Post-industrialism can be defined as the covergence of the "Information Age" and the "Service Economy" A post-industrial economy is often marked by: 1. A declining manufacturing sector, resulting in de-industrialization, 2. A large service sector, 3. An increase in the amount of information technology, often leading to an "information age". Information, knowledge and creativity are the new raw materials of such an economy. 4. The industry aspect of a post-industrial economy is sent into less developed nations which manufacture what is needed at lower costs.
Today, we live in an era of globalization.Most people see globalization as a beneficial thing. Is this a truth? Globalization is seen as cutting edge to "go global". Many people feel that globalization is a great force bringing the world closer together. There are even new phrases like global village which make us feel good about globalization bringing us all closer together. But when we think about what globalization really is - when we look beyond this - we can see the true meaning of the word. The real agents of globalization are the multinational corporations. Globalization is nothing more than the product of the multinational corporation search for profit. So, rather than being driven by positive things like a wish to bring the world closer together, globalization is driven by corporations seeking to maximize profits, and part of that search for profits involves the search for cheaper labor. Many companies move into less developed countries to take advantage of the lack of organization of labor there which allows these companies to pay low wages.Rather than making the world a more friendly place, globalization is leading to things such as "Export Processing Zones" - places where millions of people make products which are then shipped into the more developed countries and sold for a huge profit. These zones are integral to what globalization is and does. As the United States experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades, many poor countries experienced declining living standards.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Notes-Fashion and Commodity Form
Baudrillard defines symbolic exchange as:In symbolic exchange, of which the gift is our most proximate illustration, the object is not an object:it is inseparable from the concrete relation in which it is exchanged, the transferational pact it seals between two persons. Baudrillard's took the wedding ring as an example of symbolic object.One does not wear several, nor think of substituting one for another. This is because the ring is intended to be as unsubstitutable and permanent as the relationship itself. The commodity is different because the exchange of commodity can only take place on the basis of exchange value. Therefore, the exchange relation hardly allows for symbolic investment.
Fashion can be understood as a mode of consumption. It is a commodity whose form is at one and the sametime its content, a commodity that is doubly abstract toth as exchange value and as use value. Fashion is no longer limited to designing and shaping human body.It is now the overriding stylistic code that is configuring our whole environment and mannerisms of habitation. Fashion has been likened to language.It is a means of self-expression that allows people to try on many roles in life.It's a way of celebrating the diversity and variety of the world in which we live. Fashion is about change which is necessary to keep life interesting. It shouldn't be taken too seriously or you lose the fun of it. Whatever is fashionable now will quickly become unfashionable. New trends keep coming to replace the old.
Fashion can be understood as a mode of consumption. It is a commodity whose form is at one and the sametime its content, a commodity that is doubly abstract toth as exchange value and as use value. Fashion is no longer limited to designing and shaping human body.It is now the overriding stylistic code that is configuring our whole environment and mannerisms of habitation. Fashion has been likened to language.It is a means of self-expression that allows people to try on many roles in life.It's a way of celebrating the diversity and variety of the world in which we live. Fashion is about change which is necessary to keep life interesting. It shouldn't be taken too seriously or you lose the fun of it. Whatever is fashionable now will quickly become unfashionable. New trends keep coming to replace the old.
reading notes
Obsolescence and Desire: Fashion and the Commodity Form
By Gail Faurschou
Fashion is an ever changing world. It appears to be the most superfluous, transitory and especially trivial. It looks at the past, present and future. It gets it meaning from who we got it from or the circumstances on which we acquired it. The wedding ring proves the importance that some fashion has. It means the permanence of the relationship, you wear only on and you never substitute it for something else.
Fashion is fickle that way. It can recycle any or every object that was once endowed with cultural value, reintroducing it as a stylized simulation of itself. Fashion can be natural, unnatural or instinctual. The fashion industry can utilize the media to make a desire for the product.
Fashion also is an ever changing industry; its products can become obsolete overnight. Not many produces have this same situation. Fashion companies seem to take advantage of this as well. Brand power is a big part of fashion as well. People seem to seek out the little label that says this was very expensive. The polo symbol for Ralph Lauren or the swoosh by Nike. It means quality and cost.
You can learn a lot from the fashion industry.
