Post-modernism

Modernism in the USA

Lester Beal 1903-69
Pioneers in Peoria
open symmetrical grid
wood type, arrows
Running Water (is good)
Had to campaign for electricity
How to translate something for the illiterate
modernism meets pragmatism

Works Project Administration Exhibition 1940 (creative commons)
limited color palette
Better housing
Free classes
Getting people back to work.

Swiss Design
international typographic style
more than just grids!
visual unity achieved by asymmetrical organization
objective photography
sans serif type + flush left/rag right
mathematical grids
design should be socially useful
"How can we make life better?"
Its the way problems are approached
socially useful and important activity
Ulm, clean efficient modern type

semiotics-syntactics-order
semantics-meaning or referred to
pragmatics-how it is used
Ferdinand de Saussure
dyadic model
a 'signifier'- the form which the sign takes
the 'signified'- the concept it represents

charles sanders peirce
triadic model
sign vehicle: the form of the sign
sense: the sense made of the sign
referent: what the sign 'stands for'
Everything has meaning
What things mean in relationship to other things.

Joseph Muller-brockmann

grid is just a system

Swiss modernism vs NYC modernism

paul rand, saul ball and ivan chermayeff

1940 begin to see effects of modernism in ads

european theoretical- ny, pragmatic

"The Big Idea"

Europeans theoretical, NY- pragmatic

Postmodernism

Used to note a break w the earlier modernist principles by placing emphasis on form over function, by reintroducing traditional or classical elements or by carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes.

Seen in art, design, lit, and architecture

emphasis on feel rather than rationale

emphases on surface, texture and materials

self-consciousness or self-referencing

mixes high and low

historical refs

vernacular-language of things

Wolfgang Weingart-Teacher

"What if?"

computer fuels post-modernism

Memphis Group-texture, pattern, color for no apparent reason

Thoughts

I'm still not sure what post-modernism is about. :( I couldn't understand what the people in the movie were saying most of the time.

Questions

None at this time.

Review

Everything started in Europe.
Aubrey Beardley was the bad boy of art with his asian block printing and abstraction.
The Arts and Crafts movement took a while to catch on the US.
Art Nouveau was about tendrills and flat color planes that weren't flat...yes it does make sense.
Peter Behrens was offical Sanserif god.
Nazis still suck and don't understand different artistic views.
Bauhaus started in Weimar which sounds like a cool place to be at the time. Moved to Dessau which also seems fun. Then ended up in Berlin where the Nazis crashed the fun.

And some other stuff where my notes are not making much sense at the moment.

Thoughts

Not a lot of info has been sticking in my brain. I think I need to empty the cache, somehow.

Q's

I had a question but I forgot it, come back later.