In his book, On Tremulation, published in 1719, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772) envisioned a cosmos in which every thing – including seemingly solid objects – vibrates. From this theory, Swedenborg edicted nine rules on how any entity trembles. Swedenborg discussed the importance that vibrations (or tremulations) play in the world, from earthquakes to music. Swedenborg places particular emphasis on the role of tremulations in our biological make-up (the beating of our hearts and pulsing of our nerves) and upon our sense perception (sound waves, light waves). Everything vibrates.

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Swedenborg was a scientist, philosopher and mystic who influenced major writers and artists across the world, including Blake, Goethe, Baudelaire, Balzac, Borges, Daumal and the Surrealists. 

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This exhibition, which includes works by sixteen artists, uses his “Nine Rules of Tremulation” as a schema to explore forms of dissemination and coagulation. Reflections, shadows, echoes, and replicas are important themes in the show, as are methods of transmissions and forms of vibration and trembling. An emphasis on the multi sensory agency of things – artworks as well as technical artefact – creates spaces of reflection and ambience that rid our thinking of the obsession with the historically overemphasized relationship between a perceiving subject and a known object. Other equally productive relationships between agents – synthetic or organic – can emerge. 

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This exhibition at No Name forms part of the ongoing project Tremulations, initiated by Daniel Birnbaum and Jacqui Davies at the Swedenborg House in London in 2024. The project involves cinematic and literary events in many cities produced in collaboration with members of the Swedish Academy’s Nobel Committee.