Entanglements: an exploration of the digital literary work FISHNETSTOCKINGSMain MenuStartCover pageFishnetStockings FundamentalsA path of background and documentation of FishnetStockingsMermaids, Little and Otherwisea path on one of the most famous mermaid talesHybriditySub/ImmersionProcessing, Systems, and CodeMovement/DanceSilhouettesUnderwater Paper CuttingSwim Through the CodeA path about the code of FishnetStockingsFellow Fishworks of digital art that set precedentWorks CitedSources of our inspiration and edificiationDiana Leong5f86c388d73d4478d782c449582a052ecb430834Mark C. Marino82e88cf89eeb02b94655b66cf941328b5c035777Jessica Pressman42c474d93c0b66b9f6bb205f58680b42bcf8968b
The Mermaid, Pyle (1910)
1media/themermaid_pyle_thumb.jpg2022-05-11T07:54:28-07:00Mark C. Marino82e88cf89eeb02b94655b66cf941328b5c035777393861The Mermaid painting by Howard Pyle (1910) in the Delaware Art Museumplain2022-05-11T07:54:28-07:00Mark C. Marino82e88cf89eeb02b94655b66cf941328b5c035777
The mermaid, as literary device and cultural figure, serves to illuminate the cultural and historical contexts in which she appears; her appearance operates as a kind of silhouette in that it shifts vision between background and foreground, exposing the lines that divide them. The mermaid silhouettes in FISHNETSTOCKINGS do something similar; they expose differentials between states of being. The mermaid’s act of surfacing exposes the interfaces and borders of her environment and context. That is why she is often depicted sitting on a rock or surfacing at sea level, partially submerged in water and partially visible in air. Her midline often demarcates the interface between air and ocean as much as it does the merger of human and animal. For example, consider the famous mermaid paintings: John William Waterhouse’s A Mermaid (1900) and Howard Pyle’s The Mermaid (1910). Sitting alone or embracing her lover (and prey), the mermaid’s midline delineates the line between air and water. Her hybrid body demarcates the lines of space (environment and context), place (visual location), and positionality (power and politics). The lines– and outlines– of her body, including her silhouette, serve to reflect back to us the function of vision and its vulnerability towards distortion.