By Gail Faurschou
Fashion is an ever changing world. It appears to be the most superfluous, transitory and especially trivial. It looks at the past, present and future. It gets it meaning from who we got it from or the circumstances on which we acquired it. The wedding ring proves the importance that some fashion has. It means the permanence of the relationship, you wear only on and you never substitute it for something else.
Fashion is fickle that way. It can recycle any or every object that was once endowed with cultural value, reintroducing it as a stylized simulation of itself. Fashion can be natural, unnatural or instinctual. The fashion industry can utilize the media to make a desire for the product.
Fashion also is an ever changing industry; its products can become obsolete overnight. Not many produces have this same situation. Fashion companies seem to take advantage of this as well. Brand power is a big part of fashion as well. People seem to seek out the little label that says this was very expensive. The polo symbol for Ralph Lauren or the swoosh by Nike. It means quality and cost.
You can learn a lot from the fashion industry.
reading notes
Temporary Contracts: On the economy of the post-industrial landscape
By Ellen Dunham-Jones
Corporate America is ruled increasingly by the concept of temporary contracts. Flexible accumulation, you don’t need to buy for the long run, everything seems temporary. People no longer buy cars they lease them. This way once they don’t like their car anymore they just exchange it for another one. This works with condos and apartments, you have temporary housing that is only under lease from year to year. Even marriage seems to be temporary, with a divorce rate of 60% and only 40% make it long term. What ever happened to now and forever?
Buildings and architecture have taken this toll as well. You see it with the expand of the box stores for sure, look at Winnipeg’s Kenasten Blvd. It was a waste land only six years ago. There was nothing there. Now within the last six years and with the start of a Wal-mart, we have a Safeway, Home Depot, Rona and a Sobey’s, as well as a bunch of other department stores. I can see why there is less and less happening in our downtown area. The landscape has become flat and who wants to work downtown.
“The landscape of the post-industrial economy surrounds us. It presents us with new challenges. We need to wrestle with the question of how architecture- traditionally conceived of as an enduring cultural artifact- might better respond to the culture of the temporary contract?”
What can architecture do to change or make the temporary less damaging and more adaptable?
By Ellen Dunham-Jones
Corporate America is ruled increasingly by the concept of temporary contracts. Flexible accumulation, you don’t need to buy for the long run, everything seems temporary. People no longer buy cars they lease them. This way once they don’t like their car anymore they just exchange it for another one. This works with condos and apartments, you have temporary housing that is only under lease from year to year. Even marriage seems to be temporary, with a divorce rate of 60% and only 40% make it long term. What ever happened to now and forever?
Buildings and architecture have taken this toll as well. You see it with the expand of the box stores for sure, look at Winnipeg’s Kenasten Blvd. It was a waste land only six years ago. There was nothing there. Now within the last six years and with the start of a Wal-mart, we have a Safeway, Home Depot, Rona and a Sobey’s, as well as a bunch of other department stores. I can see why there is less and less happening in our downtown area. The landscape has become flat and who wants to work downtown.
“The landscape of the post-industrial economy surrounds us. It presents us with new challenges. We need to wrestle with the question of how architecture- traditionally conceived of as an enduring cultural artifact- might better respond to the culture of the temporary contract?”
What can architecture do to change or make the temporary less damaging and more adaptable?
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Read This: Important!!
Hey Everyone,
I have to send Jae our link to this blog with a list of our group members, can everyone email me with thier last names and student numbers so that I can email it to Jae tonight, Thanks
I have to send Jae our link to this blog with a list of our group members, can everyone email me with thier last names and student numbers so that I can email it to Jae tonight, Thanks
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Article Review: Post Modernism and Consumer Society- Fredric Jameson
Jameson tries to lay the frame work for gaining a deeper understanding of postmodernism and it’s implications in architecture…
The specifics of post modernism and their implications:
1) Reaction against the established forms of high modernism:
-in the 1960’s referenced the moment when modernism became official academia, thereby losing face with a whole new arena of artists.
2)‘Kitsch’:the erosion of traditional distinctions between high culture and mass culture.
-Implicated within the latter is that it poses a threat to the establishment, to academia which have a vested interest in the preservation of the elite and high culture. (Or maybe it poses a threat to the public by further disenfranchising the lower classes by appropriating mass culture, repackaging it and selling it back to the public for a high price as ‘high culture’?)
