OUGD401 - Context of Practice Lecture 14

Post Modernism

Modernism was born from optimism and was aspirational after World War 1. The movement aimed to harness technology to improves the lives of people after the destruction of the war. However the famous 'form follows function' loses the human quality to the work.
Le Corbusier's Villa Savogy is a building that creates a fluidity in space between the inside and outside. However stripping the space down in a minimal way loses the human touch and is replaced instead with logic, grids and order.

Modernism is associated with:
- experimentation
- innovation
- individualism
- progress
- purity
- originality

Post modernism is opposite to all of those
- it is more trivial
- it is characterised by exhaustion, pluralism , pessimism, disillusionment

There are similarities in that both use technology however post modernism is a reaction to modernism.

Homage to New York was a self destructing contraption that was placed outside MOMA as a reactionary statement to modernism.

In the 1980s and 1990s there was a dominant theoretical discourse about post modernism and it was a recognisable style . Now it is not really used. We are described as late modernity and are possibly waiting for something new to come along after modernism.

Postmodernism can describe :
- 'late capitalism' Jamesoom
- artistic and stylistic eclecticism
- historical era following the modern
- 'global village' phenomena - the globalisation of culture, capital etc
- after modernism
- contra to modernism

Pruitt Igoe was built to enhance people's lives however it became a place full of crime and social deprivation leading to its development as a slum. This meant the modernist ideal was not realised and the building was demolished.

The postmodern has an attitude of questioning conventions.
The postmodern aesthetic = multiplicity of styles and approaches and space for new 'voices'.

Postmodernism was:
- a reaction to the rules
- critique of the International style
- the only rule was there was no rules
- anti elitist - there was a focus on other formats including low brow art

Park Hill flats in Sheffield have been modified in reaction to the flaws of modernism. It was updated because residents did not like it. It has now become housing for young professionals rather than social housing because of the revamp.

The Leeds Look uses red brick to show industry and colour is added to these buildings .

High art and low art crumbles in post modernism.
Los Vegas a post modern city?
In postmodernism there is a hybridity of techniques and mucking things up is encouraged.
Roy Lichstenstein did a painting of brush strokes to make reference to Jackson Pollocks drip paintings. Post modernism in this way criticises the style and questions whether they really have meaning.

Postmodernism mixes highbrow, populist, alienating and the accessible. It samples elements to create something new. Examples David Carson and Memphis Group.