Modernism
& Postmodernism
Modernists -
'avante-guard' - - defined new modes of art that
would reflect the changes in the world around them; a time of an
accelerated rate of change - photography, sythetic fibre, box camera,
x-ray, diesel engine, power flight, relativity... Modernist art
was deep and intense. Modernist art was elitist and arrogant.
dividing the mass audiences and newer generations of artist. Postmodernists
- e.g. Warhol -1970's - proliferation of consumer and media culture. Pop
Art was inclusive in nature and blurred the distinction between high and
low culture. Pop Art was shallow and cool. Postmodernism combined the
new and the old - no one style was dominant.
Low
Art - High Art: Language
systems have been used to ascribe meaning and value to particular types
of art, dance and ... - for example folk dancing and tap dancing would
likely be considered - low art, whereas ball-room dancing and ballet
would likely be considered high art. Words such as high-art and
low-art form words in a paradigm used to categorize dance or art to
create a message about how particular forms of art denote and confirm
the difference between social classes. The words "low"
and "high" are used as metaphors to sense of social
abstractions in which certain values are spread throughout
society. Attaching words in this way is like posing a sign which which symbols, metaphors, myths, indices, connotations, meanings
and motivations are interpreted by the reader of the sign. The
aesthetic movement of the last century, wanted us to view and preserve
the idea that fine art is high-art in its "purity" existed
only for the sake of art itself and should not be associated or viewed
as a cultivated art form to make statements about people in daily
life. But many, Pop Artists and Futurist - as evident in
Andy Warhol's - soup cans and Brillo boxes - challenge this notion and say that art is in
fact a product of everyday life. Pop Art has very much blurred the
distinction between high and low culture. Moderist art was 'deep'
and intense and Pop art is deliberately shallow. One cannot just look at a
painting or sculpture, but also at the landscape, the weaving, the
design of cities and see how art intersects and permeates the very
structure of our daily and political life. The artist uses their
medium to illustrate, deploy a message, as an icon, as a statement, as a
sign, as a metaphor related to themselves and/or for the political power
structures in the world. The symbol system used by media to
represent content strongly influences and shapes the way individuals
make meaning. Other Sources: Benjamin's The
Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
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| Technology,
Religion & Spirituality -
(Map
of Technology, Religion & Spirituality) Technology provides a
means for people to explore various religious belief - instead of
unthinkingly accepting the perhaps one religion enforced by the local
community and church. Some might say that technology has promoted
religions to become more advanced. But the question is, why have
all of these religions emerged in the first place and where are we going
with each new technology that tries to answer what seems to be
unanswerable questions. Is it the disenchantment or rebellion of
the current human conditions or is it the "escape", the
"illusion" as Marx states, "Religion is the sigh of the
oppressed creature, the heart of the heartless world, just as it is the
spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people
for their real happiness." Some would also say that
technology is an extremely influential factor in changing traditional
thought and rituals - restructuring what humans really need in society -
perhaps causing an increase in religion (Can
Religion Withstand Technology?). Other links: The Religion of
Technology: The
Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention. |
Cyberculture
The discoverer of cyberculture is Alice Mary Hilton. Cyberculture
to Hilton meant - machine directed production - where life is
surrounded and controlled by machines/computers. "Cybercultre
- that way of life made possible when an entire process of production is
carried out by systems of machines monitored and controlled by one
computer. Cyberculture is used to denote not merely the new method of
production, but the vast influence of cybernetic principles and
technques on all phases of human life" Alice
Mary Hilton Cyborgs
and Cybernetics - "...the
self is a cultural construct, historically determined and susceptible to
changing social conditions" (Murphie & Potts,
2003). Therefore although technology can have great
computational power, the "human consciousness = brains + minds +
thought = embodiment" - so unless robots can become
"embodied" they can never replace human consciousness.
This of course also does not imply that robots cannot perform better
than humans. We may be able to create robotic embodied experiences
at one moment in time and this or these experiences - may be useful in
psychoanalysis and evolution of psychological approaches - as in the
work of Steven
Pinker - and the approach of 'reverse engineering' - perhaps we can
then figure out at least what natural selection designed it - and
perhaps this would help us figure out past problem - but what about
future problems. Other sources: The
Cyborg Manifesto Commentary
on Andy Clark's "Being There: Putting Brain, Body and World
Together Again Cyborgs
in Film The
Uncanny Experiements in Cyborg Culture Communication,
Communication & Cybernetics Agency,
Embodiment and Determinism Can
Machines Think?
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CYBORG
Millenium - PSU Library On-Line
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War,
Commerce & The Nation State - "We
seem to now live in something of a socio-technoligical, a human-made and
artificial world, at least to a considerable and ever-increasing degree.
There is a tendency to conceive of the whole world as
technology-dominated, manipulated, organized, shaped by
techno-systems." (Murphy & Potts, 2003). Today's emerging
technocratic
societies - threaten our traditional notions of sovereignty and the
nation-state. Sovereignty is constantly being recreated through
technical means and therefore our nation - the principles of our
identity are being undermined by the new notion of the "state"
which means the rise of the "network-state and
"globalization" - e.g. the European Union. The formation
of the EU as the new "state" that will "overhaul"
what we know as the current "social model" and that threatens
our notion of sovereignty has been clearly stated by Tony Blair
"Europe is not just about free trade and it is not just about the
economy, but it is no use us trying to compete in the tough, changing
world unless we are prepared to make the changes necessary, including
not abandoning our social model, but updating it and modernising
it. ...he has warned that change is essential if Europe is to be
competitive with the emerging economies of China and India." Blair
risks Chirac wrath over 'social model'. The new forms of
self-organizing social and technical complexity that emerge with
Globalization and its "New networked economy - complex evolving '
ecology' primed by 'perpetual disruption' ... economics - about change -
but with the coming of the churn, there is an exponential growth in
change to the point that is becomes something else and 'hovers on the
edge of chaos' in a churning whirl of both destruction an creation"
(Murphie & Potts, 2003). Other sources: Chaos
Theory With economic globalization the circulation of commodities
and capital has turned to a global scale of competition. And it is
this pursuit of wealth in this global hat has challenged the notion of
sovereignty over a nation - challenging the kind of authority a
government has over its own destiny and the destiny of its people -
threatening to dismantle the traditional :social models" Blair
refers to - But then what? |
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