The ideology of erotic sounds quite familiar to us, since we've experienced and experimented on this concept for the entire term last term in design studio, but now, we're introduced to the erotic once again, in a different light, in the world of theory. "Erotic is not the excess of pleasure but the pleasure of excess" is a term used by Colletti to describe the nature of erotic in the book, "Ornamental Pornamentation" and surprisingly, many theories that we've learnt can also be linked to the idea of erotic in their own way. Firstly, to define exactly what is "erotic" is a difficult task, as erotic's aim to "stimulate" and "impact" us, however, we as individuals response differently to different things - however, as a general rule, most of us should be able to be "affected" by a "phenomena" that erotic created. One of the most clear descriptions of the theory of the erotic is that erotic delivers the "sublime". The sublime expressed the idea of a "delightful horror", a sort of feeling that is similar to as if you came back from death - that moment of awe and delightfulness would create a vivid, perhaps exuberance experience. Notice the usage of the word, "experiences" - like how many other theories linked together, the erotic also linked to the idea of how we perceive the world around us, about our perception and the level of "erotic" depends on our personal choice and how some particular phenomena can create an array of different effects that speaks to us the most.
One of the newest example of the concept of erotic we were given is the film "Fight Club", underneath the outer layer of the fights and violence. the concept of the film can be linked to the theory of erotic with ease. The story is about a man who was bored with his boring mundane life, working his life as a "recall specialist" - to the point that it has became so predictable, that he felt that he is living in hypereality where he is longing to "feel" the emotions, to "taste" the essence of being "alive". Hence, he tried several ways, from faking to be a cancer victims and attended cancer meetings in the hope of tasting the raw emotions of people, experiencing the so-called "sublime" moment of the cancer patients - however he realized that all he could do was to be an "observer", he still couldn't reach the feeling of "being alive" until he entered into the realm of "Fight Club" where the ideology of this secret club was basically a place for working-class people to fight - releasing their stress and in return, feeling alive. Nevertheless, the story escalated into the peak when even fighting in an enclosed club is too predictable and thus, starting a fight with total strangers would be the only moment where the idea "sublime" is being recreated as with the concept that "if you haven't started a fight ,you haven't really live", hence you could see the linkage of the theory of erotic and the essence of being "alive" - that delight fullness and contentment which were a key that tie the idea of the sublime with the theory of erotic and accordingly; the film. To explain more, it's like that Fight club is a place that could create those sublime moments - the moment where you fight with all your might and survived to live life - that is the moment of the sublime, which is where, according to the theory, when the readers experienced and unforgettable experience that stimulated their senses and challenge their understanding of erotic. Thus, the theory of erotic linked to many other theories that we've study earlier since "erotic" plays directly to our reactions and responses - which relates to our perceptions and how we interpret phenomena , how we take in these "effects" - how we are moved / provoke by a particular aesthetics such as textures etc. All of these can be considered as belonging in the realm of erotic. The erotic is ambiguous yet inviting, it is mysterious yet it engages with the audience in the order to maximize the phenomena being created for the maximum effect on the observers. Nevertheless, one conclusive "label" that we could use to label such broad and ambiguous ideology of erotic is the "sublime".
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