Thursday 18 October 2012

Postmodernism Lecture

Things that had previously been seen as high culture had become warped and blurred due to popular culture becoming involved with it.

Modernism - 1860-1960
Postmodernism - 1960-today

Modernism was brought about as an optimistic coping mechanism post WW1 when improvements were made to technology which would supposedly improve life, whereas Postmodernism was brought about as a backlash to 'rules' and parodies previous ideologies.

Postmodernism -
- allows for styles and approaches to vary more
- shows juxtaposition to Modernism, and keeps it ironic
- questions previous traditions and possible limitations
- contributed to ethnic minorities and women having a bigger place in society

Las Vegas epitomised Postmodernity in creating a fantasy similar to that of Disneyland.
Pompidou Centre in Paris received a shocked reaction in its structure alone, more about the concept than the aesthetics of the building itself.

- Postmodern design made the function the main focus of the design, developing a personality in function that would fit into a consumer society -

- Postmodern fashion was designed as a response to modernism eg. Vivienne Westwood's sex boutique in 1975. Punk styles were introduced to change what was acceptable in society, and it threw together a lot of styles in order to shock - 

- Postmodernism fine art started off with pop art in response to the rise of consumerism, see Andy Warhol, Damien Hurst, Marchel Duchamp, Tracy Emin, Sarah Lucas -

- Postmodern advertising became about focussing on the unexpected eg Volkswagen "think small" in 1959 -


Postmodern Graphic Design
Magazine set up became more about appearance than content, and used the content to determine the appearance and redefined the rules of Graphic Design > David Carson
"Don't mistake legibility for communication."
Postmodernism had an attitude of questioning conventions, particularly those associated with Modernism, and shifted thoughts and theories on those conventions

See plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/

No comments:

Post a Comment