This guy is quite funny but also explains and breaks down the theory of postmodernism. It helps for me anyway to keep reminding myself what it actually is and also gives me ideas when I look for postmodern art and design.
Sunday, 4 May 2014
Saturday, 3 May 2014
Memphis Postmodern Group
MEMPHIS
MEMPHIS was a Milan-based collective of young furniture and product designers led by the veteran Ettore Sottsass. After its 1981 debut, Memphis dominated the early 1980s design scene with its post-modernist style.
Carlton Cabinet 1981
Design: Ettore Sottsass
Beverly desk, 1981
Design: Ettore Sottsass
Nefertiti ceramic piece, 1981
Design: Matteo Thun
In 1981, Ettore Sottsass and a group of Italian designers and architects founded the "Memphis Group" as a reaction to "the personal, slick, humourless design" of modernism. The group disbanded in 1988.
I think these design pieces are incredibly vibrant, eccentric and have an kind of ornamental look to them. Even though a lot of the art doesn't make sense and the abstract forms of the sculptures are quite abstract, it shows that the Memphis group were trying to create a new experience for an audience and to also take a swipe at modernism seen to them as "boring".
– Adam Reid
David Carson and Postmodernism
A link to a blog with sources discussing, David Carson and how his work is very much Postmodern.
http://shapeswithourhands.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/post-modernism-and-david-carson/
http://shapeswithourhands.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/post-modernism-and-david-carson/
“the most influential graphic designer of out time” surfrider foundation, july 09,
he is said to have “the most important work coming out of america” american center for design
and to have “changed the public face of graphic design” – newsweek.
Incredibly famous article Carson used in his famous magazine Ray Gun. He claims the interview was so boring and no one would ever read it, so he changed the entire article into windings a symbol based typeface, which rendered the article un-readable.
- Tom Kiernan
Post modernism in Graphic Design
Post Modernism was First coined to criticize the "glass box" structure of International Design, within architecture. This later led to fashion, Graphic Design and many other mediums, the term "Postmodernism" simply meaning things that subvert or amplify established codes.
Wolfgang Weingart
Weingarts influence teaching at the Basel school of Design, influenced the look of Postmodernism so much that many students and other designers used his "Stair-stepping motif", which became synonymous with International and Postmodernism.
Example of Wolfgang Weignart's "stair-stepping"
Source: http://gds.parkland.edu/gds/!lectures/history/1975/postmodern.html
Tom
Wolfgang Weingart
Weingarts influence teaching at the Basel school of Design, influenced the look of Postmodernism so much that many students and other designers used his "Stair-stepping motif", which became synonymous with International and Postmodernism.
Example of Wolfgang Weignart's "stair-stepping"
Source: http://gds.parkland.edu/gds/!lectures/history/1975/postmodern.html
Tom
Andy Warhol - Pop Art
I have a found a very extensive if a little brief overview on Post modernist artist Andy Warhol with some references which could be useful.
The link:
http://tccpomo.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/andy-warhol.html
The link:
http://tccpomo.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/andy-warhol.html
Tom Kiernan
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
The Loss Of Origin... more info
I think this is an interesting idea from the Postmodernism book by Kevin Hart on how postmodernism is driven by anti-essentialism. The idea that things are to be questioned in everything from art to culture and more...
Anti-essentialism
"Not long after you have started to talk to a postmodernist, especially if it is someone influenced by post-structuralism, you will find that person arguing for anti-essentialism. There are various forms of it, depending on what 'essentialism' is taken to mean. One of the most widespread forms amounts to the contention that there is no natural or universe essence to being human: everything to do with our state has been historically formed and culturally conditioned. The positioned has appealed to liberals, especially femininists and socialists, as well as post-humanists.
... some anti-essentialists chew over the old question 'What is it to be human?' and either criticise humanist answers to it or try to give better answers themselves."
Hart,K. (2004). The Loss of Origin. In: Postmodernism: A Beginner's Guide. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. p26.
GLEE / X Factor / The Voice
'Glee' is an American TV series set in a high school where a dysfunctional group of teenagers end up together in the glee club because of their love of singing/performing. They are seen as the losers in the school and social outcasts.
The series has become a mass media phenomenon - TV, CDs, iTunes, Glee tour etc, and their mash ups and covers of many songs have become so popular that their fan base/ mainly the younger generation have come to only know Glee's versions and not the original. Furthermore, if they have heard the original, they are actually preferring the new version and therefore this is a destabilisation of the origin/ the original songs.
Don't Stop Believing
Glee Cover 2009
Journey (Original) 1981
The Glee story also links to the postmodern idea of the ordinary person becoming a celebrity, through talent shows and is seen as an artificial and manufactured talent and rise to fame - no longer real or authentic. For instance, shows such as the X Factor and The Voice, where people go on to perform and from the moment they are on TV they acquire a huge fan base supporting them to win - aided by mass media advertising such as stories on social networks, in magazines, and updates on national news programmes. The fans/ audience have also become an active part in these competitions and are no longer just a passive audience, they participate in voting and play a part in the making of the winner of the competition. These competitions are seen as lacking in originality, because the contestants that go on, perform in the style of what they have seen in other famous music artists, or for example, a group of boys arriving on the X Factor claiming to be a boyband have styled themselves in the stereotypical way seen in huge bands across the world, and perform according to what they know works and will gain them success.
One Direction and Union J - both formed on the X Factor
(Lecture notes from 1st April 2014 - The Spectacular Invasion - Longstaff, G)
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