3) The dissolution of professional philosophy and theory
-is there such a thing as ‘post-modernist theory’ or does the very nature of the movement as a fragmented re-appropriation of the past make theoretical discourse futile and irrelevant to architectural practice?
-earlier theoretical discourse weas distinguishable between academic disciplines, where now theory “can be anything and everything at once or nothing at all”.
4) A periodizing concept that correlates new formal features in culture with a new type of socio-economic ordering (late capitalism)
5) The rise of ‘pastiche’ and ‘schizophrenia’
-not to be confused with parody, pastiche involves the mimicry and imitation of other styles without seizing on their idiosyncrasies or making any sort of comment on the original (missing the point completely): “speech in a dead language”; pastiche a ‘blank parody’.
-Resulting from a schizophrenic consumer capitalist social arena where collectively we have begun to lose our sense of history; we are in perpetual motion and have lost all points of reference.
6) Death of the ‘subject or the end of individualism
-global awareness, demographic explosion and the age of corporate capitalism where the individual subject becomes subservient to the collective, ‘face-less’ subject competing for capital, resources and space.
-Artists and writers work is no longer of relevance to society: Is this actually the case? I think not. They are here to push societal awareness past their own noses.
-Jameson states rather apocalyptically, that everything has been invented and only a limited amount of potentialities exist…Can this be proved? I hardly think that this is the case. As long as there is a necessity for change, invention will exist.
The imperative of new architecture
-to extend new organs and expand our senses to (as yet) unimaginable dimensions (hyperspace).
Example: the Bonaventure hotel (John Portman) aspires to become a total space (hyper-locality) to accommodate the new collective (hyper-crowd).
-busyness of space, repression of depth cues immerses the individual eliminating distance to repress perspective or perception of volume… Is this the future of architectural practice?
Jameson tries to lay the frame work for gaining a deeper understanding of postmodernism and it’s implications in architecture…
The specifics of post modernism and their implications:
1) Reaction against the established forms of high modernism:
-in the 1960’s referenced the moment when modernism became official academia, thereby losing face with a whole new arena of artists.
2)‘Kitsch’:the erosion of traditional distinctions between high culture and mass culture.
-Implicated within the latter is that it poses a threat to the establishment, to academia which have a vested interest in the preservation of the elite and high culture. (Or maybe it poses a threat to the public by further disenfranchising the lower classes by appropriating mass culture, repackaging it and selling it back to the public for a high price as ‘high culture’?)
3) The dissolution of professional philosophy and theory
-is there such a thing as ‘post-modernist theory’ or does the very nature of the movement as a fragmented re-appropriation of the past make theoretical discourse futile and irrelevant to architectural practice?
-earlier theoretical discourse weas distinguishable between academic disciplines, where now theory “can be anything and everything at once or nothing at all”.
4) A periodizing concept that correlates new formal features in culture with a new type of socio-economic ordering (late capitalism)
5) The rise of ‘pastiche’ and ‘schizophrenia’
-not to be confused with parody, pastiche involves the mimicry and imitation of other styles without seizing on their idiosyncrasies or making any sort of comment on the original (missing the point completely): “speech in a dead language”; pastiche a ‘blank parody’.
-Resulting from a schizophrenic consumer capitalist social arena where collectively we have begun to lose our sense of history; we are in perpetual motion and have lost all points of reference.
6) Death of the ‘subject or the end of individualism
-global awareness, demographic explosion and the age of corporate capitalism where the individual subject becomes subservient to the collective, ‘face-less’ subject competing for capital, resources and space.
-Artists and writers work is no longer of relevance to society: Is this actually the case? I think not. They are here to push societal awareness past their own noses.
-Jameson states rather apocalyptically, that everything has been invented and only a limited amount of potentialities exist…Can this be proved? I hardly think that this is the case. As long as there is a necessity for change, invention will exist.
The imperative of new architecture
-to extend new organs and expand our senses to (as yet) unimaginable dimensions (hyperspace).
Example: the Bonaventure hotel (John Portman) aspires to become a total space (hyper-locality) to accommodate the new collective (hyper-crowd).
