So I thought I would do my first post on Tate Britain's upcoming debate that will focus around Nicolas Bourriaud's 'Altermodernism'. It's a term that's entering the art consciousness as representative of the 'new age' in art or context. It was bound to happen soon the term postmodern and contemporary were starting to get old and don't really encapsulate the multidimensional interactive ways art is expanding and growing at present.
To understand 'Altermodernism', 'Postmodernism' can first be attempted to define? Thinking of Greenberg, Fried and TJ Clark there seem a lot more clear boundaries for an art historical critic of its former 'Modernism', starting some would say around the 1860s. For example you had those who focused on art for arts sake and development or expansion of the boundaries of different mediums in art i.e. Abstract Expressionists, Expressionism then you had those who believed art to be a socio-political tool with a clear societal role i.e. Constructivists, Realists/Social Realism, and of course there were those that both experimented with composition/style yet involved subject matter, sometimes with socio-functional message i.e. Futurists, Cubists, Surrealism, Pop Art. With 'Postmodernism' some say it's description is less defined due to a shift in ideology and interpretation of artwork compared to those of the 'Modernist' era. The majority seem to agree postmodernism begins around the 1980s with a focus on conceptual art taking control, although you could throw that back to Duchamp and Dada/Surrealist artists or even possibly the Land Art of the sixties, Smithson's, 'Spiral Jetty ' say, all involving conceptual experimentation and manipulation, with installation, intermedia, pastiche, or bricolage, etc. With the development of globalisation, the internet and cheaper travel cultural fusion or interaction became a more complex, interactive and interpretive part of our lives. Identity becomes challenged, new cultural influences take hold and a wide variety of knowledge is made available via the interweb and so emotions change and develop. Frederic Jameson believes the postmodern rejects fixed, straight interpretation and instead pastiche and discontinuance become popular. A new hybrid type artwork develops, such as that of Louise Bourgeois becoming very multi-dimensional in terms of interpretation and message. However you could say that 'Modernism' is still present in some work of say Anish Kapoor in which medium is experimented with and expanded solely creating illusion, fantasy and escapism. There's definitely a sense of instability or insecurity that develops with global expansion however as nationalist borders open up in terms of cheap travel and the internet in particular. Rasheed Araeen's work particularly highlights the attempt to develop a 'hybridity' of East and West art. Really modernism as it's written about is the modernism of the Western world, in some ways postmodernism expresses a more global artworld formation, expression and influence.Developments in technology and an increase in availability of technology increases experimentation with a variety of media, even though others have experimented in the past, photography developing at the start of modernism, the increased access to it and development of the media world increases its importance to context.
There is also the development of art theory, the disintegration of the influence of Barr's direct timeline of art, one movement influencing and developing the next in linear progression has been replaced by looking at all movements as interactive really, old art being regenerated into again new hybrids, for example Grayson Perry's ceramics with contemporary subject-matter. Nicolas Serota for example puts different artworks from different periods into 'clusters' to encourage new multidimensional interpretations in the Tate Modern. In terms of ideology there could be said to have been a definite reduction in painting as popular artwork in the 'postmodernist' era, some theorists have talked of the 'anti-presence' as 'postmodern' in terms of conceptual art and in comparison to the 'god-like' presence of 'modernists' art such as Rothko and the importance placed on originality of hand with painting. Brit Art took hold and conceptual art has been popular since with a focus on the idea and theory, however rather than just the one painting as in 'modernism', artists such as Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois,Tracey Emin use many different objects in arrangement which create multiple meaning and interpretation. However many of the Dada performances could be said to have done this and Duchamp plus others and other cultures have used alternative mediums than painting with 'avant-garde' approaches. It's interesting to wonder how countries outside the Western world become integrated into 'modern/postmodern' art, for example the 'Nok' /Nigerian culture's sculptures could be read as abstract and conceptual yet are thousands of years earlier? With the development of media and a change in our perception or sense of time and space developing with globalisation video, photography and performance become great representative mediums. Bill Viola however could be seen to be quite 'modernist' in the way he slows down video to unseen speeds to produce new visual affects and perceptions. Others challenge the influence of metanarratives and issues such as gender, race, sexuality...you could say grand institutions and their theories are being challenged, questioned, researched and the power their hold has had. Artists changed your outlook on race in 'Victorian Dandy' say by Yinka Shonibare or approach to gender by Emin by challenging conventional visual representations or perceptions and institutional or metanarrative control and how it influenced such representations. Lyotard defines such challenges as essentially 'postmodern', for example Emin's 'Unmade Bed' changes the whole history of women's representation of art in books, galleries, etc . This can be combined with the idea that as nationalism is losing some hold and identity becomes expanded and cultures interact global society looks towards 'metanarratives' for a common challenge or areas to relate to. You could say therefore some modernism focused on challenging national ideology/politics i.e. Constructivism, Futurism, etc. whereas postmodernism might be seen more to challenge metanarrative ideologies and use a multitude of approaches to do this mixing/using many different mediums, particularly due to technological developments in media and moving 'outside' the art gallery. This then leading to multiple interpretations rather than one political stance say. Again however Dada and Constructivists could be said to do this.
