Phobia: Collecting in the History of Fear

Upon entering the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons in Bird Library, I was totally taken back by the group of people who had come to see the lecture entitled, "Phobia: Collecting in the History of Fear." Besides myself and about five other CAS 100 students, who were casually dressed in shorts and tee-shirts, the other fifty or so people in attendance were mainly elderly couples dressed to a tee; suits for the men and fancy skirts and tops for the ladies. After getting over this initial shock, I took a seat in the second to last row and prepared to listen to the upcoming speech by pulling out my notebook and a pen. As I was doing this, a woman (I forgot her name because I could not get my pen out in time) came to the podium and intoduced Sean Quimby, a librarian who will teach a class next year called "American Fear." Dressed in a pin-stripped suit, Mr Quimby, who appeared to be much younger than I expected the speaker to be, then gave a brief speech and powerpoint about Fear. In doing so, he told a couple jokes, that to me were lousy attempts at humor, but to the elderly in attendance were histerical, considering they all laughed quite loudly.

Regarding the information contained in his presentation, the lecture was actually kind of interesting. Using fear as his main point, Mr. Quimby started out by describing how fear evolves as one grows up: "It starts with the boogey-man, evolves to phobias of such things as spiders, then becomes the fear of being isolated." From this he refered to Charles Darwin, whose studies proved that fear is a raw emotion, prevalent in animals the same way it is prevalent in humans. Mr. Quimby discussed numerous books about fear in his lecture as well. Two of which were "Culture of Fear" and "Fear, a Cultural History." "Culture of Fear" talked about the trend of Americans to be afraid of the wrong things, such as black men and teenage pregnancy, while "Fear, a Cultural History" touched upon the ability of Americans to become easily rattled at thoughts of apocolyptic disasters. It was after discussing these books that Quimby told the audience the two main trends in American fear: "A dogged invasion followed by captivity" and "a therapeutic future." Using Osrson Well's broadcast of "War of the Worlds" as an example of Americans' fear of invasion, an audio sample of the broadcast was played through the speakers in the room. Many of the elderly people in attendance laughed at this playing, while I found it amazing that people actual believed they were being invaded by aliens at the time of its original broadcast. Another example used to portray this fear of invasion was the story of Sacco and Vanzetti. Two Italian immigrants who were arrested becuase they were believed to be communists. By using numerous examples and sources to describe "fear" Mr. Quimby took a reasonably common word and emotion and looked at it in a very scientific and interesting way.

Binh Danh Exhibit

After visiting the Bihn Dahn exhibit at the Light Work Gallery, I must say that I found the "One Week's Dead" collection to be completely fascinating. The faint faces of the dead soldiers ingrained in the plants, grass, and leaves were, on the surface, kinda creepy. However, after looking at the pieces for a little bit longer, I realized that it all made perfect sense; the plants, grass, and leaves resemble the terrain upon which, the soldiers fought and died during the Vietnam War. Regarding our current times, the photos of the soldiers killed during the Vietnam War are eerily similar to the photos of the soldiers that have died in Iraq; they are mostly young men who were taken way to prematurely. Therefore, Dahn's works will always have significance in society because they "Remind us that wars may end, but they are never over" (Laura Guth, Assistant Director Light Work). Susan Sontag would probably agree with my impression of Binh Danh's exhibit because she states, "Photographic images are pieces of evidence in an ongoing biography or history." Meaning, as long as there are wars, there will always be photos and works like those of Binh Danh. What's more, Sontag states that, "The camera makes exotic things near, intamate." This is definitely true regarding Dahn's work becuase no matter how "exotic" or unkown the dead soldiers in the pieces are to viewers, intimacy and emotion just jump out at you while looking at Dahn's works of art.

Art

Art is a word used to describe a creation, whether it be a painting, poem, song, film, sculpture, etc., that brings about an emotional response in both the creator and the viewer. One such piece of art is the Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down) by Jean Leon Gerome. In this famous oil painting, a battle-worn gladiator stands over his defeated opponent as he looks towards the numerous fans in the stands giving the dreaded thumbs down, as if to give the order, "KILL HIM!" Combined with the gritty, dark mood of the piece, the meaning of the thumbs down brought upon me an immediate feeling of dread and dispair the first time I layed me eyes on it; perhaps exactly what the illustrator was trying to display. That first encounter with this glorious work of art was back in seventh grade while scimming through my history textbook. Still to this day, whenever I feel as though I am having a bad day, I search for the Pollice Verso online to see how minor my problems are compared to those of the defeated gladiator whose fate lies in the hands (thumbs) of the crowd.


Like my definiton of art, de Duve states that, "Your dealings with art have the nature of a love relationship. And just as you need no theory of woman to love a woman, or of man to love a man, you need no theory of art to love art." In other words, de Duve, like myself, is saying that an unconscious emotional tie is created when one views a work of art; much like when one falls in love. Furthermore, de Duve goes on to say that, "If at this point someone asks you to define art, it is with your taste and your personal feelings that you will answer." This is due impart becuase if one does not experience that emotional tie with a certain piece of work, then that piece should not be considered art to the emotionally untied individual.