Lecture notes 13.1.10

Postmodernism

1960’s - beginnings
1970’s – established as a term (Jencks)
1980’s – recognisable style
1980-90’s – dominant theoretical discourse
Present – tired and simmering

After modernism
The historical era following the modern
Contra modernism
Equivalent to ‘late capitalism’ (Jameson)
Artistic and stylistic eclecticism
‘Global village’ phenomena: globalisation of cultures, races, images, capital products.
15 July 1972 @ 3.32pm – modernism dies according to Charles Jencks (due to the demolition of the Pruitt-lgoe development, st Louis).
Le Corbusier ‘plan voisin’ 1927 – ideal plan for future housing, perfect fusion of ecology and urbanism. Looks good on paper.
Postmodern architecture – arrogant, not genuinely concerned with solving social problems.
Urban splash – postmodern architectural practice.
AT and T building New York – popular postmodern building – designed to be fun and playful as a building.
Guggenheim museum, Bilbao, Frank Gehry (1997)

Book – J.F Lyotard – The postmodern condition (1979)
Incredulity towards metanarratives = totalising belief systems.
Result – crisis in confidence.
Directionless society trying to pick its way through a shattered world – very pessimistic.
Postmodern aesthetics.
Chaos, complexity, not truth to materials.

Book – Learning from Las Vegas – Robert Venturi (1972)
Postmodern city is dystopia
(Blade runner) the future in the postmodern city – technology has gone so far people can’t work out if they are human or robot anymore.

At the end of the 1950’s the purest form of modernist painting was …
Postmodernist artists – lampooning the modernist art world.

Book – Postmodernism or cultural logic of late capitalism – Fredric Jameson.
Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century, Marshall McLuhan.
Memphis group – the most important graphic designers in the postmodern era.

Crisis in confidence
But also – freedom, new possibilities, questioning old limitations.

A vague disputed term, po-mo attitude of questioning conventions (esp. modernism)
Po-mo aesthetic = multiplicity of styles and approaches.
Shift in though and theory, investigating crisis in confidence e.g. Lyotard.
Space for ‘new voices’.
Rejection of technological determinism?