The Next Layer - post-modern

Notes on "The Postmodern Condition, A Report on Knowledge"

Armin Medosch — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:06:41 +0000

The Postmodern Condition, A Report on Knowledge, by Francois Lyotard, first published in French in 1979, was not the first book to carry the word postmodern in its title, but probably one of the most influential ones in the long term, with both its warnings and sometimes its overly optimistic assumptions about the future of knowledge in a computerised society. Reading it now what is perplexing is the rather one-sided reception it has got. While Lyotard's critique of meta-narratives and the proposed switch to language games has characterised the postmodern debate, his ambiguity about the development of science and the university under the condition of neoliberalism appears to have been given much less consideration by his followers.

Theory of the avant-garde

Armin Medosch — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:23:44 +0000

Bürger, Peter. 1984. Theory of the avant-garde.

Das Altern der Moderne : Schriften zur bildenden Kunst

Armin Medosch — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:23:44 +0000

Bürger P. 2001. Das Altern der Moderne : Schriften zur bildenden Kunst.

How We Became Post-Modern

Armin Medosch — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:05:15 +0000

Notes on Das Altern der Moderne1 by Peter Bürger. Peter Bürger, Professor emeritus for literature and aesthtic theory, author of the Theory of the Avant-Garde2, a seminal text in art theory of the 20th century, in this collection of articles written between 1983 and 2000, re-examines some of the main concepts already at the heart of his earlier work, such as the difference between Modernism and the avant-garde, the historic avant-garde's often repeated ambition of bringing art and life together, and what constitutes the failure as well as the success of those movements. While the hopes of the historic avant-garde of permanent transformations of the social world were not rewarded, avant-garde ideas, slogans, strategies and aesthetic methodologies of the Futurists, dadaists and Surrealists have found a permanent place in the cultural 'history' by having entered the endless recycling relationships of contemporary culture via popular culture. Slightly different the case, then with Modernism, because it never had, or purpoted not to have, such a strong social agenda, yet here the name of the art movement is identical with the name of an age: modernity. In this respect, Bürger asks the fascinating question about the aging of modernity and how we became postmodern (or not).

1. Bürger P.
2001. Das Altern der Moderne : Schriften zur bildenden Kunst.
2. Bürger, Peter.
1984. Theory of the avant-garde.

Ethics of the Sublime in Postmodern Culture

Lindsay — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:16:00 +0000

Lutzker E. 1997. Ethics of the Sublime in Postmodern Culture. Aesthetics and Ethics International Symposium. 2