Meg Campbell 1908015 YR2 Art Blog

 Sympathetic Magic Pitt Rivers Museum - Oxford Links used to find and learn about the exhibit: https://romanmagic.wordpress.com/2016/06/10/magic-the-pitt-rivers-museum-a-reflection/ https://guerillaarchaeology.com/resources/witches-magic-and-medicine-pitt-rivers-museum/ https://romanmagic.wordpress.com/2016/06/10/magic-the-pitt-rivers-museum-a-reflection/ https://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/england/englishness-Object-biographies-details.html The sympathetic magic exhibition is a collection of artefacts from around the world used in rituals of magical or spiritual nature. The collection was put together by General Augustus Pitt Rivers and was donated to Oxford University. T he  Pitt Rivers Museum   is a free, public display space incorporating the 18,000 or so archaeology, anthropological and ethnographic objects donated to Oxford University by  General Augustus Pitt Rivers   and, subsequently, thoroughly expanded to over half a million individual objects....

 Wunderkammer -  The Curio Cabinet https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/272 Wunderkammern , or cabinets of curiosities, arose in mid-sixteenth-century Europe as repositories for all manner of wondrous and exotic objects. In essence these collections—combining specimens, diagrams, and illustrations from many disciplines; marking the intersection of science and superstition; and drawing on natural, manmade, and artificial worlds—can be seen as the precursors to museums.  Interesting writing  work found: https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/trails/wunderkammer-cabinet-of-curiosities Wunderkammer  is literally translated from German as a 'room of wonder'. In English it is usually referred to as a 'Cabinet of Curiosities'. Many  Wunderkammer  originated in royal treasuries, where the crown jewels and items of regalia were housed with other items of value for safekeeping. However, the idea of a  Wunderkammer  was fully born in the sixteenth ce...

 The Uncanny https://www.freud.org.uk/2019/09/18/the-uncanny/ One hundred years ago, Sigmund Freud wrote his paper on ‘ The Uncanny ’ (Das Unheimliche). His theory was rooted in everyday experiences and the aesthetics of popular culture, related to what is frightening, repulsive and distressing. The paper tackles the horrific concepts of inanimate figures coming to life, severed limbs, ghosts, the image of the double figure(doppelgaengers) and lends itself to art, literature and cinema. In the second part, Freud begins to tackle people, things, self-expressions, experiences and situations that best represent the uncanny feeling. Freud’s paradigm example is the short story of  E.T.A. Hoffmann’s ‘The Sandman’ , a tale that parents would tell their children to encourage them to go to sleep. The story goes that the child must be asleep for the Sandman to put sand in the child’s eyes – if they are not asleep, the Sandman will take out their eyes. The protagonist is a boy named...

  Myths, FolkLore and Fairy Tales When looking for inspiration I tried to be loose with how I found it. That being said, I drew a lot of inspiration from Folklore and mythology to create an interesting and built up world within my art that may or may not be seen from the surface. I love the idea of the whimsical and beautiful, as well as these things eventually being peoples downfall.  The Fae https://faefolk.weebly.com/lesson-1-1.html The fae folk or faeries or simply Fey, are creatures with magical ability. Now they don't all just spontaneously combust into magic, mind. Some have blatant supernatural powers (changelings, sirens, domovoy). Others are magical solely by their very existence (giants, trolls, ogres). But there is no denying the fact that most faeries are closely linked to the magical powers imbued by nature. That is perhaps why the elemental classifiers exist. Faeries are referred differently across the world. In Western Europe, they are "faeries," "the...

 Alchemy and the Occult Alchemy https://www.britannica.com/topic/alchemy Alchemy , a form of speculative  thought  that, among other aims, tried to transform base metals such as lead or copper into silver or  gold  and to discover a cure for disease and a way of extending life. Alchemy was the name given in Latin Europe in the 12th century to an aspect of thought that corresponds to  astrology , which is apparently an older tradition. Both represent attempts to discover the relationship of  man  to the cosmos and to exploit that relationship to his benefit. The first of these objectives may be called scientific, the second technological. Astrology is concerned with man’s relationship to “the stars” (including the members of the solar system); alchemy, with terrestrial nature. But the distinction is far from absolute, since both are interested in the influence of the stars on terrestrial events. Moreover, both have always been pursued in the belief...

 Robert Fludd https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/learning/hunterianassociates/robertfludd/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Fludd Robert Fludd , Fludd also spelled  Flud,  Latin  Robertus De Fluctibus , (born 1574, Bearsted, Kent, Eng.—died Sept. 8, 1637, London), British physician, author, and mystical philosopher remembered for his occultist opposition to  science . The son of Sir Thomas Fludd, he studied at St. John’s College, Oxford, before traveling in  Europe  for six years. On his return to Oxford he earned medical degrees (1605) and joined the College of Physicians (1609). He eventually became a prosperous  London  doctor. Most of Fludd’s writings represent the  culmination of the occult, as distinct from the scientific, tendencies of the 17th century. Deriving his ideas from such   diverse   sources as the   Old Testament , the Jewish Kabbala,   alchemy , astrology, sympathetic magic, and chiromancy, ...