Modernism was initially born out of optimism, an aspirational reaction to World War 1, with a view to harness technology to improve people's everyday lives.
Modernism is associated with:
- experimentation
- innovation
- individualism
- progress
- purity
- originality
- seriousness.
The postmodern condition is characterised by:
- exhaustion
- pluralism
- pessimism
- disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge.
BUT there is some overlap...
Jean Tinguely 'Homage to New York' (1960)
Described as "a towering contraption composed of found junk, dismembered bicycles, dismantled musical instruments, glass bottles, a meteorological balloon and electric motors in a questionable condition". It was designed to set itself on fire and destroy itself, as a criticism to the trajectory of modern life, and the fallacy of technology.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/arts/design/swiss-institutes-destruction-pays-homage-to-jean-tinguely.html
Uses of the term 'post-modernism':
- after modernism (the historical era following the modern)
- contra-modernism (actively against modernism - BACKLASH)
- equivalent to 'late capitalism' (Jameson)
- 'global village' phenomena: globalisation of cultures, races, images, capital, products.
15 July 1972, 3:32pm = according to Charles Jencks, modernism dies and postmodernism starts.
The demolition of the Pruitt - Igoe development, St Louis (the language of postmodernism architecture, 1977).
Postmodernism has an attitude of questioning conventions (especially those set out by modernism)
- postmodernism aesthetics = multiplicity of styles and approaches
- space for 'new voices'
- a reaction to these rules - starts as a critique of the international style/only rule is that there is no rules/celebrates what might otherwise be termed as 'kitsch'.
URBAN SPLASH
Park Hill flats, Sheffield.
Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, 1997.
James Stirling, Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany, 1977-1983.
J-F Lyotard:
'The Postmodern Condition' (1979)
- 'Incredulity towards metanarratives'
- metanarratives = totalising belief systems
- result = crisis in confidence
HIGH ART/ LOW ART DIVIDE.
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