Reading Materials:

Books:

ART AND SOCIETY by A. Guillermo, Flores, et. al

SPACE AND IDENTITY by Abraham Sakili
THE HUMANITIES, Vol. 5 or 6, by Dudley, Faricy and Rice
ART PERCEPTION AND APPRECIATION (Chapter 4) by Ortiz, et. al.)
SOCIAL REALISM IN THE PHILIPINES by Alice Guillermo

Selected Handouts (For Photocopying)

ABRAHAM P. SAKILI. PhD.

Professor
Office: 2092 / 2097 Faculty Center
 ART AND SOCIETY: AESTHETICS OF COMMITTED ART
OUTLINE/ BREAKDOWN OF THE CONTENT OF THE ARTICLE
1. Introduction: The facts and necessity of viewing all arts as socially or historically rooted
2. What’s the problem with treating “art for art’s sake” (AFAS) as equal and competing
with those arts that recognize social roots (social or contextual arts)?
3. What are the beliefs or stands of the supporters of AFAS? --Theophile Gautier of the
Parnassian School, the French Symbolists (Baudelaire and Mallarme), the
Goncourt brothers, the Aesthetes or the Decadents, Clive Bell and Benedetto Croce
4. How is the Phenomenological reductionism of Edmund Husserl associated with AFAS?
5. How did the belief in AFAS emerged in the context of the Industrial Revolution of the
19th century? -- as a response against “art for money’s sake”
--the view of Plekhanov of AFAS as symptomatic of alienation
6. How did Karl Marx contrast the time of the Industrial Revolution from the previous times?
7. How is AFAS linked to class interest (the views of Janet Wolf) ? Why was AFAS initially
anti-bourgeoisie turned out later to be supportive of the bourgeois system?
8. What are the other arguments in support of social or contextual art?
--H. Benac’s “social role of the artist
9. How does Idelogy figure in all arts, including AFAS?
--the Views of Vinayak Purohit on Ideology in relations to technology and commodity
--Arnold Hauser’s two kinds of Idelogy in the arts: the “explicit” and the “implicit” ideology
10. Art as a form of knowledge
--Lukac’s view of art as “representing a totalizing vision in a fragmented society
--Aesthetics or “the specificity of the art” as a distinct discipline
11. Art prescriptions forwarded by Mao Tse-Tung in the Yenan Forum on Art and Literature in 1942
12. The greatest moments of art were attained with the fusion of high aesthetic form and human liberative meaning.
 ART AND SOCIETY: AESTHETICS OF COMMITTED ART
OUTLINE/ BREAKDOWN OF THE CONTENT OF THE ARTICLE

1. Introduction: The facts and necessity of viewing all arts as socially or historically rooted
2. What’s the problem with treating “art for art’s sake” (AFAS) as equal and competing
with those arts that recognize social roots (social or contextual arts)?
3. What are the beliefs or stands of the supporters of AFAS? --Theophile Gautier of the
Parnassian School, the French Symbolists (Baudelaire and Mallarme), the
Goncourt brothers, the Aesthetes or the Decadents, Clive Bell and Benedetto Croce
4. How is the Phenomenological reductionism of Edmund Husserl associated with AFAS?
5. How did the belief in AFAS emerged in the context of the Industrial Revolution of the
19th century? -- as a response against “art for money’s sake”
--the view of Plekhanov of AFAS as symptomatic of alienation
6. How did Karl Marx contrast the time of the Industrial Revolution from the previous times?
7. How is AFAS linked to class interest (the views of Janet Wolf) ? Why was AFAS initially
anti-bourgeoisie turned out later to be supportive of the bourgeois system?
8. What are the other arguments in support of social or contextual art?
--H. Benac’s “social role of the artist
9. How does Idelogy figure in all arts, including AFAS?
--the Views of Vinayak Purohit on Ideology in relations to technology and commodity
--Arnold Hauser’s two kinds of Idelogy in the arts: the “explicit” and the “implicit” ideology
10. Art as a form of knowledge
--Lukac’s view of art as “representing a totalizing vision in a fragmented society
--Aesthetics or “the specificity of the art” as a distinct discipline
11. Art prescriptions forwarded by Mao Tse-Tung in the Yenan Forum on Art and Literature in 1942
12. The greatest moments of art were attained with the fusion of high aesthetic form and human liberative
meaning.
“The greatest moments of art were attained with the fusion
of high artistic form and human liberative meaning.”

