Opus

Encyclopædia of the sublime

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Hashima Island

Hashima Island is an island off the coast of Nagasaki in southwest Japan. Coal mines operated on Hashima from the 1890s, and at one point in time it was the most densely populated place in the world. At its peak, over 5000 miners lived with their families on an island measuring just over a kilometre long and half as wide, working in mines at depths of up to 660m. When the mine closed there was no reason for anyone to reside here, and in the early 1970s the entire island was abandoned, leaving the structures and contents to rot.

Lost Illusions

Lost Illusions reveals, perhaps better than any other of Balzac's ninety-two novels, the nature and scope of his genius. The story of Lucien Chardon, a young poet from Angoulême who tries desperately to make a name for himself in Paris, is a brilliantly realistic and boldly satirical portrait of provincial manners and aristocratic life. Handsome and ambitious but naïve, Lucien is patronized by the beau monde as represented by Madame de Bargeton and her cousin, the formidable Marquise d'Espard, only to be duped by them. Denied the social rank he thought would be his, Lucien discards his poetic aspirations and turns to hack journalism; his descent into Parisian low life ultimately leads to his own death.

Cymatics

Cymatics is the study of visible sound vibration and shows the transformational nature of sound and matter. Sound guides us and shapes us, yet is an intangible force. We can capture sound in the digital realm where we can see waveforms. But, that only gives us a 2D view. The world of cymatics, however, gives us a different view and provides a major evolution in our understanding of how sound affects all of us. Cymatics gives validity to the fact that everything that we perceive as hard objects, including our bodies, are actually continuously vibrating at their own rates. This study clearly merges the fields of sound, geometry, light and mathematics into one through the presentation of stunning images created by frequencies of all kinds found in our bodies, in nature and beyond.

Hanno

In early 16th century Rome, at the height of the Italian Renaissance, when artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo thrived in the Holy City, the decadent court of Pope Leo X was a place where visitors could find pleasures and entertainment more exotic than anything they had previously imagined. Among the Pope's great joys was his menagerie of exotic animals, and the prize of his collection was an Indian elephant named Hanno, presented to him by the King of Portugal. This elephant - trained to kneel, dance, weep, and trumpet on command - led parades and entertained at public festivals and was commemorated in paintings, poetry, and sculpture. For Romans, Hanno became the preeminent symbol of the alluring Orient; for Pope Leo's detractors, the elephant became a symbol of Roman corruption.