Postmodern World in Transition

It’s tiny it’s compact and it’s one of the most complex books I’m reading this term. It’s The Radicant by Nicolas Bourriaud. It’s difficult for me to give this book a genre because it does much more than to inform you of what art is today. It’s an analysis of world aesthetic using, politics, ethics, economics, and culture as jump-off points into his theory of art in the Post Modern world and beyond.

Media and technology has played has had a significant role in the way which our culture functions. We rely on the media for information, communicating, and entertainment. Bourriaud infers that our art culture places limits and standards to what is acceptable to the art community.

“How can one escape the impression that works are no longer evaluated how can one escape the impression that works are no longer evaluated so much as sorted and graded like eggs.”
– Bourriaud

It boils down to interest and popularity. There are plenty of artist in America alone who work very hard to get their message and ideas out to the world. It is the responsibility of the artist to market themselves well enough to capture the attention of an audience or a museum to receive critical acclaim. I view art as a form of self expression; art for art sake and art to market sell and to publicize to the world. Then their are artist and works that fall in between the categories Laurie Anderson and her work is an example of that.

The art world is in transition as well as culture and politics, were all moving from segregated individual communities to a singular global culture. It’s the post modern world; this is the time that art and people recognize their connections with the world.

“Everything is intertwined, he says and Polar opposites don’t exist… Start seeing the connections and the idea of fusion –of mixing things-seems less and less like a novelty and more just the way to world works.” Ezra Koeing of Vampire Weekend in talking about the band’s new album Contra as an example of our new era into a global culture.

Ideas and new art forms may arise but technology will always be around to define where the world is as global community. Globalization is our present and will be our future.