-busyness of space, repression of depth cues immerses the individual eliminating distance to repress perspective or perception of volume… Is this the future of architectural practice?
reading notes 2
Fredric Jameson, ‘Postmodernism and Consumer Society’
Postmodernism is not very easily understood that could be why it is not accepted today. Postmodernism is represented in a lots of areas of the art field this making it more complex and harder to understand. “Postmodernism is a reaction against the established forms of high modernism.”(164) “Postmodernism is effacement in it of some key boundaries or separations, most notably the erosion of the older distinction between high culture and the so-called mass or popular culture.”(165) Postmodernism is not just another word to describe a particular style. It is more of a grouping of concepts, new way of thinking and designing more of an inner truth. It has a deeper meaning in the consumer or multinational capitalism and social system. You get a sense of history in postmodernism that you don’t get from another movement. I really don’t understand it myself. I need to do this again.
Postmodernism is not very easily understood that could be why it is not accepted today. Postmodernism is represented in a lots of areas of the art field this making it more complex and harder to understand. “Postmodernism is a reaction against the established forms of high modernism.”(164) “Postmodernism is effacement in it of some key boundaries or separations, most notably the erosion of the older distinction between high culture and the so-called mass or popular culture.”(165) Postmodernism is not just another word to describe a particular style. It is more of a grouping of concepts, new way of thinking and designing more of an inner truth. It has a deeper meaning in the consumer or multinational capitalism and social system. You get a sense of history in postmodernism that you don’t get from another movement. I really don’t understand it myself. I need to do this again.
Reading notes
Popular Capitalism and Popular Culture
David Harvey, from The Condition of Postmodernity. An Enquiry into the Origins of Social Change
This is an interesting article that looks at Postmodernity as a historic condition. Aesthetic and cultural practices are subject to change with the times. How does one even keep up? There are things in history that can explain movement that you just have to watch out for. What happens in science and religion and political and cultural realms are present everywhere it has influence on everything. Economics show how things look good in one perspective if not good in another’s, it’s a false imagery. (Fictitious capitalism and disempowerment).
Aesthetic movements in architecture have been based on Fads of the different times. But fads come and go. Just like get rich quick schemes. You can make lots of money overnight on one thing and lose your shirt the next night on a new scheme. So the question is do you follow the things you like now or do you risk it to stand the test of time. Follow Classicism or create your own movement.
David Harvey, from The Condition of Postmodernity. An Enquiry into the Origins of Social Change
This is an interesting article that looks at Postmodernity as a historic condition. Aesthetic and cultural practices are subject to change with the times. How does one even keep up? There are things in history that can explain movement that you just have to watch out for. What happens in science and religion and political and cultural realms are present everywhere it has influence on everything. Economics show how things look good in one perspective if not good in another’s, it’s a false imagery. (Fictitious capitalism and disempowerment).
Aesthetic movements in architecture have been based on Fads of the different times. But fads come and go. Just like get rich quick schemes. You can make lots of money overnight on one thing and lose your shirt the next night on a new scheme. So the question is do you follow the things you like now or do you risk it to stand the test of time. Follow Classicism or create your own movement.
questions
1.Is postmodernism a style?
2.Is the emergence of postmodernism related to the emergence of late, comsumer or multinational capitalism? How?
3.What is the aim of postmodernism in architecture? Is it a mood of nostalgia or trying to address the failures of modernism and repelling it?
4.Is it necessary to respect or look back the past? Why?
2.Is the emergence of postmodernism related to the emergence of late, comsumer or multinational capitalism? How?
3.What is the aim of postmodernism in architecture? Is it a mood of nostalgia or trying to address the failures of modernism and repelling it?
4.Is it necessary to respect or look back the past? Why?
Questions for Jae-Part 2
Questions (Harvey: Popular Capitalism and Popular culture)
1)Is postmodernism currently on a decline or just undergoing an evolution? What are the current conditions that give evidence of your opinion?
2)Based on Harvey’s analysis that defines the beginning of major aesthetic movements as occurring during moments of overwhelming space-time compression: is the ‘post-postmdernist’ movement valid? Is this a new moment of space-time compression or What are the societal conditions that have spurred this movement?
3)Can we predict the future through the conditions of the present? (the present is a matrix for the culmination of the future)
4)Harvey highlights some theorists’ predictions on the culmination of the next aesthetic movement: What sort of aesthetic movement would you like to see or think will happen? Is it nostalgic or evolutionary?
Questions (Jameson: Post-moderism and Consumer Society)
1)Can post-modern theory be called theory at all (in the traditional concept)? Or is theory inapplicable to postmodernist design?
2)Does the future of architecture lie within the complete departure from the fundamental notion of framing physical space?
