a space that facilitates a direct connection to the ocean. It’s also a space that is secular in nature—one that seems unlikely to hold spiritual significance. However, Julian Holloway in Make-believe: spiritual practice, embodiment, and sacred space and Mircea Eliade in The Sacred & The Profane: The Nature of Religion would argue the contrary. Even seemingly ordinary spaces can be transformed into that of the sacred through those that engage with it, but not everyone will view an aquarium as something inherently religious. Then what can be agreed upon is that an aquarium holds something sublime. Iris Murdoch in The Sublime and the Good calls to the idea that the sublime is something vast and formless—the juxtaposition of power and serenity. This paper explores the Georgia Aquarium, specifically, as a case for how it exemplifies this nature of “awe” and the “sublime” and how that relates to both the natural world and religious experience.
Disciplines
Architectural History and Criticism | Metaphysics | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Immersion Into the Abyss: The Experience of the Sublime In the Georgia Aquarium
What image comes to mind when you think of an aquarium? Is it a place that you went to as a kid, sticky hands and an abject fascination with fish you called “Nemo” indiscriminately, or maybe a place that you got dragged to by your younger siblings when you could care less? But if we ask German theologian Rudolf Otto, he might express his encounter as Holy, as “mysterium tremendum et fascinans”—an experience of divinity that is both terrifying and yet enchanting. The goal of this paper is to expound on an aquarium's capacity to evoke something sacred or holy. There is a long standing connection between religion and the ocean. Constantin Jurca and Alina Burzarna-Tihenea in The Sea, Cradle of Divine Spirituality go into the many ways the ocean is intertwined with Biblical texts—the way God reveals himself through the sea. An aquarium is a space that facilitates a direct connection to the ocean. It’s also a space that is secular in nature—one that seems unlikely to hold spiritual significance. However, Julian Holloway in Make-believe: spiritual practice, embodiment, and sacred space and Mircea Eliade in The Sacred & The Profane: The Nature of Religion would argue the contrary. Even seemingly ordinary spaces can be transformed into that of the sacred through those that engage with it, but not everyone will view an aquarium as something inherently religious. Then what can be agreed upon is that an aquarium holds something sublime. Iris Murdoch in The Sublime and the Good calls to the idea that the sublime is something vast and formless—the juxtaposition of power and serenity. This paper explores the Georgia Aquarium, specifically, as a case for how it exemplifies this nature of “awe” and the “sublime” and how that relates to both the natural world and religious experience.