hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/05/26/s...
07.03.2026 10:50
👍 1
🔁 1
💬 0
📌 0
Contemporary art, religion & glamour appear to share a common perceptual mode:
A tendency to experience culturally framed things as intrinsically significant & aura-like when mystique is preserved.
That tendency is hagioptasia.
Contemporary art theory functions less like explanation & more like a priesthood - protecting the conditions under which glamour can operate.
@jeremymillar.bsky.social My claim is simple: art theory is very good at describing ‘aura’ & ‘profundity’ but treats the psychology producing those experiences as irrelevant. That isn’t caution, but a blind spot.
Can art theory afford to ignore that?
hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2026/01/17/w...
Yes - the ambiguity in Rabbits, combined with Lynch’s status & aura (cool), automatically produces a sense of deep, authentic meaning.
This is how hagioptasia functions - the same phenomenology across different domains.
Yes, I think the effect seems inseparable from the gallery context. Outside that framing, the same machines hold no mystery or allure. It really shows how much perceived ‘magic’ relies on unfamiliarity & expectation, not the objects themselves.
That's great! Your lion story is a perfect example of that personal-yet-universal sense of 'magic' that drives art - the kind of immediate, felt awe that exists even before we assign any symbolic meaning.
Thanks very much for this.
These ancient “technologies of the marvellous” worked by blurring boundaries & cultivating mystique - & it’s striking how closely this mirrors Mike Nelson’s Asset Strippers.
This study fits perfectly with the idea that art & ritual often begin with a perceptual hook - not a symbolic plan.
Ambiguity & mystique are key - when meaning is indeterminate, places & objects feel intrinsically significant.
"A field that systematically avoids its central question is, by definition, bullshitting"
hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2026/01/17/w...
Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing
hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/w...
The most visibly successful people seem not uplifted by glamour, but quietly exhausted by it.
It’s as if the experience that promised transcendence never quite resolves into meaning.
The benefits aren’t just insight. Hagioptasia can motivate & enrich our lives, but it also misleads through glamour, false ideals, & the disappointment & confusion when hagioptasic dreams fail to be realised. Understanding the mechanism helps us to use it wisely, rather than be steered by it.
I’m not claiming misjudgement or invalid experience. I’m pointing to a recurring perceptual tendency where a sense of specialness can emerge or intensify later - even for periods judged as ordinary at the time. That’s what I’m calling hagioptasia.
I’m not claiming objectivity. Hagioptasia is precisely about a 'subjective' perceptual quality - the felt specialness that can emerge or intensify later, even when we judged the experience as ordinary at the time.
The problem with the “it was genuinely special then” explanation is that the same 'specialness' often appears later in periods we explicitly judged as ordinary at the time.
That suggests a perceptual overlay, not a simple comparison.
@carissaveliz.bsky.social Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/w...
Agreed. I hope you'll enjoy this:
Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/w...
Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing
hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/w...
But would you agree that spookiness or eeriness is phenomenologically distinct from other types of fears?
Do you have a formal, psychology-based definition of 'spookiness' - perhaps one that distinguishes it from related concepts like 'terror' or 'fear' in a way that relates to social engagement?
What a horribly patronising thing to say!
Understanding Branding Through Contemporary Art (pt.1)
We build our sense of “cool” from personal & cultural codes of status.
Our natural sensitivity to social status makes “cool” things feel deeply meaningful.
Remove the status cues, & the 'meaning' vanishes.
Not a grudge, but genuine concern about her huge influence.
The Art Establishment Doesn't Understand Art:
hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/03/13/t...
New preprint:
Hagioptasia: Convergent Evidence for a Unified Construct of Perceived Specialness - A Theoretical Framework
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