THIRD OF MAY 1808

LIBERTY GUIDING THE PEOPLE
by Francisco Goya
by Eugene Delacroix

GUERNICA
by Pablo Picasso
 GUERNICA
by Pablo Picasso
 WHAT IS ART?
Here are some of the most commonly cited definitions of art:

1. Art is an attempt to create pleasing forms. (Herbert Read)

2. Art is an enjoyment of forms. ( Ernst Cassirer)
3. Art is a man-made object demanding to be experienced
aesthetically. (Erwin Panofsky)
4. Art is expression; it is not intention or talent. (Benedetto Croce)
5. Art is the skilled performance or distinctive ability in any
activity whatsoever. (James Jarret)
6. Art is the power to produce a pre-conceived result by means
of consciously controlled and directed action. (Classical definition)
7. Art molds our actual life of feeling; by giving form to the world
it articulates human nature: sensibility, energy, passion and
mortality. (Susanne Langer)
8. Art is any embellishment of ordinary living that is achieved with
competence and has describable form. (Melville Herskovits)
 SOME ART LINES TO PROVOKE RESPONSES:
1. There is no standard ‘definition’ of Art that is encompassing
2. The value of Art is not primarily extrinsic (material/practical) but intrinsic, that is spiritual, emotional,
psychological, intuitive and the like.
3. The language or meaning of art is not precise, exact nor categorical as that of science
4. Art appreciation is not the ‘liking’ or ‘disliking’ of the art but the understanding of the art.
5. The enjoyment of Art is on three levels: sensory (seeing), emotional (feeling) and intellectual (understanding).
6. Art is not only the beautiful but also the ugly.
7. Setting aside the belief on “beauty” as “in the eyes of the beholder,” Art beauty is to be appreciated not on
WHAT is being represented (subject) but on HOW the subject is being represented ) organization).
8. There are no universally accepted criteria for Art Judgment. Some however proposed the following as helpful
measures of ‘good’ Art: 1) Sincerity, 2) Depth of meaning and 3) Impact, Magnanimity or
Sublimity. Brilliance is also proposed as a measure.
9. Art is always contextual. No Art can thrive if it is detached from its socio-cultural or historical context or root
that nourishes it with ‘life’ and meaning.
10. Art elements should not be read sequentially for Meaning. The Meaning of Art is the result of the inter-
relationship of its specificity or material signifiers such as the elements, medium and technique.
11. Meaning in Art is always fluid, dynamic, not exact and nor permanent.
12.The ‘Horizon of Meaning’ allows varied art meanings within a considerable ‘range’ of validity.
13. The two main sources of meaning in Art are: 1) Shared psycho-physical experience of man which tends
to be universal, and 2) Social conventions which are culture-specific.
14. Art is not only a measurement of development but of decay.
15. Art is reduced into a commodity when the integrity of the Art and the Artist is compromised.
16. Art is not only to build, but to destroy. (Dadaism’s motto: “Destroy to create”)
17. Art is not always liberating but sometimes counterrevolutionary.
18. A resort to “Art for art’ sake” happens when the artist is at odd with his social environment.
19. All art is political; all art is ideological.
20.Ideology in art is either explicit (tagged as socialist’s propaganda) and ‘veiled’ or implicit (as in capitalist’s
art --e.g. still life, landscape, portraiture, etc-- masquerading as ‘neutral’ or ‘innocent’.
21. A piece of advice from an “Art for art’s sake” supporter: “Do not aspire beyond what you see with
your optic nerve”.
22. “The most absolute abstraction from the affairs of life is essential” -- a formalist belief (Clive Bell’s Theory
of Absolute Form).
 OTHER ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT ART:
1. ART IS AN EXPRESSION AND COMMUNICATION
Can there be expression without communication?
2. ART IS A SUPER-CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION
How does art language differ from the language we use daily?
3. ART IS A CREATION. Does creative activity always involve
skill or expertness on technique and organization?
4. ART IS EXPERIENCE. What are the 3 major kinds of
experience involved in artistic activity?
In a more practical sense, what does Art as Experience mean?
5. ART IS A UNITY OF FORM AND MEANING
Is there form without meaning?
What are the important points to remember about meaning in art?
6. ART IS BEAUTY. What are the 3 general ways of explaining
beauty or “the beautiful” in the art?
7. ART IS UNIVERSAL. If so, what makes art universal? If not,
what makes art “not universal”?
8. ART IS A CONSTRUCT, IT IS NOT NATURE. What are the
of asserting art as a construct?
 PLATO’S THEORY OF FORM

