20 February 06 - 10:30Don Boyd

Don Boyd has been doing Fluxus for nearly as long as anybody.

He lives and works in Mount Vernon, Ohio.

Don's Blog

- default - / Trackbacks - § ¶

07 February 06 - 13:17Nam June Paik

image source:  Nam June Paik Studios

- default - / one trackback - § ¶

02 February 06 - 19:13Postmodernism v. Modernism: Part & Parcel

Can postmodernism exist independently of modernism?
While some 20th century philosophers seem to think so (Lyotard implies that postmodernism replaces modernism, Baudrillard speaks of the "end of history), the argument that postmodernism somehow replaced modernism is so dependent on modernist conventions of rationality that it is clear that modernity still reigns supreme.

If modernity still reigns supreme, how can you then argue in favour of postmodernism?
Postmodernism is the 20th century (and now the 21st century) incarnation of modernism. While postmodernism has not replaced modernism, it is our best contemporary interpretation of modernism. Lyotard was correct in speaking about the demise of the metanarrative  or "grand narrative" and its replacement by individual narratives. Similarly, Baudrillard's ideas about reality being replaced by simulations of reality have merit. It is true that people in advanced western cultures, and even in middle-eastern fundamentalist cultures, are locked in endlessly looping reflection realities, where they attempt to conform to media images of themselves to attain an idealized state of being.

So postmodernism is really just a new branch of modernism?
That is basically the truth as I see it. I would argue that metanarratives are still important to us, even in the postmodern era. I think that we should view postmodernism as the realization that with the metanarratives inherent in our social milieu we each construct our own individual micronarratives.

Is Fluxus modern or postmodern then?
Yes.

- default - / Trackbacks - § ¶