So how does 'Altermodernism' fit into all this? Nicolas Bourriard believes theres a new art movement developing focusing on confronting standardisation and commercialism.It seems quite straight forward when approached like that however it comes across repetitive of 'postmodern/modern' artwork which has challenged materialism, commercialism and standardisation, for example Andy Warhol, Constructivists, etc. 'Altermodernism' also talks of new translations taking place in the new age, new interconnections of time with space, text with image, the affect of travel and interaction but as said a lot of it seems repetitive of 'postmodernism' and the effect of 'globalisation'.Where it starts to become clarified is when you consider postmodernism as having jumped a level towards what some are calling 'creolisation' of cultures in which there becomes a struggle for identity and autonomy or singularity.Bourriard talks of art as now 'time-specific' as the world interacts and artists try to translate the 'creolisation' taking place, new interactions of text and image taking place in a world under deconstructivism teamed with cultural relativism.It seems that Bourriard is saying that such a situation is producing a new age in which standardisation and commercialisation are being challenged via the many translations taking place in time and space due to 'creolisation', travel, cultural relativity combined with deconstruction. He believes new 'time-specific' works are expressed in 'trajectory' like forms or expressions, transitory and unfixed.Bourriard also associates 'Altermodernism' with the decreasing importance of a focused Western model of art.
Many believe Bourriard takes on simalar thoughts to some of Foucault. Foucault considers a switch from 'knowledge is power' to 'power is knowledge' involving the power the media has over our development of knowledge in society. Also considered by some is the loss of value in 'real experienced-developed/experimental knowledge' in exchange for increased accessibility and speed of knowledge attainable on the internet as such. When related to the power knowledge on the interweb you can see a development from postmodernism .Wrapped in this is the power the media has on imprinting knowledge in the psyche, is this not what Barbara Kruger approaches or Cindy Sherman as well as a multitude of others. It's hard to identify what the 'alter' is in altermodernism?
So it seems that there's a struggle for autonomy and singularity in the creolisation of cultures together with the power and influence the media has on new forms of knowledge being created, new ways to access this and new ways that knowledge is being interpreted via such as inter-web.The later could be labelled as standardisation and a focus on the commercial.
To understand 'Altermodernism', 'Postmodernism' can first be attempted to define? Thinking of Greenberg, Fried and TJ Clark there seem a lot more clear boundaries for an art historical critic of its former 'Modernism', starting some would say around the 1860s. For example you had those who focused on art for arts sake and development or expansion of the boundaries of different mediums in art i.e. Abstract Expressionists, Expressionism then you had those who believed art to be a socio-political tool with a clear societal role i.e. Constructivists, Realists/Social Realism, and of course there were those that both experimented with composition/style yet involved subject matter, sometimes with socio-functional message i.e. Futurists, Cubists, Surrealism, Pop Art. With 'Postmodernism' some say it's description is less defined due to a shift in ideology and interpretation of artwork compared to those of the 'Modernist' era. The majority seem to agree postmodernism begins around the 1980s with a focus on conceptual art taking control, although you could throw that back to Duchamp and Dada/Surrealist artists or even possibly the Land Art of the sixties, Smithson's, 'Spiral Jetty ' say, all involving conceptual experimentation and manipulation, with installation, intermedia, pastiche, or bricolage, etc. With the development of globalisation, the internet and cheaper travel cultural fusion or interaction became a more complex, interactive and interpretive part of our lives. Identity becomes challenged, new cultural influences take hold and a wide variety of knowledge is made available via the interweb and so emotions change and develop. Frederic Jameson believes the postmodern rejects fixed, straight interpretation and instead pastiche and discontinuance become popular. A new hybrid type artwork develops, such as that of Louise Bourgeois becoming very multi-dimensional in terms of interpretation and message. However you could say that 'Modernism' is still present in some work of say Anish Kapoor in which medium is experimented with and expanded solely creating illusion, fantasy and escapism. There's definitely a sense of instability or insecurity that develops with global expansion however as nationalist borders open up in terms of cheap travel and the internet in particular. Rasheed Araeen's work particularly highlights the attempt to develop a 'hybridity' of East and West art. Really modernism as it's written about is the modernism of the Western world, in some ways postmodernism expresses a more global artworld formation, expression and influence.Developments in technology and an increase in availability of technology increases experimentation with a variety of media, even though others have experimented in the past, photography developing at the start of modernism, the increased access to it and development of the media world increases its importance to context.
