Point: Explorations

The Explorations unit summarized the design revolutions that masked the twentieth century with periods heavily oriented towards expressionism and the breaking away from classical ideals. With traditional characteristics becoming commonplace and dull, designers desperately clung to any style that was entirely original and without familiarity. Because Art Nouveau and Art Deco provided a way of bringing about new eccentric, artistic designs veiled in theatrics, buildings like Maison & Atelier, Grand Palais, and the Casa Batllo were conceived. Not only did these styles provide a new approach towards design, they sought to incorporate art into everyday life. These styles celebrated any irrational avenue of design that turned away from the classics, using reflective metallic surfaces, asymmetrical proportions, and the unconventional use of curvilinear forms to achieve this purpose. However, the movement lost its momentum with the arrival of the modernist styles.

As people became disenchanted with the irrationality of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements, the International style quickly became its successor. Seeking to find harmony through functionality and minimalistic design, the style sought to satisfy the needs of everyone. Unfortunately, the style dismissed its human attributes and made no attempt to comfort those whom it catered to. As such, modernism began to adopt more expressive styles to become less passionless. With buildings like the JFK Terminal and the Sydney Opera House, design took to styles that turned architecture into living bodies of art, having inhabitants recognize beauty through movement and guidance. However, the style disregarded the functional aspect of its designs, producing works of art unsuitable for the reasons for which they were originally created.

With the arrival of Postmodernism, the functional and formalized aspects of the modernist movement were replaced by divers aesthetics, with colliding styles, spontaneous form, and new narratives concerning interior spaces and styles. Also, architecture stemming from the postmodern movement made attempts of tributing design to traditional roots, with references and ornament returning to the facade, replacing the minimalistic trait of the modern styles. Instead of producing "one size fit all" type designs, buildings were specifically created with surrounding environments kept in mind. By focusing on regional materials and styles, designs were capable of adopting identities that characterized its inhabitants. Whereas modernism made true use of material as well as the absence of ornament, postmodernism embraced the the complete opposite, rejecting the strict rules set by its predecessor. By seeking meaning and expression through form and stylistic reference, postmodernism sought to give architecture souls (LeCorbusier's "machines for living").

Although short-lived, these modern styles served to reflect periods of instability and desperation. Looking to find new creative outlets that broke from traditional roots, these periods quickly came and went as popular belief evolved. With communication becoming faster and more readily available, the lifespan of design periods are quickly collapsing. Ripples in design are now quickly felt by the entire world with responses spanning the industry within the blink of an eye. Although beneficial in some ways, design has lost much of its luster, quickly disregarding qualitative aspects for the ability to increase output and responsiveness.

Like the image above, truly successful design periods take time and effort to develop. However, with modern times becoming more capable of producing design periods at whim, the quality of said design styles has quickly diminished.

Counterpoint: Machine

Hopefully I'll be able to upload a better quality picture soon. I decided to go with the Sydney Opera House for my machine counterpoint. The material is represented by the steel girders held by the cranes, the people are included near the building (albeit extremely small), the symbol is embedded in the curtains and the building itself (which has become a symbol for the city), and nature is included through the use of the water. The theme of machine is present through the cranes.

Reading Comp #7

"Four Male Dancers" by Paul Cadmus (diagram)

The rise of the Postmodernism movement established with it stylistic changes that moved to break all notions of objective truth and narrative to emphasize motivation and subjective truth, "the accent placed on process rather than form" (Massey, pg 216). As such, Postmodernism rejected the ideas of its predecessor, Modernism, criticizing the period's definition of appropriate design as being contradictory to it's self-proclaimed theme of subjectivity. Instead, the movement sought to enrich expressionism while achieving ideal perfection throughout design, seeking to discover harmony through form and function. In the work called "Four Male Dancers" by Paul Cadmus, the drawing illustrates this perceived notion of expressive, yet definitive, form. Not only does Cadmus orient the dancers in organic positions with fluid movement in between them, he emphasizes the expressive aspect of the piece through the use of lines. Instead of using realism to define his subjects, Cadmus uses multiple lines running in unison to effectively bring about the presence of the dancers in subtle form. Respecting the theme of Postmodernism, Cadmus pulls away from the minimalistic ideals of the Modernistic style, manipulating his illustration to compliment negative space to create a highly integrated/complex composition.

The evolution of this period ultimately begins to shatter the unity of Modernism, prompting designers to "challenge, reassess, and reinvent its principles and practices [to] address the complexity, diversity, and plurality of their time" (Harwood, pg 806). From this we begin to see customization, identity, and design stemming from the individual. As seen in Kathe Kollwitz's "Selbstbildnis Von Vorn" (self portrait from the front), emphasis on the individual becomes a common characteristic of Postmodernism. Like the work of Cadmus, Kollwitz manipulates the the patterning of lines to create an image, her individualistic identity permeating throughout the entire piece. The importance of discovering this subjective truth "means burrowing deep, to find out what unconscious premise a text is based on and what the blind in the author's eye cannot see" (Roth, pg 600).

With Postmodernism taking foothold throughout the world in the latter part of the twentieth century, everything from the design of furniture to the design of a metropolitan city-layout meant finding harmony between form and function while nurturing their expressive characteristics beholden to the new-found importance of the individual.

"Selbstbildnis Von Vorn" by Kathe Kollwitz