Dear Blog,
I really enjoyed Jencks' eleven rules for postmodernity. Something that really stuck with me was how involved architecture is in theory and also as a form of art. I had never really given architecture the same attention I give to other art forms. Architecture is also very sociological, in that you can study the structures in which we live in, or call home, and certain functions can transform over time. I wonder if architecture, more than other art forms, can contribute to this "disharmonious harmony" that Jencks cites as a rule or trait of postmodernity. I really liked this idea that the world we live in is dynamic, evolving, ever-changing, and so many forms of art and other valued things are competing for our attention and acceptance. Postmodernity stands for the new while also acknowledging the past and the role it has played in the present and will continue to play in the future.
This goes into another one of Jencks' rules: urbane urbanism or urban contextualism. He writes that elements should fit into and extend beyond the urban context. To me this means that postmodernity includes things that are birthed from the past but also consciously shake up the present while simultaneously fitting into our culture at the same time.
His argument for a "return to painting" points to the diversity within postmodernity that I didn't quite realize. The expression of postmodernity is so many things, as detailed in his eleven points, and some of them go together but others diverge and this just goes to show the many layers and inability to label postmodernity as accomplishing just one thing. Jencks' idea of a return to painting or content links back to my point earlier about postmodernism holding on to the past and remembering where the new things originated from. I think this is the dualism that Jencks writes about multiple times, and brings me back to Dr. Cummings' point about our (in)ability to trace things back (brands, art, etc.). It is a privilege to have the context or knowledge to trace things back to their origin. Sometimes the knowledge and context is purposefully erased, other times it's not available for other reasons, either way knowledge is power and when we lack it we are powerless. This is something Jencks notices we don't always get to do which leads him to discuss the displacement of conventions and acknowledge the ways in which tradition is reinterpreted. Tradition is reinterpreted when we give new meanings to things in order to justify their existence in society. Humans do this constantly, this is why symbols exist and social norms change. One could argue that theories exist to provide meaning to certain things or concepts; in this way we reimagine or reinterpret how our culture and society functions.
Signing off,
MG
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