How can we apply a single word or concept to many different things? How
can the word table be used for all the individual objects that are tables?
Plato’s answer: “various things can be called by the same name because they have
something in common. He called this common factor the thing’s form or idea.

According to Plato, the real nature of any individual thing depends on the form in
which it “participates” ( For example, a particular table is what it is because it
participates in the form of “tableness”).

Circular objects or beautiful objects are never perfectly circular or perfectly

beautiful. The only perfectly circular thing is the form of circularity itself, and the
only perfectly beautiful thing is the form of beauty.

These unchanging and perfect forms cannot be part of the everyday world which is
changing and imperfect. They can be known only by the intellect, not by the senses.
Because of their stability and perfection, the forms have greater reality than ordinary
objects observed by the senses.

These central doctrines of Plato’s philosophy are called his theory of forms or theory
of ideas.
 THE SEMIOTIC APPROACH IN ART STUDIES

ART is a signifying practice which is grounded in society and history.As such,

art has its own specificity--that is, the elements of art, forms, media, techniques, styles-
- which distinguishes it from other field. As found in works of art, these make up the
signs consisting of signifiers (material data) and signifieds ) concepts) which in their
relation to one another in the visual work or text produce meaning.

The elements of art and its other material aspects are regarded as signs that have the
meaning-conveying potential (deriving both from human psychophysical
experiences and cultural codes) which becomes realized in the entire relations
of the work, since the material aspects or signifiers are ultimately tied up with the
conceptual aspects which are the signifieds. Such an approach finds a common
ground for interpretation on the universal plane, and the national and local plane,
that is the cultural codes shared by members of a particular society.

In this Semiotic Approach, the work of art is viewed in the dialogic situation of the work
and its viewer. In this semiotic approach, it is necessary to emphasize that he work of
art is seen not as a close hermetic text but as an open work in which the signs are
referred back to their referents in the real world. For like language, art, too, exists in a
dialogic situation in which an exchange takes place between the work and the viewer.
Why do we assume that something is Art? Why do we assume that the notion of Art exists?

THE INSTITUTIONAL THEORY OF ART forwards some answers:

ARTHUR DANTO asserts that an object will be admitted to be artif it can be related
to already acknowledged objects or by way of theoretical justification. He requires that
a theory must validate theexistence of the object-- a theory ‘testifying’ that the said
object share common features which are both aesthetically legitimate.

GEORGE DICKIE advances the view that artistic distinction can be conferred by
anyone who can conceive of himself or herself as an agent of the art world and
operates within the appropriate institutional contexts. Thus a soup can become art if
an acknowledged artist puts it up for sale, a curator displays it in a museum, an art
critic gives it a review, an art historian includes it in a book, an art teacher discusses its
aesthetic merits in school, and so on. Simply put, the agencies of the art world--academe,
media, the gallery/museum networks, the art market, publicists and dealers, culture
industries--send off to the public the “signals of art, locating them within the proper
institutional scheme and ingraining in them the appropriate aesthetic reception,
disposition or attitude to accept and include some things as art and reject and exclude
others as anything but art. It is in this context that our notions of art are constructed,
validated, reproduced and disseminated to others whom we think must be guided by
the same principles.
 CLASSICISM AND ROMANTICISM

CLASSICISM. The word classic came to connote the qualities that were supposed to
characterize Greek and Latin authors: clarity, simplicity, restraint, objectivity and
balance.

