Lecture Notes - Post Modernism

• Post Modernism is a complex and debatable term, but can be defined as a reaction to Modernist design. Like Modernism, it is a reaction to the modern world, but post modernism is seen as a more negative reaction. 
• During the post modern design era, there was a crumbling of the divide between high art and low art. Often post modern design and art references both elements of high culture and low culture, creating something eclectic .
• It also takes the idea that there are no original ideas any more, that design is basically being recycled, which is most true of fashion design, because now there is only room to reinvent and recycle pre existing fashion pieces, there are no truly new designs. 
• Irony, Parody and Bricolage are all terms associated with post modern design. 
• Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol can be seen as postmodern artists, as their work takes pre existing materials and simply reworks them, presenting them as their own. 
• Le Corbusier's designs for a Utopian city are something post modernism completely rejected - the idea that everything would be uniform and equal was totally disregarded, because the idea of everyone being the same is totally flawed. Las Vegas can be seen as a reaction to this, as the city has simply taken different iconic architecture from other cities and placed it all together in one space, and can definitely be described as a Dystopian city. 

Andy Warhol

His use of a pre existing image makes this post modern, and also the fact that there is no real function or meaning to it. It's simply there to be looked at, and does not use very much artistic skill, yet it looks visually effective and remains an incredibly iconic piece of work. 

La Boca

 This Black Swan poster is post modern despite the modernist style of the work, because this is a poster for a very recent film, which is referencing modernist eastern european film poster design from the 60's and 70's, with its use of bold block colours, sans serif fonts and very geometric shapes and minimalist illustration. It makes the film look like it is a classic, possibly independent film, despite it being arguably mainstream and current.