Thursday, 2 August 2012


1.     Define Post-Modernism using 8-10 bullet points that include short quotes.
·    What post modernism gives us instead is a multicultural defense for male violence ‘a defense for it wherever it is, which in effect is a pretty universal defense.’ -Cathavine Mackinnon

·     When used in a constructive postmodern view, it does not reject modernism but “seeks to revise the premises of modernism”. Postmodernism attempts to erase all of modernism’s boundaries, to weaken its legitimacy, and to disturb the logic of the modernist state. (Witcombe 2000)

·     The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes postmodernism as “a set of critical, strategic and rhetorical practices” which exercises concepts such as difference, repetition, and hyper-reality to “destabilize other concepts” such as presence and identity.

·    Postmodernism began as ‘a rejection of the tenets of Modernism’ (Witcombe 2000)

·    ‘For some it means anti-modern; for others it means the revision of modernist premises.’ (Witcombe 2000)

·    “Postmodernism is associated with relativism. Relativism is the idea that ‘anything goes’”, Saugstad (2001).

·    Postmodern sensibility does not lament the loss of narrative coherence any more than the loss of being.

      Postmodernists also explored the idea that we do not control nature, which has been believed in the past. "Nature does actually precede culture,not the other way around". (Saugstad, A. 2001)

2. Use a quote by Witcombe (2000) to define the Post-Modern artist.(page 24)
‘The post – modern artist is ‘reflexive’ in that he or she is self-aware and consciously involved in a process of thinking about his or her cultural self in history, in demasking his or her own pretensions, and promoting processes of self-consciousness’ (witcombe, 2000)

3. Use the table on pages 47 and 48 in your ALVC handbook to summarize the list of the features of Post-Modernity.
The table suggest that Post- Modernity has an unclear bases for social and cultural unity. There was no concern for ‘depth.’ It became culture adapting to simulation. Real- time media, substituting for the real. Hyper reality and image saturation came into play. There was a disruption of the dominating high culture by ‘popular’ culture. Art became a process, it was now performance, production and intertextual art. Art now had no serious intention and boundaries were broken.

Use this summary to answer the next two questions.

4. Research Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's 'Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola logo'(1994)
in order to say what features of the work could be considered Post-Modern
This art done by artist Weiwei falls under post-modern art because he has mixed a very current brand with a historical urn and the logo is a very popular and well known icon in our modern society. This was his way of  incorporating pop culture to this post-modern piece.  The artist has created a contrast between something that is unique to his Chinese culture and something that is very much a marker of the West. A political statement is also made and with this work he is pointing out the destruction and the erosion of Chinese culture, by taking an artefact and transforming it into something very modern, perhaps the way he sees China


5. Research British artist Banksy's street art, and analyze the following two works by the artist
to discuss how each work can be defined as Post-Modern.(Use your list from question 3.)





http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3124787/Banksy-in-his-own-words.html

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