I have been hearing the term Postmodern for so many years I had forgotten what is was even about. Any images that are attributed to the post modern ideals always seemed to come back to the one iconic image of a urinal. So I guess I stopped even thinking about it as a very serious viewpoint/movement. I kinda found it trite that if the most pivotal image was so mundane then what was the point of exploring it any further.
Upon reading the Wikipedia entry on this philosophical idea, I was immediately struck by the ever present mantra of so many design studios. "We think outside the box." What I find funny about this is that so many adhere to doing the same things over and over again. They never actually go beyond the box. They just redecorate the box and bring it out as some form of new thinking. How about crushing the box, stepping on it and throwing it up in the air and see what happens?
To truly move away from convention and step beyond the norm, (as it the ideals of postmodernism), communicating in the new era of our society, we have to embrace the rapidly changing technology and adapt to it. You can not look at what we are used to and expect it to have the same value as it has in the past. Look one step ahead.
Good points Vern. Sometimes I think I get the urinal art... sometimes I don't. Right now, I look at it and think using everyday objects in a completely different context helps us to truly think "outside of the box." (I usually cringe at that phrase, but it seems to work here.)
ReplyDeleteWe may have never thought about putting a camera on a phone or removing the keyboard from a computer if Duchamp never hung a urinal on a wall and called it something different than what it is, right?