3)Is psychological spatiality (experience of being immersed in space) taking precedence over the traditional concept of physical space (experience of space from a certain distance)?
4)What does the notion of ‘post-modern hyperspace’ mean for architecture? How does it change the tectonic?
5)Can the postmodern movement move beyond perpetual motion and replication towards the notion of creating and end for end’s sake? Is this a desirable goal?
1)Is postmodernism currently on a decline or just undergoing an evolution? What are the current conditions that give evidence of your opinion?
2)Based on Harvey’s analysis that defines the beginning of major aesthetic movements as occurring during moments of overwhelming space-time compression: is the ‘post-postmdernist’ movement valid? Is this a new moment of space-time compression or What are the societal conditions that have spurred this movement?
3)Can we predict the future through the conditions of the present? (the present is a matrix for the culmination of the future)
4)Harvey highlights some theorists’ predictions on the culmination of the next aesthetic movement: What sort of aesthetic movement would you like to see or think will happen? Is it nostalgic or evolutionary?
Questions (Jameson: Post-moderism and Consumer Society)
1)Can post-modern theory be called theory at all (in the traditional concept)? Or is theory inapplicable to postmodernist design?
2)Does the future of architecture lie within the complete departure from the fundamental notion of framing physical space?
3)Is psychological spatiality (experience of being immersed in space) taking precedence over the traditional concept of physical space (experience of space from a certain distance)?
4)What does the notion of ‘post-modern hyperspace’ mean for architecture? How does it change the tectonic?
5)Can the postmodern movement move beyond perpetual motion and replication towards the notion of creating and end for end’s sake? Is this a desirable goal?
Questions for Jae-Part 2
Questions (Harvey: Popular Capitalism and Popular culture)
1)Is postmodernism currently on a decline or just undergoing an evolution? What are the current conditions that give evidence of your opinion?
2)Based on Harvey’s analysis that defines the beginning of major aesthetic movements as occurring during moments of overwhelming space-time compression: is the ‘post-postmdernist’ movement valid? Is this a new moment of space-time compression or What are the societal conditions that have spurred this movement?
3)Can we predict the future through the conditions of the present? (the present is a matrix for the culmination of the future)
4)Harvey highlights some theorists’ predictions on the culmination of the next aesthetic movement: What sort of aesthetic movement would you like to see or think will happen? Is it nostalgic or evolutionary?
Questions (Jameson: Post-moderism and Consumer Society)
1)Can post-modern theory be called theory at all (in the traditional concept)? Or is theory inapplicable to postmodernist design?
2)Does the future of architecture lie within the complete departure from the fundamental notion of framing physical space?
3)Is psychological spatiality (experience of being immersed in space) taking precedence over the traditional concept of physical space (experience of space from a certain distance)?
4)What does the notion of ‘post-modern hyperspace’ mean for architecture? How does it change the tectonic?
5)Can the postmodern movement move beyond perpetual motion and replication towards the notion of creating and end for end’s sake? Is this a desirable goal?
1)Is postmodernism currently on a decline or just undergoing an evolution? What are the current conditions that give evidence of your opinion?
2)Based on Harvey’s analysis that defines the beginning of major aesthetic movements as occurring during moments of overwhelming space-time compression: is the ‘post-postmdernist’ movement valid? Is this a new moment of space-time compression or What are the societal conditions that have spurred this movement?
3)Can we predict the future through the conditions of the present? (the present is a matrix for the culmination of the future)
4)Harvey highlights some theorists’ predictions on the culmination of the next aesthetic movement: What sort of aesthetic movement would you like to see or think will happen? Is it nostalgic or evolutionary?
Questions (Jameson: Post-moderism and Consumer Society)
1)Can post-modern theory be called theory at all (in the traditional concept)? Or is theory inapplicable to postmodernist design?
2)Does the future of architecture lie within the complete departure from the fundamental notion of framing physical space?
3)Is psychological spatiality (experience of being immersed in space) taking precedence over the traditional concept of physical space (experience of space from a certain distance)?
4)What does the notion of ‘post-modern hyperspace’ mean for architecture? How does it change the tectonic?
5)Can the postmodern movement move beyond perpetual motion and replication towards the notion of creating and end for end’s sake? Is this a desirable goal?
