Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly (2021)

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

NaOH

48 points

18 comments

americanart.si.eduOtherstory

calmpositive

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20/100

Outsider ArtArt HistoryReligious Art

Key topics

Outsider Art

Art History

Religious Art

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly, a large art installation created by James Hampton, is showcased on the Smithsonian American Art Museum's blog, sparking discussion about outsider art and its significance.

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Moderate engagement

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Peak period

84-96h

Avg / period

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Based on 18 loaded comments

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01Story posted
Sep 28, 2025 at 2:46 PM EDT
3 months ago
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02First comment
Sep 28, 2025 at 2:46 PM EDT
0s after posting
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03Peak activity
10 comments in 84-96h
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04Latest activity
Oct 3, 2025 at 8:32 AM EDT
3 months ago
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Discussion (18 comments)

Showing 18 comments

palmotea

3 months ago

2 replies

> ...and a small book he kept, written primarily in an invented or "asemic" script, meaning it is unreadable or lacking specific semantic content.

Learned something new: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asemic_writing:

> ...asemic writing distinguishes itself among traditions of abstract art is in the asemic author's use of gestural constraint, and the retention of physical characteristics of writing such as lines and symbols.

Basically stuff that looks like writing but actually isn't. Another example is Xu Bing's A Book from the Sky, which is composed of things that look just like Chinese characters to someone who can't read them, but aren't.

actionfromafar

3 months ago

2 replies

I wonder if an LLM can "translate" that book into... something. And if so, how faithful to the original is the translation?

DontchaKnowit

3 months ago

1 reply

What? Can we start banning these kinds of "I wonder if an LLM" comments?

actionfromafar

3 months ago

1 reply

I actually thought it was an interesting thought, if the "bullshitness" will hold between "translations" or if it will hallucinate something which "makes more sense" than the original. Or if it will just refuse because the chinese letters just aren't close enough. I'm probably too bored. :)

pavel_lishin

3 months ago

1 reply

You cannot extract a signal that isn't there.

duskwuff

3 months ago

There's also a technical side to that problem - you can't communicate the content of that book to a LLM as text, because it's made up of invented characters. There's no standard way to represent them to a computer.

palmotea

3 months ago

> I wonder if an LLM can "translate" that book into... something.

Yes, of course. LLMs are bullshit machines.

> And if so, how faithful to the original is the translation?

Well, as faithful as total bullshit ever is.

duskwuff

3 months ago

Another Western example is Luigi Serafini's Codex Seraphinianus:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus

frereubu

3 months ago

1 reply

Does anyone know how big this is? Difficult to tell from photos on a phone and the listing just says "dimensions variable".

jhbadger

3 months ago

2 replies

I've seen it several times at the Smithsonian -- it's life size, as in a person could sit on the central throne, and the side pieces are as large as nightstands.

NaOHAuthor

3 months ago

1 reply

The Wikipedia piece linked here in the comments says that central throne is seven feet tall.

jhbadger

3 months ago

Yes, if you include the back of the chair

frereubu

3 months ago

Great, thanks.

NaOHAuthor

3 months ago

The embedded video in this post is worthwhile, particularly for the visuals of the artwork, but for those who’d prefer an informative (short) article, there’s one in a previous HN submission about this that got no traction back in 2023.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38683668

dfxm12

3 months ago

Considering the religious nature, and the fact that its creator claims to have had a visitation from the divine, it's like TempleOS in a way.

mock-possum

3 months ago

I love outsider art. Love the idea that for some people, it isn’t about the ‘art world’ or about finding a community or an audience… they simply have to go off by themselves somewhere and CREATE

kkylin

3 months ago

Wikipedia has more details on the artist and the art:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hampton_(artist)#Throne_...

I was trying to figure out how large this thing was (I found it hard to tell from the picture). And wow -- a life-size throne. Must go next time I'm in DC (if the government isn't shut down :p).

AftHurrahWinch

3 months ago

This was found posthumously in a rented garage. Imagine yourself walking in to a windowless room, turning on the lights, and seeing this.

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