There is also the development of art theory, the disintegration of the influence of Barr's direct timeline of art, one movement influencing and developing the next in linear progression has been replaced by looking at all movements as interactive really, old art being regenerated into again new hybrids, for example Grayson Perry's ceramics with contemporary subject-matter. Nicolas Serota for example puts different artworks from different periods into 'clusters' to encourage new multidimensional interpretations in the Tate Modern. In terms of ideology there could be said to have been a definite reduction in painting as popular artwork in the 'postmodernist' era, some theorists have talked of the 'anti-presence' as 'postmodern' in terms of conceptual art and in comparison to the 'god-like' presence of 'modernists' art such as Rothko and the importance placed on originality of hand with painting. Brit Art took hold and conceptual art has been popular since with a focus on the idea and theory, however rather than just the one painting as in 'modernism', artists such as Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois,Tracey Emin use many different objects in arrangement which create multiple meaning and interpretation. However many of the Dada performances could be said to have done this and Duchamp plus others and other cultures have used alternative mediums than painting with 'avant-garde' approaches. It's interesting to wonder how countries outside the Western world become integrated into 'modern/postmodern' art, for example the 'Nok' /Nigerian culture's sculptures could be read as abstract and conceptual yet are thousands of years earlier? With the development of media and a change in our perception or sense of time and space developing with globalisation video, photography and performance become great representative mediums. Bill Viola however could be seen to be quite 'modernist' in the way he slows down video to unseen speeds to produce new visual affects and perceptions. Others challenge the influence of metanarratives and issues such as gender, race, sexuality...you could say grand institutions and their theories are being challenged, questioned, researched and the power their hold has had. Artists changed your outlook on race in 'Victorian Dandy' say by Yinka Shonibare or approach to gender by Emin by challenging conventional visual representations or perceptions and institutional or metanarrative control and how it influenced such representations. Lyotard defines such challenges as essentially 'postmodern', for example Emin's 'Unmade Bed' changes the whole history of women's representation of art in books, galleries, etc . This can be combined with the idea that as nationalism is losing some hold and identity becomes expanded and cultures interact global society looks towards 'metanarratives' for a common challenge or areas to relate to. You could say therefore some modernism focused on challenging national ideology/politics i.e. Constructivism, Futurism, etc. whereas postmodernism might be seen more to challenge metanarrative ideologies and use a multitude of approaches to do this mixing/using many different mediums, particularly due to technological developments in media and moving 'outside' the art gallery. This then leading to multiple interpretations rather than one political stance say. Again however Dada and Constructivists could be said to do this.
So how does 'Altermodernism' fit into all this? Nicolas Bourriard believes theres a new art movement developing focusing on confronting standardisation and commercialism.It seems quite straight forward when approached like that however it comes across repetitive of 'postmodern/modern' artwork which has challenged materialism, commercialism and standardisation, for example Andy Warhol, Constructivists, etc. 'Altermodernism' also talks of new translations taking place in the new age, new interconnections of time with space, text with image, the affect of travel and interaction but as said a lot of it seems repetitive of 'postmodernism' and the effect of 'globalisation'.Where it starts to become clarified is when you consider postmodernism as having jumped a level towards what some are calling 'creolisation' of cultures in which there becomes a struggle for identity and autonomy or singularity.Bourriard talks of art as now 'time-specific' as the world interacts and artists try to translate the 'creolisation' taking place, new interactions of text and image taking place in a world under deconstructivism teamed with cultural relativism.It seems that Bourriard is saying that such a situation is producing a new age in which standardisation and commercialisation are being challenged via the many translations taking place in time and space due to 'creolisation', travel, cultural relativity combined with deconstruction. He believes new 'time-specific' works are expressed in 'trajectory' like forms or expressions, transitory and unfixed.Bourriard also associates 'Altermodernism' with the decreasing importance of a focused Western model of art.
Many believe Bourriard takes on simalar thoughts to some of Foucault. Foucault considers a switch from 'knowledge is power' to 'power is knowledge' involving the power the media has over our development of knowledge in society. Also considered by some is the loss of value in 'real experienced-developed/experimental knowledge' in exchange for increased accessibility and speed of knowledge attainable on the internet as such. When related to the power knowledge on the interweb you can see a development from postmodernism .Wrapped in this is the power the media has on imprinting knowledge in the psyche, is this not what Barbara Kruger approaches or Cindy Sherman as well as a multitude of others. It's hard to identify what the 'alter' is in altermodernism?
So it seems that there's a struggle for autonomy and singularity in the creolisation of cultures together with the power and influence the media has on new forms of knowledge being created, new ways to access this and new ways that knowledge is being interpreted via such as inter-web.The later could be labelled as standardisation and a focus on the commercial.