Popular Capitalism and Popular Culture
Article Review: "Popular Capitalism and Popular Culture" -David Harvey
Harvey analyzes the rise postmodern condition through an historical, ‘post-marxist’ standpoint:
-The dimensions of space and time are compressed due to the pressure created by the over-accumulation and persistent circulation of capital, which began in the nineteenth century.
-Effect on aesthetic and cultural practices subject to the ‘flow of human experience’ within space and time.
-Space-time compression sparks confusion and uncertainty as society struggles within the overwhelming density of the moment, intitiating strong aesthetic movements.
Deconstruction and the fragmentation of society:
Harvey weaves together the threads that have spurred societal change into a tapestry of the postmodern condition.
-The mediatization of politics: powerful positions carefully shaped by image. underlying fascist regime glossed over with the image of warm and well-meaning politics.
-Deindustrialization and the shift to service industry causing widespread unemployment widened the gap between the haves and have nots rendering much of the population vulnerable.
Rise of the credit industry and fictitious capital:
- Asset inflation replaces commodity inflation
- dependency on fictitious/symbolic capital: image of affluence increases the perceived needs of the disenfranchised.
- Detachment from reality: an increasingly image based society is indifferent to the modes of production and economy
- Detachment and disassociation triggers the notion of ‘the other’ prevalent in aesthetic movements
Postmodernism is undergoing a subtle evolution:
-Deconstructionism is being put under fire for its past sympathies for the fascist/Nazi regime (Heidegger, Paul De Man)
-East/west economic and ideological gaps are closing in.
-Economic mergers: movement away from the fragmentary
-New emphasis on ‘becoming’, rather than ‘being’
-Seeking out unity within difference.
Harvey analyzes the rise postmodern condition through an historical, ‘post-marxist’ standpoint:
-The dimensions of space and time are compressed due to the pressure created by the over-accumulation and persistent circulation of capital, which began in the nineteenth century.
-Effect on aesthetic and cultural practices subject to the ‘flow of human experience’ within space and time.
-Space-time compression sparks confusion and uncertainty as society struggles within the overwhelming density of the moment, intitiating strong aesthetic movements.
Deconstruction and the fragmentation of society:
Harvey weaves together the threads that have spurred societal change into a tapestry of the postmodern condition.
-The mediatization of politics: powerful positions carefully shaped by image. underlying fascist regime glossed over with the image of warm and well-meaning politics.
-Deindustrialization and the shift to service industry causing widespread unemployment widened the gap between the haves and have nots rendering much of the population vulnerable.
Rise of the credit industry and fictitious capital:
- Asset inflation replaces commodity inflation
- dependency on fictitious/symbolic capital: image of affluence increases the perceived needs of the disenfranchised.
- Detachment from reality: an increasingly image based society is indifferent to the modes of production and economy
- Detachment and disassociation triggers the notion of ‘the other’ prevalent in aesthetic movements
Postmodernism is undergoing a subtle evolution:
-Deconstructionism is being put under fire for its past sympathies for the fascist/Nazi regime (Heidegger, Paul De Man)
-East/west economic and ideological gaps are closing in.
-Economic mergers: movement away from the fragmentary
-New emphasis on ‘becoming’, rather than ‘being’
-Seeking out unity within difference.
Postmodernism and Consumer Society
Postmodernism and Consumer Society" , Jameson explores the concept of "postmodernist space," which he refers to as a "mutation in built space itself" -- where humans become physically disoriented because they have not developed the "perceptual equipment to match this new hyperspace" .In " This hyperspace, which emerges out of postmodernism, is directly linked to the concept of late capitalism. Jameson refers to this mode of capitalism as a "postindustrial society" whose "multinational capitalism" and new pervasive forms of media and technology replace the pre-World War II society.
