Andreas J. Pratama

In the 18th century Philosopher and aesthetic thinker Immanuel Kant tried to distinguish a difference in aesthetic visual stimuli. The emotional feedback and the aesthetic experience is a formless sensation that one may or may not have a realization on. Notably because it is notoriously difficult to put into words. The French then came up with the term Je Ne Sais Quoi or translated into English would mean “I don’t know what”. This proves that there are areas in which aesthetic experience can be fleeting and utterly describable.

Immanuel Kant in his book “Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime” tried to set apart two different sources of these aesthetic concept. One being the beautiful and the other is the sublime. How does one distinguish beautiful and the sublime? For that to happen then one must venture to the understanding of Apollonian and Dionysian way of appreciating worldly events.

The two Greek God figures Apollo and Dionysus are representative of two separate ways of thinking. Apollo in his calm nature represents rational and cool-headed thinking. In war, for example, Apollo would be the strategist who would set out to expel his aggression if and only if the right strategy has been thought of. Dionysus however, is a God of debauchery, of party and drunkenness. In his stead, an aesthetic experience should be one that is overpowering, grand, infused with overwhelming experience. From these, are the two distinction of aesthetic experience: one that should project aesthetic pleasure by means of observation and contemplation while the other is a sharp attack on the senses that they become irrefusable.

So we have the two distinctions laid out before us already, how do they look in visual form?


Larry Mohr. 1980. Orbits X (Abstract Ribbon) Vs Vistas of Grand Canyon

Consequently, the art on the left is an abstract shape, this requires a longer time of pondering. This statue for example requires the audience to really ponder on the sense of movement, in this case trails left behind by the ribbons. What object passes through it? Its sense of weight. The trajectory it’s making, its energy. All of those considerations can be made only when our mind is under calm and imaginative state. While Grand Canyon vistas is right out of the box appear grand and should be non-negotiable as it is. Whoever comes across it will be vortexed into its ‘wow’ factor. This instantaneous response is intoxicating, therefore the comparison to Dionysian characteristic.

These are the two distinguishable character in a glance of what Immanuel Kant believed to be the distinction of apollonian and Dionysian quality in aesthetic experience. Dionysian quality is leaning towards the sublime (quality and scale of bigger and more powerful than the size of a human being) and will therefore wow audience with its grand scale and should break any barriers of the aesthetically insensitive. Apollonian however will reveal its aesthetic quality only to those who are sensitive to the stimuli this arguably is a lot harder to understand but not impossible with some training.