Postmodernism

Order and Chaos - postmodernism and exploring deconstruction

Postmodernism is a general term that applies to art, music and literature it embraces ideas, repetition, challenges the view and asks the viewer to ask questions in and about life.

Christopher Cox / 2008

The poster mixes high and low art together to combine into one image: popular cultural exploration combined with 'proper' art creates a new collaged image that features hand drawn elements and looks highly political. All these features on the poster make it postmodern, it is making the statement that modernism didn't save us which is considered a typical viewpoint of postmodern art.

Jeff Koons / 1988 / 'Michael Jackson and Bubbles'
Koons is an American artist known for working with popular culture subjects, he creates art that is considered poor and is purposefully 'tacky' which is seen to be postmodern. He created this piece of art using popular culture elevated the piece to a 'sculpture' because of its size and its featured in a gallery.


Today we looked at two types of postmodern design: vernacular and self-reference.

Vernacular Design:

• A style or aesthetic that is associated to a narrative or particular moment, location or group of people
• Subjectivity and not being limited to one style, allowing subcultural style to emerge
• Signage, typographical features can all be examples of vernacular design

Self-Reference

• About looking inward as a designer, thinking about the practice of design and making it apparent in the ACTUAL design itself

Representation and Reality
Jean Baudrillard was a French sociologist, philosopher, theorist and photographer, he wrote the book 'Simulacra and Simulation' which introduces the idea that the principle of the 'real' is interrupted by the changing of signs. It expressed a meaning that is around us and in this situation people become attached by personal events, they can relate to them, they become indifferent and people can't distinguish between appearance and reality. When we are surrounded by digital signs, it becomes overwhelming and we become in a state of apathy.

David Hockney / 1986 / 'Pearblossom Highway'
Hockney has created this image using layers of the same photography to create a new collaged image. He explores the nature of the sign and communicates how the whole page is a sign. The message isn't clear, but chaotic


There are three ways to use the word deconstruction:

1. A trendy alternative to analysis or interpretation
2. A visual style in art, architecture, fashion and graphic design
3. A way of reading text which aims to reveal its internal contradictions

'Deconstruction is not a style or attitude but rather a mode of questioning through and about the technologies, formal devices, social institutions and founding metaphors of representations' - Ellen Lupton