SUICIDAL SUBLIMITY IN SPACE, 2014

digital work, collaboration with Sejoong Kim


The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge that connects San Francisco and Marin County. This bridge, rated as one of the most beautiful bridge in the world, is called the magnet to commit suicide ironically. More than 30 people in every year, more than 1,500 people identified committed suicide last 75 years. In particular, it is only 2.2% to choose the method of suicide by jumping in every states in USA, but in San Francisco, it is 30.9% and out of them, 60% commit on this bridge. Therefore, I recognized the uniqueness of the Golden Gate Bridge and I wanted to analyze on relationship between extreme behavior “Suicide” and the huge man-made structure.

There are three main perspectives for this phenomenon : Atmosphere, Context and Action. The red bridge in frequently foggy city, robustness of visual of inhuman-scale structure and dramatic tension of a suspension bridge represent atmosphere. Secondly, San Francisco is the city of anxiety because of frequent earthquakes. Therefore, people are psychologically attached to the strong structure for its stability. Finally, we analyzed the behavior of victims right before the suicide from the documentary “The Bridge, 2006.”

 We associated above analysis with suicide and found the sublimity created by a combination of various factors originated from this huge artifact structure. In addition, it is reconsidered that how these fantasies and sublimity affect to human behavior, psychology and city properties.