ROMANTICISM. The word romantic describe the qualities found in the medieval
romance (e.g. tale of chivalry): love of remote and indefinite, escape from reality,
lack of restraint in form and emotions, and a preference for picturesqueness,
grandeur, or passion, rather than finish and proportion.

Classicism and Romanticism are fundamentally in opposition: what is classic is not

romantic, and what is romantic is not in that respect classic. The classic is restrained,
the romantic is strained. The classic is more real, it is concerned with an idealization
of the everyday; the romantic is unreal, concerned with the fantastic, the strange and
unusual. The classic is finished, ; it has great beauty of form; the romantic is
unfinished, imperfect, and often careless as regards form. The classic is simple; the
romantic is complex. The classic is objective, the romantic is subjective. The classic is
finite, concerned only with projects that can be realized and accomplished; the
romantic is unfinished, concerned with plans that can never be realized, affecting
“thoughts co-equal with the clouds”.
.
 WESTERN ART
:
I. CLASSICISM vs. ROMANTICISM and representative art samples (see Slide Guide)

II. WESTERN ART HISTORY (The Classical and Romantic Periods)

Focus on the following:
1. GREEK CLASSICAL IDEALS and art samples
2. ROMAN ART AND HISTORY

3. The RENAISSANCE: Its setting, emergence and development, worldviews

contributions to the arts, known art masterpieces and artists
4. Reactions Against the Renaissance:
MANNERISM-- of subject, line, value, space, gesture and the fantastic.
Mannerist art samples and artists ( esp. Tintoretto and El Greco
BAROQUE as a highly emotional/ornamental art in the context of the
Reformation. Baroque art samples-- focused on the works of
Bernini and Rembrandt
5. The reaction of ROMANTICISM, primarily through the works of Edouard Manet
6. The reaction of REALISM, through peasant subjects such as those
of Francois Millet, Honore Daumier and Gustave Courbet
III. MODERN ART, initially focused most on IMPRESSIONISM, to be
followed by Post-Impressionist art styles such as Pointillism,Cubism
and Expressionism. Other modern art styles would also be tackled.
Representative Modern Art masterpieces need to be known/ familiarized with.
 POST-MODERNISM
CLASSICISM

MODERNISM
GREEK RENAISSANCE NEO-CLASSICISM

19th-20th C
500 BC 15th-16th C. 18th C
ROMAN

2nd-15th C 16th-17th C. 18th-19th C

MANNERISM ROMANTICISM
MEDIEVAL
BAROQUE, REALISM
ROCOCO
MODERN ART SCHOOLS/ STYLES:
ROMANTICISM IMPRESSIONISM
POST-IMPRESSIONISM:
POINTILLISM
FACTORS CONDITIONING MODERN ART: EXPRESSIONISM
CUBISM
Social Change: Industrialization, Urbanization PRIMITIVISM
Inventions: Modern Photography ABSTRACTIONISM
Modern Means of Travel and Communication ABSTRACT EXPARESSIONISM
OP ART, PSYCHEDELIC ART, POP ART
Modern Ideas: Bergson’s Philosophy about TIME FAUVISM
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity SURREALISM
Freud’s Psychoanalysis
Sculpture: CONSTRUCTIVISM
Political Upheavals : World Wars I and II Architecture:
FUNCTIONALISM,
or International Style
ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE
 CLASSICISM AND ROMANTICISM

CLASSICISM. The word classic came to connote the qualities that were supposed to
characterize Greek and Latin authors: clarity, simplicity, restraint, objectivity and
balance.

ROMANTICISM. The word romantic describe the qualities found in the medieval
romance (e.g. tale of chivalry): love of remote and indefinite, escape from reality,
lack of restraint in form and emotions, and a preference for picturesqueness,
grandeur, or passion, rather than finish and proportion.

