The Wunderkammer Aesthetic

I've always had an obsession with everything vintage, as well as that of a gothic or morbid nature. The very intersection between vintage and gothic genres holds great appeal, of course.

I wrote about Wunderkammer some time ago, the 16th Century craze, fueled by scientific discoveries, and new travel opportunities opening up to wealthy Europeans of the time. The Germans and Dutch have always had a history of colonialism and acquisitiveness. A wunderkammer was a room or cabinet of curiosity. Every exotic fascination was to be treasured, especially if it had some shock value.

This included a morbid obsession with death, and freakish creations, perversions of taxidermy were commonly displayed. The practice of keeping trinkets is still alive, but it was especially popular in Western Europe up until World War 2.

This aesthetic has inspired my photographic and digital artwork, as well as music, which I occasionally make, again an unapologetic mashup of other creations. I love anything with badly tuned pianos, toy percussion, music boxes, glockenspiels, strange brass sounds and haunting vocals.

You can listen to one example below.

Essentially, it's clips and loops from old orchestral and ballroom records, mashed up, slowed down, dripped with reverb, and made ethereal and creepy, yet somehow compelling. That's the goal at least. I'll post more soon.