Normality and enhancement, reminded me of the artist Vincent Van Gogh, who is quoted on writing: “La normalité est une route pavée : on y marche aisément mais les fleurs n’y poussent pas.” (Normality is a well-paved road; it is good for walking – but no flowers will grow) and how Normality is only normal as long as we, as human beings identify it as normal. Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings (Above, is “Road Running Beside the Paris Ramparts, 1887”) always illustrates glimpses, with bold brushwork and symbolism in colours, something rather modern for his time. I consider this, and wonder, will what we call enhancement today, be the normality, in fifty years time?
If we consider the Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, it introduced a whole new genre, the Science fiction, which today is nothing particularly special as a genre.
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2 Comments on "The Normality and Van Gogh"
I loved your example from classic art – it shows how real art have always functioned as a way of broadening our perception, and therfore as a prosthesis for our principles related to normality and abnormality. It would also be ineresting to mention Spanish barroque painter, Diego Velazquez, who painted not only court or royal family, but also enjoyed painting the dwarfs, jesters and other people that was jumping out from the limits of the “normal”. In this way he introduced the “ugly” adn “unpleasant” as an art and aethetic category.