Classicism and Romanticism are fundamentally in opposition: what is classic is not

romantic, and what is romantic is not in that respect classic. The classic is restrained,
the romantic is strained. The classic is more real, it is concerned with an idealization
of the everyday; the romantic is unreal, concerned with the fantastic, the strange and
unusual. The classic is finished, ; it has great beauty of form; the romantic is
unfinished, imperfect, and often careless as regards form. The classic is simple; the
romantic is complex. The classic is objective, the romantic is subjective. The classic is
finite, concerned only with projects that can be realized and accomplished; the
romantic is unfinished, concerned with plans that can never be realized, affecting
“thoughts co-equal with the clouds”.
.
CLASSICAL SCULPTURE ROMANTIC SCULPTURE

“David” by Michelangelo “Laocoon”

 CLASSICAL PAINTING

THE LAST SUPPER

Leonardo da Vinci

ROMANTIC (MANNERIST) PAINTING

THE LAST SUPPER
Tintoretto
 CLASSICAL PAINTING

LA PRIMAVERA
by Sandro Boticelli

ROMANTIC PAINTING

LIBERTY GUIDING THE PEOPLE

by Eugene Delacroix
GREEK ART PERIODS:
ARCHAIC-- Its art examples: “Kouros” and “Kore”
CLASSICAL- -Its art examples: Parthenon, “The Lance-Bearer” by Polycleitos, “The Discus Thrower”
by Myron, and the sculptures of Phidias
HELLENISTIC-- “Laocoon,” “ Winged Victory of Samothrace,” “Hermes and Infant Dionysus” by
Praxiteles, “Apoxyomenos” by Lyssipos, “The Dying Gaul,” and the paintings of
Zeuxis and Parrhasius.
GREEK CLASSICAL IDEALS:
EMPHASIS ON FORM--implies a rigorous artistic discipline in conforming to a schema or to certain
artistic conventions. Examples are SONNET in poetry (14 lines with time scheme), SONATA in
Music ( with its sequence of exposition, development and recapitulation), in DRAMA with the
observance of the three unities of character time and place, and in Classical BALLET with its
strict conventions and formal emphasis.

INTELLECTUAL ORDER-- The Greek love for reason gave them their philosophical systems; they had
Athena as their goddess of wisdom.

HARMONY--In art harmony is manifested in the unity of the work, in which all the elements and details
are significant and contribute to the total meaning and effect. In life, it is expressed in the
ideal of the whole man with “a sound mind in a sound body.”

PROPORTION--This deals with the relationship of the parts to the whole and the whole to the parts. It
also implies the application of standards of measurements and norms. The maxim, “Man is
the measure of all things,” is the humanist credo of the ancient Greeks

BALANCE-- It is the well-coordinated growth and expression of an organism so that one aspect does
not grow at the expense of the others. It is related to the principle of moderation or the
famous Goldean Mean--”Nothing in Excess”.
 GREEK
ARCHAIC
SCULPTURES

KOUROS
KORE
THE PARTHENON
LAOCOON
 DAVID
Renaissance
sculpture by
Michelangelo
THE LAST SUPPER
Leonardo da Vinci
THE LAST SUPPER
Tintoretto
THE OATH OF THE HORATII
Jacques-Louis David
 ART CRITICISM
Art Criticism has to do mainly with reading the visual work as text conveying
a complex of ideas.

Two Aspects in the Study of Art:

1) That art has specificity
2) That Art is historically situated

A premise with respect to the study of the elements in a work is that it should
lead to creating a more or less stable field of meaning with elements as its first
base. The ability of elements to convey meaning arises from two sources:
1) man’s shared psycho-physical experiences which tend towards the
universal
2) social convention which is culture-specific.

