Lecture : Design and modernism

Starting off the last topic of it means to be modern , today's lecture links its application in design :

Modernism in design is :

-Anti-historicism

-Truth to material: modernists embraces the new world including new materials like camera, painting technologies ,steel,...not disguising them but take advantage of them , example would be the bare-concrete trend in architecture or the wildness of modern like those of Jackson Pollocks

-Forms follows function : placing workability and practicality before looks

-Celebrate new technologies

-Internationalism : always having a drive to build a common method of visual communication, where as the products don't have a signature characteristic linking to a particular origin but are universally adaptable.

This characteristics of modernistic design ensures its timelessness in history.
Judging from this, to be a modernist animator can be to produce a piece of work that focus on delivering the message of the narrative that its trying to tell, without being to much hindered by to0 many principles and need to make the animation look pretty. But of course that is my opinion only.

However it is , I'm very supportive of the principles of modernist design , being a very practical person myself, always judging an object/spending by its purpose and its rationality. To me ,finding that balance between artistry and rationality is the cornerstone to being an effective modern designer and just a general member of society as a whole.

The influence of this aspect of modernism is seen through the products of Bauhaus and just modern production as whole , with chains like IKEA essentially producing cheap reproduction of modernist designs.

Its really interesting to link this to social changes like the enlightenment or the Russian revolution where the focus to create a society that is equal and universal which is along the line of modernism's rationality. Whats even more interesting in the russian case is, it was because nearly 90% of the population were illiterate, simplistic and logical modernist design were needed to produce an effective propaganda, so the need for it is clearly represented.

Its also quite interesting to here the fact that Soviet's artists and designers would regard themselves as constructivist , bringing all the professions into one single identity. Truly modernism and socialism shares many of the same ideologies as each other. Modernism breaks down the established boundaries between designers and social classes as whole, and

An amazing fact to learn was that because of this, the Soviets became a cultural powerhouse, which is not often mentioned in any kind of historical textbook at all. An evidence of this was a picture Richard shown of the soviet exhibition pavilion in Paris in 1925 that looks so modern that I mistook it for a Black and white picture of a modern building from now, which in 1925 must have been amazing to look at compared to the still classical architecture of Paris.

However , bring back to the fact that what it is important is to have a BALANCE between artistic freedom and rational standardisation, it is where modernism in Russia fail itself, taking standardisation too far that it dehumanise the resulting product, evidence by the fact that if you look at modernistic design, it is often cold and hard , lacking a human warmth to it. Plus the fact the rise to totalitarian systems like the Nazi and Stalin really hindered the progress of modernity.

Closing off , Richard brings up a matter that is close to my heart, that is trying to understand modernism can be hard , and if lacking the knowledge of the context it is created in or are referencing to , it can be quite boring. With that said, it does change my view on modernism a bit , highlighting the fact that all the aspect of modern art that I essentially despises are in essence trying to replicate the rationality of design that I so support. So here I am now, stuck between a dilemma of what I should even believe in anymore, but then again , that is what makes it all so interesting to think about