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lecture 2 postmodernism

Post modernism;
Postmodernism has an attitude of questioning conventions (especially those set out by Modernism)
Postmodern aesthetic = multiplicity of styles & approaches
Theme of ‘double coding’, borrowing, or ‘quoting’ from a number of historical styles
Knowing juxtapositions, or ‘postmodernist irony’
Questioning old limitations
Space for marginalised discourse:
Women, sexual diversity & multiculturalism 

In post modernism there are no rules, anything goes and it is an international style. It celebrates kitsch (tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value) and pastiche (openly imitates the work of a previous artist, sometimes with the intent of satire) but also enjoying it.

Art up until post modernism have been created by white middle class men. Lower class recognises the failure of modernism and gone are the clean minimalist going against modernism aesthetics. 

Las vegas is epitomises post modernism, it's tacky, kitsch and simulates the world so much that 73% of Americans don't have passports meaning they obviously see no need to view the world outside of America because of the simulations. 

"I didn’t like Europe as much as I liked Disney
World. At Disney World all the countries are much
closer together, and they just show you the best of
each country. Europe is more boring. People talk strange languages and things are dirty. Sometimes you don’t see anything interesting in Europe for days, but at Disney World something different happens all the time, and people are happy. It’s much more fun. It’s well designed!"

A college graduate just back from her first trip to Europe, in Papanek, V. (1995), The Green Imperative: Ecology and Ethics in Design and Architecture, London, Thames and Hudson, page 139 


The building above has used modernism as the basis but then added traditional architectural features thus making it post modern. 



This building is shocking, contemporary and all the function is on the outside which is like sticking 2 fingers up at modernism.

Post modernism saw the rise of a consumer society not functional

Pop art shows a rise in consumerism, high art, popular culture. Pop art turns youth culture into fine art. 



Cheap, tacky disgusting art, but showing the cheapness of figure art and making a statement. 



Craig Martin glass of water becoming oak tree; 
"I considered that in An Oak Tree I had deconstructed the work of art in such a way as to reveal its single basic and essential element, belief that is the confident faith of the artist in his capacity to speak and the willing faith of the viewer in accepting what he has to say. In other words belief underlies our whole experience of art: it accounts for why some people are artists and others are not, why some people dismiss works of art others highly praise, and why something we know to be great does not always move us."
(Quoted in Michael Craig-Martin: Landscapes, [p.20].)



Chris Ofili represents blacks in fine art, generally relates to his roots. This image poses the question that virgin Mary might have been black.



David Carson is a post modernist graphic design, it's grungy, illegible, post modern aesthetics. His work is more about the look and lifestyle as opposed modernist functionality. His work up turns the rules of layout.


Summary;
• Postmodern attitude of questioning conventions (esp. Modernism)
• Postmodern aesthetic = multiplicity of styles & approaches
• Shift in thought & theory investigating ‘crisis in confidence’
• Space for ‘new voices’ 


Postmodernism-
‘That postmodernism is indefinable is a truism.
However, it can be described as a set of critical,
strategic and rhetorical practices employing
concepts such as difference, repetition, the trace,
the simulacrum, and hyperreality to destabilize other
concepts such as presence, identity, historical progress, epistemic certainty, and the univocity of meaning’
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/ 


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