astonishing-hme

[astonishing-hme]

Example 6-10

6.INFLORESCENCES, 2023 by Sabrina Ratté

INFLORESCENCES 2023 - Sabrina Ratté (sabrinaratte.com)

The artist intersperses highly reflective countertops into the mountains, causing confusion in the viewer's recognition system of "natural environment" and "man-made environment", resulting in emotions of confusion and surprise. The high saturation of neon light and the low saturation of dark colours of the mountains blur each other's visual perception. The composition of the scene is impossible to realise, but the materiality of the main objects in the picture (the table top, the mountain and the water) is so realistic that the viewer is forced to maintain his/her own observation and analytical skills at all times while experiencing the work, thus creating a psychological impact.

7.The Marisfrolg Campus

Marisfrolg Campus Shenzhen, China by Van Brandenburg | ArchiPro NZ

Building architecture is usually regarded as unalive matter, however, this piece of architecture is inspired by a bird with spreading wings, unifying the life force of living creatures into a building beyond the expectation of visitors. The overlapping floors and irregular windows create a sense of closure and oppression, while the sharp eaves, like the skeleton of the bird's wings, are open, and the two opposing atmospheres contribute to an amazing tension of ultimate confrontation.

8.White Pocket, Arizona

28 Photos of White Pocket, Arizona That Will Blow Your Mind! – Wandering Wheatleys

White Pocket Cliff is a rock with a pattern like a human brain, yet its shape undulates with the mountain. Unlike common mountain rocks, there is no visible plant growth in the vicinity, and the whole thing is connected, giving people a sense of huge volume. Whether man-made or natural landscape, polyhedra like this are rarely seen in life, making it difficult to reason through common sense, strange and shocking.

The Dragon’s Blood Tree in Socotra, Yemen

'Lost world' of Socotra, a remote island with plants up to 20 MILLION years old - Short News Web

The structure of a tree, the shape of a mushroom. Not only does it conflict with common sense, but it is also beyond what the average person's knowledge of biology can reason. The dense and cylindrical shape of the branches is also contrary to the thin ends of other trees.

10.Sagrada Família by Antoni Gaudí

File:Spain Sagrada Familia.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

La Sagrada Familia | Dan on the Danube (wordpress.com)

Its dome is more elongated than the average church, and the sculptures of the figures on the façade are more densely packed than in other churches. The shape of the load-bearing columns reminds visitors more of plant stalks than of church columns. All these "variations" provide visitors with a novel viewing experience.

[astonishing-hme]

Example 1-5

1.Vitra Design Museum Weil am Rhein, Germany

Vitra | Vitra Design Museum

The building evokes a feeling of shock to visitors by breaking the conventional perception of architectural design, such as "solid", "composed of regular shapes", "vertical lines" and "standing still static". The designers use curved lines and tilted angles to create a set of polymeric polyhedra that mimic a sense of floating, reminding the viewer of the visual identities of 'messy' and 'tipping'. When the "irregularity" that the viewer receives during the viewing process clashes with the notion of "museum architecture should be..." that exists in the mind before viewing, astonishing experience therefore happens. therefore happens.

2.The stage design for Giuseppe Verdi's opera "A Masked Ball”(1999-2000)

Bregenzer Festspiele: Vom Totenkopf zum Clownskopf – und zurück - Bregenzer Festspiele 2019 - news.ORF.at

The stage design firstly achieves visual impact by enlarging the props to an extraordinary size. In addition, the mottled giant black skeleton looks down on the actors from above, alluding to the coming of death, causing fear and trembling in the onlookers. At the same time, the combination of a book and water is a combination rarely seen in everyday life, which also inspires a sense of novelty in the audience.

3.Stage design inspired by La Mort de Marat

Bregenzer Festspiele: Vom Totenkopf zum Clownskopf – und zurück - Bregenzer Festspiele 2019 - news.ORF.at

The statue's expression has been altered from the original painting's "calmly closed eyes" to "horrified eyes", creating suspense, including frightening speculation. The messy candlesticks, tumbled books and crooked frames hint at the unexpected and chaotic, evoking the audience's nervousness about unpredictable times. The design also breaks with conventional imagery of the stage by splitting the performance space into small book-like platforms and staircases, making the sculpture itself the visual focal point rather than the actors.

4.Futurs Spéculaires by Sabrina Ratté

Sabrina Ratté — Arsenal Contemporary Art

By creating a confusion of material features, the designer confuses the reader and creates a shock of perception. For example, the wreckage of a car that is not smooth metal but reflects bright light, and the ground that looks like paper but has the specular reflective qualities of water. In addition, the wasteland and the wreckage, which are obviously the standard features of wasteland punk, are painted in bright, light and clean colours, so that the viewer receives constant neuronal stimulation in a contradictory way.

5.Undream by Sabrina Ratté

UNDREAM 2018 - Sabrina Ratté (sabrinaratte.com)

The artist intersperses highly reflective countertops into the mountains, causing confusion in the viewer's recognition system of "natural environment" and "man-made environment", resulting in emotions of confusion and surprise. The high saturation of neon light and the low saturation of dark colours of the mountains blur each other's visual perception. The composition of the scene is impossible to realise, but the materiality of the main objects in the picture (the table top, the mountain and the water) is so realistic that the viewer is forced to maintain his/her own observation and analytical skills at all times while experiencing the work, thus creating a psychological impact.

[astonishing-hme]

Define “Astonishing”

“Astonishing” is used to describe events or behaviors that “cause great surprise or amazement”(Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Rather than other pure emotions, astonishment is more like an condition when people lose their self-control after “epistemic failure” happen; On valence, astonished experience preferred to be neutral due to it can caused by both positive and negative events(Agnès.C, Laure.L, 2017).

Methodologies trigger astonishment at two aspects, either“from the first the products seem unfamiliar to the user”, or “where first perception of the product as familiar is proved wrong on closer inspection”. For example, sensory incongruity is designed to contribute unexpected feeling, hence encourage audience to explore the object (Ludden et al 2007). As one type of knowledge emotions, surprise is regarded as “High Novelty, Complexity, Unfamiliarity”, approaching “Confusion” and “Interest” emotions within a relative range (Silvia et al 2009).

Reference List:

"astonishing." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2023.

Web. 29 Jul 2023.

Celle, Agnès, and Laure Lansari. Expressing and Describing Surprise. Ed. Agnès Celle and Laure Lansari. Amsterdam ;: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017. Print.

Ludden, Geke D.S., Hendrik N.J. Schifferstein, and Paul N.J. Hekkert. “Surprising the Senses.” The senses & society 2.3 (2007): 353–362. Web.

Silvia, Paul J. “Looking Past Pleasure: Anger, Confusion, Disgust, Pride, Surprise, and Other Unusual Aesthetic Emotions.” Psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts 3.1 (2009): 48–51. Web.