GOTHIC FUNK
First outlined in the Gothic Funk Manifesto written in October 2004, this is a theory that combines the connected but disparate meanings of those two words.
Thematic similarities include the rendering of emotion and soul, anti-establishment and radical political implication, subjective experience, attraction to sublime or "terrible" beauty, a cynical interpretation of the material modern world, and quite importantly, the calculation for visceral effect.
Conventional extensions of themes include the presence of the supernatural, close attention to setting, dialogue between the sacred and the profane, literal, social, and metaphorical isolation, and engagement of fear, anger, hunger, and longing as driving emotions.
Quite simply, the marriage of the gothic and funk is easily accomplished; an awareness of both is deeply embedded in our cultural psyche. An audience, then, will readily assimilate the full semantic context of gothic funk. A close association between the two, however, especially in terms of convention, is unfamiliar. This alienates the audience enough that they automatically seek out salient characteristics with an more attentive eye, while still identifying with characters, setting, plot, and theme.
As a intrinsic impossibility, an important paradox is a particularly conspicuous salient characteristic in this form. Gothic Funk, then, is one ideal mold for affective art.