Jameson focuses his analysis of postmodernist space on John Portman's Bonaventure Hotel. The Bonaventure Hotel is a landmark in downtown Los Angeles. Its futuristic structure is composed of three mirrored-glass towers. Jameson claims that postmodern buildings such as the Bonaventure Hotel do not seek to "insert a different, a distinct, or an elevated language into the tawdry and commercial sign-system of the surrounding city," but, instead, seek "to speak that very language, using commercialism's lexicon and syntax." These buildings, Jameson contends, "aspire to be a total space, a complete world, a kind of miniature city," not wanting "to be a part of the city, but rather its equivalent and its replacement or substitute" . He explains that unlike the great modernist buildings that sought to invoke a dramatic distinction from the surrounding "fallen city fabric," the Bonaventure Hotel seeks no such distinction with its mirrored-glass siding. The hotel itself is hiden with the mirrored-siding. when you look at the building, all that can be seen are the distorted images of everything that surrounds the building. The important element here is Jameson's portrayal of the Bonaventure as composed in the lexicon and form of commercialism, and, hence, late capitalism. The building is, therefore, a physical manifestation of the late capitalistic society -- a mini-city within the city itself. Jameson states that he desires for Portman's building to be distinguished from the "leisure-specialized" space found in places like Disneyland. Disneyland is a "deterrence machine". It presents an imaginary space/world in order to make us believe that the rest of the world is real. The Bonaventure Hotel is a normal element of the whole because of its economic function within the city. It is designed to fit into the physical and economic landscape of the city. It constructs its own "new" world when you enter it. However,this new world is not intended to contrast with the outside city as Disneyland; instead,it is designed to replace it -- to become the outside world.
Jameson focuses his analysis of postmodernist space on John Portman's Bonaventure Hotel. The Bonaventure Hotel is a landmark in downtown Los Angeles. Its futuristic structure is composed of three mirrored-glass towers. Jameson claims that postmodern buildings such as the Bonaventure Hotel do not seek to "insert a different, a distinct, or an elevated language into the tawdry and commercial sign-system of the surrounding city," but, instead, seek "to speak that very language, using commercialism's lexicon and syntax." These buildings, Jameson contends, "aspire to be a total space, a complete world, a kind of miniature city," not wanting "to be a part of the city, but rather its equivalent and its replacement or substitute" . He explains that unlike the great modernist buildings that sought to invoke a dramatic distinction from the surrounding "fallen city fabric," the Bonaventure Hotel seeks no such distinction with its mirrored-glass siding. The hotel itself is hiden with the mirrored-siding. when you look at the building, all that can be seen are the distorted images of everything that surrounds the building. The important element here is Jameson's portrayal of the Bonaventure as composed in the lexicon and form of commercialism, and, hence, late capitalism. The building is, therefore, a physical manifestation of the late capitalistic society -- a mini-city within the city itself. Jameson states that he desires for Portman's building to be distinguished from the "leisure-specialized" space found in places like Disneyland. Disneyland is a "deterrence machine". It presents an imaginary space/world in order to make us believe that the rest of the world is real. The Bonaventure Hotel is a normal element of the whole because of its economic function within the city. It is designed to fit into the physical and economic landscape of the city. It constructs its own "new" world when you enter it. However,this new world is not intended to contrast with the outside city as Disneyland; instead,it is designed to replace it -- to become the outside world.
Questions for Jae
Hey guys, these are the six questions I've come up with for the two articles:
Questions for Week 2 Articles:
Postmodernism and Consumer Society:
1. Postmodernism signaled the end of individualism by signaling the end of high modernism, if this is so, why is postmodernism considered to be creative freedom for the arts?
2. Nostalgia has become an important tool in developments like Florida’s Celebration neighborhood; why do we feel the need to create a past? We create history for the present; we no longer use history for its intrinsic value.
3. Is architecture considered as a way to create and manipulate memories and the past?
An Enquiry in to the Origins of Social Change
1. The image of everything being okay is more important or prevalent then the reality of everything not being okay. What examples are there of this?
2. Image is everything; we live under the constant bombardment of social and political image. Are these the political games we should be playing?
3. Beneath the illusion of stability is chaos that expands and goes unnoticed. Are these the illusions of postmodernism?
Questions for Week 2 Articles:
Postmodernism and Consumer Society:
1. Postmodernism signaled the end of individualism by signaling the end of high modernism, if this is so, why is postmodernism considered to be creative freedom for the arts?
2. Nostalgia has become an important tool in developments like Florida’s Celebration neighborhood; why do we feel the need to create a past? We create history for the present; we no longer use history for its intrinsic value.
3. Is architecture considered as a way to create and manipulate memories and the past?
An Enquiry in to the Origins of Social Change
1. The image of everything being okay is more important or prevalent then the reality of everything not being okay. What examples are there of this?
2. Image is everything; we live under the constant bombardment of social and political image. Are these the political games we should be playing?