PRACTICAL APPROACH: The basic information regarding a work of art comes from
its documentation, such as:
1. Title of the work 4. Dimensions
2. Name of Artist 5. Format
3. Medium and Technique 6.Date of Work

THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS:

1. SEMIOTIC PLANE- the plane for the analysis of elements
2. ICONIC PLANE - the plane for the analysis of figure or image
3. THEMATIC PLANE-- the enhancement of the meaning in context
ELEMENTS OF THE VISUAL ART (The specificity of the art and source of art’s
expressiveness)

LINE-- Kinds: Straight, Curve (horizontal, vertical, diagonal. Finer qualities such as
thick, thin, jagged, etc.
SHAPE (FORM) -- Kinds: Geometrical ( Rectilinear and Curvilinear), Biomorphic and
Free Shape,
COLOR -- Aspects: Hue, Value (lightness/ darkness) and intensity (brightness/
dulness)
VALUE or Shade (e.g. Chiaroscuro)
TEXTURE
SPACE (COMPOSITION IN SPACE)
Principles of composition: HARMONY or UNITY
BALANCE
PROPORTION
EMPHASIS AND SUBORDINATION
RHYTHM

MEDIUM AND TECHNIQUE-- Medium and Technique are not incidental but
essential components of
the art. Without medium there is no art.

Some painting mediums: oil paint, watercolor, acrylic paint, etc.

Some sculptural mediums: wood, marble, stone, concrete, synthetic materials, etc
 WHAT IS SPACE?
“Space relates to everything…no matter what happens in the world of human beings,it
happens in a spatial setting, and the design of that setting has a deep
and persisting influence on the people in that setting.”

In architecture, “space is a self-contained entity, infinite or finite, an empty

vehicle ready and having the capacity to be filled with things.” (Arnheim, 1995)

SPACE IN ART (Space in Painting, Sculpture)

Linear or Perceptual Perspective vs. Conceptual or Multiple Perspective
SPACE IN ARCHITECTURE-- Values Associated with Space in Architecture
Space in Modern Architecture (Le Corbusier and F. Wright
SPACE IN DIDIFFERENT CULTURES:
EGYPTIAN SPACE
HINDU SPACE
CHINESE SPACE
JAPANESE SPACE
ARAB SPACE
MUSLIM SPACE IN GENERAL
TRADITIONAL FILIPNO SPACE
 WHAT IS SPACE?
“Space relates to everything…no matter what happens in the world of human beings,it
happens in a spatial setting, and the design of that setting has a deep
and persisting influence on the people in that setting.”

In architecture, “space is a self-contained entity, infinite or finite, an empty

vehicle ready and having the capacity to be filled with things.” (Arnheim, 1995)

SPACE IN ART (Space in Painting, Sculpture)

Linear or Perceptual Perspective vs. Conceptual or Multiple Perspective
SPACE IN ARCHITECTURE-- Values Associated with Space in Architecture
Space in Modern Architecture (Le Corbusier and F. Wright
SPACE IN MYTH--According to the theory on myth, there are two
fundamental ways in which spatial relations affect mythical similitude:
1) Through proximity or contact or “Principle of Contiguity
2) Through Mimetic Sympathy
SPACE IN DIDIFFERENT CULTURES:
EGYPTIAN SPACE
HINDU SPACE
CHINESE SPACE
JAPANESE SPACE
ARAB SPACE
MUSLIM SPACE IN GENERAL
TRADITIONAL FILIPNO SPACE
THE LAST SUPPER
Leonardo da Vinci
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS
Raphael
RELATIVITY
by Echer
 LES
DEMOISELLES
D’AVIGNON
by
Pablo Picasso
NUDE DESCENDING
A STAIRCASE
Marcel Duchamp
CHRONOS DEVOURING
ONE OF HIS SONS
Francisco Goya
THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY
Salvador Dali
“MONA LISA WITH MUSTACHE AND BEARD”
by Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia
IMPRESSION: SUNRISE
Claude Monet
THE STARRY NIGHT
Vincent Van Gogh
THE NIGHT CAFÉ
Vincent Van Gogh
 SUNFLOWERS
Vincent Van Gogh
HARMONY IN RED
Henri Matisse
THE SCREAM
Edvard Munch
AN ABSTRACT
PAINTING
by
Piet Mondrian
LUNCHEON ON THE GRASS
Edouard Manet
 OLYMPIA
Edouard Manet
BIRD IN FLIGHT
(or BIRD IN SPACE)
Sculpture of
Konstantin Brancusi
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS
Raphael
THE SACK OF ROME IN 1527
PERSPECTIVAL ABSURDITIES
William Hogart
ECSTACY OF ST. THERESE
by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini
 APOLLO AND
DAPHNE
Gion Lorenzo Bernini
The Triumph of the Divine Providence
Rembrandt’s Descent From The Cross
JESUS CHRIST AT EMMAUS
by Rembrandt
THE BLINDING OF SAMSON
Rembrandt
THE SWING
Fragonard
 19th-20th C
MODERN ART

