This one day conference will focus on the ways in which the Sublime is re-emerging as a significant aesthetic and ethical category in the 21st century, as profound planetary and social changes force us to re-imagine our relation to the non-human and also to the Earth itself. Contributors will explore new genres of the Sublime by drawing on philosophy, Earth Sciences, and the critical humanities (including decolonial and feminist film theory), as well as cinema, television and the visual arts.

The Sublime emerged as a dominant category of aesthetic praise in the 18th century, and was linked to an appreciation of the immense power of nature, especially in its most terrifying and infinite aspects. This conference will explore the intersections between the Sublime and the Anthropocene, defined as the epoch during which human influence has become a key determinant in material changes on planet Earth and its atmosphere, as well as to the life systems and peoples that the Earth supports. The event will look at ways in which the Sublime operates as an aesthetic category across fine art, film, television and visual media, finding its traces in the construction of place: from the specificity of the Cornish Sublime to the presentation of Earth as a totality in views from outer space. The day will explore the re-emergence of the Sublime in contemporary science fiction, from the construction of the radically unfamiliar in the form of UFOs, to the filmic re-figuring of transcendence, infinity and materiality presented by female characters in contemporary cinema.

In the opening plenary, 'The Sublime of the Sea: From the Infinity of Surface to the Oceans of the Anthropocene', Dr Christine Battersby will explore the origins of the notion of the Anthropocene in the Earth Sciences and the dating of its onset to 1952, alongside classical (18th and 19th century) portrayals of the Sublime. Using examples taken from the visual arts, alongside philosophical analyses of the Sublime, Dr Battersby will outline changes in how we represent infinity, the unbounded, the'awful' and also the unimaginable, especially in relation to ocean depths and the surfaces of the Earth's lakes and seas. The anti-Sublime of plastic detritus and dissolving life forms will also feature in her account.

The afternoon session pursues a different strand in debates around the Anthropocene, following the work of critical humanities scholars who argue that we need to connect anthropogenic climate change to the colonisation of the Americas. In 'Decolonising the Sublime', Dr Rachel Jones will draw on excerpts from Daniel Maximin's essay, 'Les fruits du cyclone' (2006) to ask to what extent the Sublime is bound up with a colonising logic and whether and how it might be de-colonised. Like Dr Battersby, Dr Jones will look back at the history of the Sublime in key 18th century texts as well as at 20th and 21st century re-workings that foreground race, ethnicity and issues relating to the transatlantic slave trade.

The day will feature research conducted within Film and Television Studies, some of which engages directly with the Sublime as a concept, including Laurence Kent on Deleuze and the Sublime in Cinema, and Professor Catherine Constable on the gendered presentation of the Sublime in 2001 and Gravity. Other papers will explore material that resonates with key themes of the day, including Dr Rachel Moseley on 'The Cornish Sublime', Dr Tiago de Luca, who will link the pictorial presentation of the Earth as a totality to the Anthropocene, and Jake Edwards, whose work addresses the conceptual and aesthetic challenges posed by UFOs.

Structure

9.30-11.00 Welcome and opening plenary in room A0.26: ‘The Sublime at Sea: From the Infinity of Surface to the Oceans of the Anthropocene’ Christine Battersby.

11.00-11.30 Coffee break.

11.30-13.00 Panel session I in room A0.26: ‘The Cornish Sublime’ Rachel Moseley, ‘Organs Become Metaphysical: Deleuze’s Sublime Cinema and the Contingency of Thinking’ Laurence Kent, ‘Reading the Unidentifiable: The Case of Ufology’ Jake Edwards.

13.00-14.00 Lunch.

14.00-15.30 Workshop in room A1.27: ‘Decolonising the Sublime’ Rachel Jones.

15.30-16.00 Tea with cake.

16.00-17.15 Panel session II in room A1.27: ‘Totalities and Transcendence in Contemporary Cinema’ Tiago del Luca and Catherine Constable.

NB: Places for the day are limited to 25. Please contact Catherine Constable (c.a.e.constable@warwick.ac.uk) for further information.This event is funded by The Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts and The Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability.