Blog - 1/26/07 - Modernism
Modernism is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to make, improve, and reshape their built and designed environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation. The term covers many political, cultural and artistic movements rooted in the changes in Western society at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. Broadly, modernism describes a series of reforming cultural movements in art, architecture, music, and literature. It is a rebellion against traditions.
Modernism is a conscious break with the past and a search for new forms of expression. Modernism holds the utility and production of an object more important than the aesthetic value. In some cases, an object’s spare and simple appearance becomes the attractive artistic value. The greater efficiency and higher morality inherent in modernism are improvements to humanity that represent another step forward in the long process of human evolution.
[enginebooks' response]
What does it mean to start fresh? Implications vis-à-vis modernism, self-study, and human development
Why do we turn to modernism for a new beginning?
Modernism grew out of a movement against high Victorian greed and corruption, which was visually manifested in decoration and ornament. Initially the modern movement was a “cleaning out” of these old values in favor of a new, more democratic way. William Morris was one of the pioneers, emphasizing handwork in the process. Later on in the movement industrial production was embraced as a functional catalyst toward the democratization of design. Walter Gropius and the formation of the Bauhaus figure large here, advancing now iconic forms of tubular steel that employed the same manufacturing techniques as bicycles and other utilitarian machines. Minimalism is yet another permutation of modernism, with its cool, pared-down embodiment of the essential. More humanizing yet equally modern strains can be found in the work of Alvar Aalto, a master with wood.
How does modernism happen to me?
Design is seen as problem solving; style is on the surface, superficial. What we see in modern design is not the expression of an aesthetic style, but the manifestation of the social and political ideas of the modern movement. When a design is good, it is because it is real: underpinning that object is a belief system, not a “taste.” In America, we often find watered-down, cheap imitations because they lack the authentic content of the Europeans; the movement was transplanted here, after all, and could not take root in exactly the same way. Some, however, like the Eameses—powerhouses and always pioneers—managed to make it their own, continuing the dialogue in extraordinarily varied, original ways.
We inherently gravitate toward the modern because we are responding to the power of this movement, to its ability to evoke in us a kind of awakening, or re-awakening. It is a call to action, to the possibility of another way of being, a new life within our existing life.
What might it be to really live?
A modern piece can aid human development because it can help us to see ourselves more truthfully. For instance, big, slouchy, sloppy furnishings caked with the dust of ages allow us to nod off, disappear, check out. A modernist work is rigorous. It moves us to say, “Hello! What is this?! I am sitting in this chair,” and suddenly, I actually can feel myself sitting in the chair. A piece says, “I am a storage cabinet, and nothing more than a storage cabinet.” It is what it is, made with the utmost efficiency of embellishment. We also can be who we are—possibly. But for us, it is very difficult to be: to be in the moment; to be with ourselves truthfully; to be with others without losing ourselves. Modernism can act as a guidepost, a reminder, an antidote to the falseness and illusion of everyday life. It can help, if only momentarily, to turn us toward another way.