Modelling for catastrophe

This exegesis, Modelling for Catastrophe, examines one of the greatest catastrophes in all fiction. Art has a tradition of producing images of this catastrophe that Christians call hell. Where art involves an interrogative process this exegesis replies to that Christian tradition with an attempt to answer the question, what is hell? Evidence suggests that ideas of hell emerged in an extremely stressful period of history when humans were overawed by supernaturalist explanations of the world. This was a period when many humans imagined that they were at the mercy of omnipotent, judgemental and punitive Gods. In the medieval period Dante Alighieri and Hieronymus Bosch identified hell as a stressful, fearful environment of punishment for errors/sins related to paganism, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, fraud, treachery and violence. The research presented here has identified, by other than supernatural means, some fundamental components of hell such as catastrophising, accompanied by unwanted intrusive thoughts that are a result of raised levels of cortisol in the bloodstream. Furthermore, hell is an environment controlled by psychopaths. The following studio research documents a metacognitive process regarding ideas of hell and associated images. Research has been presented in three parts. Firstly there is an illustrated text titled Letters from hell. These letters are a response to Dante’s divine comedy Inferno. These letters give an intimate, micro temporal account of catastrophising and intrusive thoughts in a psychopathically controlled environment. Letters form hell offers a background to all later studio research while investigating personal experiences of hell including its history, experiences of child abuse, religious stories, nationalist history, television, a dysfunctional workplace and malignant positioning associated with the imagined community that Christians call hell. A bound illustrated copy of Letters from hell will accompany an exhibition of a second part of the research project. The second part of this research has involved the construction of artworks that are collectively titled Catastrophising, intrusive thoughts, raised levels of cortisol in the bloodstream and psychopathy in hell. These photographs, that I call Catastrographs, and a model, titled Invisible Community, painstakingly reproduce intrusive thoughts/images that have typically accompanied episodes of catastrophising in a psychopathically controlled environment, a contemporary hell. The third part of this research is an exegesis titled Modelling for Catastrophe. This offers a detailed investigation of a neuro-scientific basis for the earlier mentioned personal, intimate body of artwork. It offers an explanation of what hell is from a contemporary perspective. This research investigates hell in regard to catastrophising, intrusive thoughts and raised levels of cortisol in the bloodstream in a psychopathically controlled environment. This exegesis investigates the possibility that Christian imaginings of hell, as documented by Dante Aligheri’s illustrated text Inferno and many paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, were the result of cognitive disorders and neurological processes that are currently perceived as symptomatic of some brain injuries and dreadful illnesses.