Jos de Mul, The (Bio)technological Sublime. After Hours Conversation lecture. Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, October 2, 2012.

In our (post)modern world it is no longer the superior forces of nature that calls forth the experience of the sublime, but rather, the superior forces of technology. However, with the transfer of power from divine nature to human technology, the ambiguous experience of the sublime also nests in the latter. In the era of converging technologies – information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and the neurosciences – it is technology itself that gains an ungeheuer character in its battle with nature. Without doubt these technologies have increased our power over nature enourmously.

However, this does not mean that we have become gods in the sense that we have gained control over our own destiny. Rather, our relation with nature is changing:

Where technology and nature are traditionally seen as opposed to each other, they now appear to merge or even trade places. While old nature, in the sense of trees, plants, animals, atoms, or climate, is increasingly controlled and governed by man – it is turned into a cultural category –, our technological environment becomes so complex and uncontrollable, that we start to relate to it as a nature of its own.

While technology is an expression of the grandeur of the human intellect, we also increasingly experience it as a force that controls and threatens us. Technologies such as atomic power station and genetic modification, to mention just two paradigmatic examples, are Janus-faced: they reflect, at once, our hope for the benefits they may bring as well as our fear of their uncontrollable, destructive potentials.

At first sight it seems that in these cases technology completely controls and conquers nature. However, in the fast growing domain of the biotechnologies (which will probably become as important in the twenty-first century as the physical sciences were in the twentieth century), we witness a remarkable revenge of nature within technology. After all, technologies like genetic modification and synthetic biology create entities that are no longer passive manipulatable innate elements, but have, and will increasingly have, their ‘own agenda’.

A full version of this lecture will be published in the Spring 2013 issue of the Institute Letter of the IAS.

Jos de Mul, New humanism. Invited lecture at the International Academic Conference “Bahuangtongshen—New Humanism · Lu Yushun” Beijing, September 9, 2012.

Lu Yushun, a notable Chinese contemporary artist of mountains-and-waters paintings, a professor and a PH.D supervisor, is the vice minister of China National Academy of Painting and the vice president of Harbin Normal University. As one of the leading characters in the field of Chinese contemporary mountains-and-waters paintings, he still keeps the tradition of attaching Chinese poems with calligraphy art and stamping his own seal to his works and, on the other hand, tries to make modernized transfer about his works. His influential series of thematically created works include "Bahuangtongshen", "The Spirit Home", "The Beautiful Landscape", "The Splendid Mountains and Waters" and "The Dream on the Other Side of the River". All these works fully elaborate the spirits of Chinese culture with a unique vision of Chinese fine art, and vividly reflect the aesthetic feature of Chinese art. Meanwhile, he combines foreign factors into his own works and creates a profound, fresh, colorful and diversified art style—Yushun style. Carrying forward the tradition and harmonizing with the modern style, Mr. Lu Yushun depicts the beautiful nature and strong affection of modern human beings with his humanistic feelings. He reveals the aesthetic features of Oriental and reflects the mysterious and profound spirits and qualities of Chinese art.