Tuesday 27 September 2011

Postmodernism - Introduction

A brief description on Postmodernism and what it means to me


Heraclitus, an Ancient Greek Philosopher once said "You cannot step in the same river twice".


Flynn Johnson (2010). Journey to the Sacred Mountains. Unknown: Findhorn Press. Page 116 of 176.


In almost every respect this statement is true, unless the existence of the Multiverse actually exists, nothing can be exactly the same twice.  Within the context of Art, this most certainly plays a role in how precious a piece of work is, without even having to acknowledge the artists level of ability. One stick man will always be different to another, even if scanned into a computer and copied a thousand times you could say that the ink is different, the paper is different, the time it was produced was different. On a large scale level, this outlook also applies to society - it constantly changes pushing forwards into the future. Sometimes there are trends of fashion, music, or other notable occurrences which repeat themselves in appearance. However, as these repetitions develop within different places and times we cannot call them the same, only reminisce. In contrast to this, our thoughts are never an exact complete original copy, they are inspired, tainted by the superego of society, they blossom into either more profound knowledge or simply becoming a game of personal Chinese whispers and being lost over time.


This sense of self, others, the overall flow of concepts such as time or being connected to something higher (such as religion, personal self awareness) can be represented in the often noted image of the Ouroboros. This is usually either a Snake or Dragon, or any serpent in nature of which loops in a circle to eat its own tail. This represents life and reality, how everything is connected, the cycles of life and how everything recreates itself.



Image obtained from: Unknown. (Unknown). Ouroboros in popular culture. Available: http://popularsymbolism.wordpress.com/symbolism/ouroboros/. Last accessed 28/09/2011.



In Postmodern Art, the features you would tend to find would be a lack of understandable meaning or theme. It usually defies the rules of society around us, bending what people would perceive as normal. It has been argued that the Human race has evolved over many years, that it shall move into one of three higher forms of conscious being in the future. This encourages that Postmodern Art can help Mankind to appreciate a notable manifestation into a bigger mindset, more open to the reality around us, thus creating the next stage of human progression. According to Dr Michio Kaku, we are currently a type 0 race. This to me just goes to prove how the concept of our reality can be warped into bigger and better things which would fall into place of acceptance and regular society.



“When we physicists look in outer space for alien life, we don’t look for little green men. We look for Type-1/Type-2/Type-3 civilizations.
A Type-1 civilization has harnessed its planetary power. They control earthquakes, the weather, volcanoes, they have cities on the ocean, anything planetary – they control. That’s Type-1 civilization.
A Type-2 civilization is stellar. They have exhausted the power of the planet, and they get their energy directly from their mother star. They use the power of the sun itself to energize their huge machines.
Eventually they exhaust the power of a star and go galactic. They harness the power of  billions of stars within a galaxy (Thats a Type-3 civilization)."
Rajesh K. (2010). Type 0/1/2/3 Civilizations by Dr Michio Kaku (Theoritical Physicist). Available: http://www.destinationinfinity.org/2010/12/12/type-0-1-2-3-civilization-michio-kaku/. Last accessed 28/09/2011.


Overall, I believe although Postmodernism has no definitive description, the subject of Postmodernity is actually all about freewill and outward thinking to a society based on the influence of the common super ego.


Chris

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