POST-MODERNISM
MODERNISM
CLASSICISM

ROMANTICISM

MODERN ART SCHOOLS AND STYLES:

IMPRESSIONISM
POST-IMPRESSIONISM:
POINTILLISM
EXPRESSIONISM FACTORS CONDITIONING MODERN ART:
CUBISM
Rapid Social Change:
PRIMITIVISM Industrialization, Urbanization
ABSTRACTIONISM Inventions:
ABSTRACTEXPRESSIONISM Modern Photography,
FAUVISM Modern Means of Travel and
SURREALISM Communication.
DADAISM Modern Ideas:
Bergson’s Philosophy on TIME
OP ART, PSYCHEDELIC ART & POP ART
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
Modern Sculpture: CONSTRUCTIVISM Freud’s Psychoanalysis
Modern Architecture: Political Upheavals :
FUNCTIONALISM / INTERNATIONAL STYLE World War I and World War II
ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE
 POST MODERNISM

Defined from one perspective, Post modernism is said to be the cultural

logic of high capitalism.

For our purpose, we focus our understanding of Post Mode4rnism on the

following aspects:

1. Post Modernist (PM) view/s on REALITY

2. PM view on TIME

3. PM view on SPACE

4. PM view on LEGITIMATION

5. PM view on LANGUAGE and LANGUAGE GAME

6. PM view on STORY TELLING

7/ PM view on ART, including Archite4cture, MTV and other expressions.

 POSTMODERNISM

Postmodern thought shows it going in many directions, its themes are not
always compatible with one another.

Among these themes are:

-- A doubt that any human truth is a simple objective representation of reality.

-- A focus on the way societies use language to construct their own realities.

-- A preference with the local and specific over the universal and abstract.

--A renewed interest in narrative and story -telling.

--Acceptance that different discretion of reality can't always be measured

against one another in any final-i.e., objective and non-human way.

-- A willingness to accept things as they are on the surface rather than to

search (a' la Freud or Marx) for deeper meanings.

Most of these themes seem to fit together, and yet a certain tension typifies
the postmodern condition: on the one hand the tendency toward
fragmentation, on the other search for a larger framework of meaning.
--It is debatable whether post-modernity is actually a break with modernity or
merely its continuation. Postmodern writers may prefer to write history so that
their own ideas appear radically new.
Postmodern themes were present in the romanticism of the last century. What is
new today is the pervasiveness of postmodern themes in culture at large.

--"Postmodern" does not designate a systematic theory or a comprehensive

philosophy, but rather diverse diagnoses and interpretations of the current
culture, a depiction of a multitude of interrelated phenomena.

--Postmodern thought is characterized by a lost of belief in an object world and

an incredulity towards meta-narratives of legitimation. With a delegitimation of
global systems of thought, there is no foundation to secure universal and
objective reality. There is today a growing public acknowledgement that "Reality
isn't what is used to be.”

--In philosophy there is a departure from the belief in one true reality-
subjectively copied in our heads by perception or objectively representative in
scientific models. There exist no pure, uninterpreted datum; all facts embody
theory.

==In science the notion of an objective reality is an interesting hypothesis, but

is not necessary for carrying out scientific work. Knowledge becomes the ability
to perform effective actions.