Research into 'Sublime'

Websites to note: 

• http://www.thetutorpages.com/tutor-article/fine-art/the-photographic-sublime/3976
• http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/julian-bell-contemporary-art-and-the-sublime-r1108499
• http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/julian-bell-contemporary-art-and-the-sublime-r1108499
• https://www.ephotozine.com/article/how-to-depict-the-sublime-with-your-photography-16562
• https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/landscape-and-the-sublime

1)

Below show Julien Breton, a french artist who uses compelling light painting to create these beautiful abstract calligraphy passages written in Arabic or French. They are very curved and extravagant, using different thickness of strokes to represent the sublime. This would influence my font design when considering overlaying of letters and exquisite serifs.

See: http://culturenlifestyle.com/post/125081985240/sublime-calligraphy-photography-by-julien-breton

2) 

The contemporary sublime vs eighteenth century sublime is an interesting development when considered the gothic sublime of the latter. In Luke White's essay he touches on 'the return of the repressed', the rising of the (un)dead and 'movie-monsters'. In this context the typeface I create could enter more a more gothic stylistic approach, inline with eighteenth century trends. 

3)

"The sublime is at the heart of our dealings with our environment, defined by a paradoxical combination of ecstasy and dread, it is a sensation occasioned by anything which triggers an awareness of ones own impotency, followed by what eighteenth century philosopher Edmund Burke termed ‘delight’ in the knowledge of safety from the source. It is a sensation, ‘Deeply bound up with our instinct for self-preservation.’ As such, it describes one of the most innate aesthetic judgements, which is core to our understanding of human frailty."

The article "The Photographic Sublime" touches on really interesting points of phenomenon. The author writes; "Kant’s definition of the sensation is the premise that it can only be experienced through a direct interaction with the environment, and that environment must be purely natural". Key deductions can be taken from this, such that my type should replicate natural structures. This could be things like the spiral of the Fibonacci sequence or sacred geometric curves and lines. This could be interesting routes to follow when considering a typeface for 'sublime'.

Below are all pictures of sacred geometry as well as examples of its existence in nature. By taking certain shapes and spirals that appear here, and applying them to my type, I could find a way to incorporate "the sublime..at the heart of...our environment" into the typeface itself.