Lecture 1- Modernity and Modernism

• John Ruskin- Modern painters, first time anyone described what modern was, used to compare classic.
• William Holman Hun- The Hireling Shepherd. This painting was modern of the moment. 
• Modernity- emergence commodity culture, modern means, improved versions, the best and positive progress.
• Tate Modern- not new art, progressive and cutting edge.
• Modernism- looking forward, build on, improve, progressive and constant pushing forward.
• End of modernism according to Charles Jencks (15 July 1972 3.32pm)- modern building knocked down after 20 years. Took a backwards step.
• Paris, modern city (1900) Industrialisation dominant means of production, peoples lives are dominatedby shift work not seasons meaning life becomes regulated, there are rapid advances in technology rather than being stuck in a village people start to travel, 'shrinking the world', mass communication, not intimate. New concepts arising, world time standardised. Life accelerates and rapid changes begin to happen full of discovery.
• URBANISATION.
• Era of cinemas, shopping, arcades and galleries. For example- Hyde Park picture house.
• Enlightenment project- Human knowledge rapid advances, people begin to turn away from religion and look more towards science. This is called Secularisation.
• The city = Modernity 
• Eifel Tower is a symbol of modernity, domination of modern over old.
• First people to document cycle of new world were artists. Caillebotte was the painter of modern life, he depicted the experience of an individual in the city, being amongst people but separate.
• Paris became a project of Modernism because it was taken over by communists, it was completely redeveloped and modern buildings and streets were built making it easier for policing. However there were side effects, the working class were segregated, dislocation of individual in the city. From this Modernism = separate, removed from each other, alienation but condensed.
• psychology was born out of modernity because the modern world was predicted to send people crazy by the speed of living.
• Cailleboutte showed the difference in classes, new forms of signifying individuality, fashion, flaneur and displays clothes (hipsters of the day)
• Seurat shows leisure segregation.
• Degas shows the underbelly of modernity, drawing sorrows, being left behind, composition (new form) a cropped style, the composition is similar to photography.
• Kaiserpanorama- 1890, rotunder, it was a large communal viewing device that allowed the public to view; art, landscapes, erotica etc... It allowed people to experience the world through device rather than directly living, not experiencing life more mediating.
• Modernity changes the way people behave and act, it is the response to the modern.
• Monet painted the experience, sensory dislocation using new techniques, experimenting because of the threat of photography creating a new medium. 
• Painting is a historical recording of the world where as a photography is more accurate.
• Photography showed modern new views of world, different understanding and nature of the world. Long exposed experiment showing movement, science, investigations and dialect between modernism and art.
• Design in response to modernism; looking forward, invent new styles, always use new processes, materials etc... NO DISGUISE 
• Products are practical, useful, aesthetics come second. minimalist stripped down to the core and bare. Modernist international international language of design, universally understandable.