3. Beneath the illusion of stability is chaos that expands and goes unnoticed. Are these the illusions of postmodernism?
Review Notes for Week 2
Hey Everyone,
I hope you all can get on to our new blog. Here are my review notes for the articles "Postmodernism and Consumer Society" and "An Enquiry in to the Origins of Social Change", I sent them by email earlier but here they are:
Review Notes for Week Two:
Postmodernism and Consumer Society
Postmodernism: a reaction to what was going on in art and architecture in the 1960’s; in other words a reaction to high modernism.
“Pastiche is blank Parody”??
- Parody is mimicry; the wearing of a stylistic mask; making fun, exaggeration; a sense of joviality.
- Pastiche lacks in amusement; it is plain mimicry; a serious parody.
The end of individualism
- modernism as private, unique style, individualist
- Postmodernism as collective pastiche; borrowing from history. A weight has been lifted; pressure of creating a unique stylized private world is dead. Did this occur as a type of copout? We just ran out of ideas?
- As it is defined right now postmodernism is not a style, it is anything that doesn’t reflect the private unique style of high modernism. So then, what is it? What “style” are we in right now? Do we need to be in a style? Why do we need to constantly define the boundaries of what is happening?
- We are left with the imitation of dead styles
Nostalgia
- This desire for something past is consistent with postmodernism.
- What is the difference between the nostalgia film or pastiche and the films of history or the historical novel? We create history for the present, we no longer use history for its intrinsic value.
Historical Amnesia
- Society now lacks our own history; perhaps that is why these fake histories and nostalgic inclinations are so prevalent today; architecture as a way to create and manipulate memory and the past.
Postmodernism = our reality as constructed image and time only exists in the present.
An Enquiry into the Origins of Social Change
Postmodernism is an historical- geographical condition, but what kind of a condition?
The image of everything being okay is more important or prevalent then the reality of everything not being okay.
Image is everything; we live under the constant bombardment of social and political image.
Beneath the illusion of stability is chaos that expands and goes unnoticed.
So, for today at 12:00 we have to sent Jae 7 points (questions and opinions) for each of the articles. If we can each come up with 3 points per article and put them up on the blog we can sift through them at 11:00 and then come up with our 14 Points to email to Jae. What does everyone think of this?
I hope you all can get on to our new blog. Here are my review notes for the articles "Postmodernism and Consumer Society" and "An Enquiry in to the Origins of Social Change", I sent them by email earlier but here they are:
Review Notes for Week Two:
Postmodernism and Consumer Society
Postmodernism: a reaction to what was going on in art and architecture in the 1960’s; in other words a reaction to high modernism.
“Pastiche is blank Parody”??
- Parody is mimicry; the wearing of a stylistic mask; making fun, exaggeration; a sense of joviality.
- Pastiche lacks in amusement; it is plain mimicry; a serious parody.
The end of individualism
- modernism as private, unique style, individualist
- Postmodernism as collective pastiche; borrowing from history. A weight has been lifted; pressure of creating a unique stylized private world is dead. Did this occur as a type of copout? We just ran out of ideas?
- As it is defined right now postmodernism is not a style, it is anything that doesn’t reflect the private unique style of high modernism. So then, what is it? What “style” are we in right now? Do we need to be in a style? Why do we need to constantly define the boundaries of what is happening?
- We are left with the imitation of dead styles
Nostalgia
- This desire for something past is consistent with postmodernism.
- What is the difference between the nostalgia film or pastiche and the films of history or the historical novel? We create history for the present, we no longer use history for its intrinsic value.
Historical Amnesia
- Society now lacks our own history; perhaps that is why these fake histories and nostalgic inclinations are so prevalent today; architecture as a way to create and manipulate memory and the past.
Postmodernism = our reality as constructed image and time only exists in the present.
An Enquiry into the Origins of Social Change
Postmodernism is an historical- geographical condition, but what kind of a condition?
The image of everything being okay is more important or prevalent then the reality of everything not being okay.
Image is everything; we live under the constant bombardment of social and political image.
Beneath the illusion of stability is chaos that expands and goes unnoticed.
So, for today at 12:00 we have to sent Jae 7 points (questions and opinions) for each of the articles. If we can each come up with 3 points per article and put them up on the blog we can sift through them at 11:00 and then come up with our 14 Points to email to Jae. What does everyone think of this?
Monday, January 22, 2007
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