Metamodernism. Defined and explained.

(I took a very painful Humanities in the 21st Century class in the spring. Out of it I wrote two kinda cool papers on art movements. Here is a slightly revised version of my paper on Metamodernism. The "art movement" passing through western art. in my opinion ofc) (important parts underlinded for emphasis) 

Metamodernism in the Arts 

Oscillation, the act of moving between two points, or, to vary between opposing beliefs, opinions, or theories. The first statement of the Metamodernist Manifesto is “We recognise oscillation to be the natural order of the world”(Turner). If one word was needed to capture the zeitgeist of this contemporary phenomena it would be oscillation. Metamodernism is defined by a pulsation from lessons of postmodernism to the outreaches of the contemporary. It does not turn a blind eye to postmodernist ideals or return blindly to modernism, but rather uses them as a foundation to view new horizons.

The End of Postmodernism

Postmodernism dominated culture throughout the late 20th Century as a reaction, or extension of Modernism. The modern movement idolized utopia like ideals. It was overly romantic and optimistic and favored grand schemes and narratives. Their yearning for utopias were rooted in racism that led to World War One, and World War Two. These massive world events called an end to grand schemes and optimism and created the beginnings of postmodernism.

In a broad caricature, Postmodernism was a period characterized by “deconstruction, irony, pastiche, relativism, nihilism, and the rejection of grand narratives”(Metamodernism). A direct polarization of the ideals of Modernism. Postmodernism reacted to Modernism and intended to be it’s brooding predecessor. Everything created in the Twentieth-Century is defined and molded by it’s sarcastic and ironic point of view. The generation raised on it has had a lack of sincerity in media and metamodernism is the reaching extension of it.


Beginnings

While there is evidence of this term being used as early as 1975 where “... Mas'ud Zavarzadeh used it to describe a cluster of aesthetics or attitudes which had been emerging in American literature since the mid-1950s.”(Wikipedia) This term did not gain traction until the early 2000’s at the end of the postmodern era. The Generation that was raised with pop culture icons like ‘South Park’, ‘The Simpsons’, and ‘Seinfeld’, has known nothing but the cynical and sarcastic postmodern ideals that the Twentieth Century had to offer. Now at the cusp of the Twenty-first, that generation is yearning for sincerity without abandoning their postmodern foundation. Scholars are claiming that postmodernism has finally come to an end, saying the brooding question was what to name the curent dominating culture, and how to define it. But I believe that postmodernism is not nessecarily dead but just shifted. The cultural theorists Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker used the term Metamodern as a proposition for the unique mix of aesthetics and opinions regarding culture.

That idea is what fueled their 2010 essay entitled Notes on Metamodernism. The prefix ‘meta’ is typically used as a way to refer to a abstract conceptual idea behind the object in reference. In the light of Metamodernism, it is not only being used in this way but as well as referring to Plato’s Metaxy, a way to denote a movement between opposite points, or poles, as well as beyond them. This movement can also be called oscillation, the very idea that Metamodernism is founded on. This new idea does not take take away from the lessons that postmodernism taught, but yet uses them as a jumping board to experience a new, more sincere, romantic, and optimist aesthetic and experience. Metamodernism is not a default to modernism, but yet way to experience an oscillation between aspects from both of these movements. “Oscillating between sincerity and irony, deconstruction and construction, apathy and affect, attempting to attain some sort of transcendent position, as if such a thing were within our grasp.”(Metamodernism). This new generation has come to terms with the idea that we can live in both a sincere and ironic moment in time without them diminishing the other.

Metamodernism in the Arts

Seeing Metamodern aspects in the contemporary arts is obvious when looking towards film, television, and music. Directors such as Wes Anderson, and Spike Jonze fully embody what metamodernism is. The 2013 film, Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix, a story of a man who is left heartbroken after a divorce finds solace in his surprisingly conscious and evolving operating system, and falls in love. This movie captures timelessly beautifully romantic and realistically futuristic cinematography but finds a way to subtly mock the advancements of technology and human nature, while showing the beauty in love and the deep complexities of the human experience. Simultaneously ironic, nostalgic, and futuristic. They are separate entities, niether taking away from the other, but together they create a b e a u t i f u l l y layered experience.



Wes Anderson has a multitude of popular films that show of a impressive cast of A list celebrities andcapture a poised and manicured aesthetic with the added ironic comedy and genuine human emotion. The music of Vampire Weekend, and Arcade Fire (Arcade Fire composed the original score for the movie Her) also have a Metamodernist charm to them. “We have seen a shift away from the insubstantial conceptual one-liners of the YBAs, or Jeff Koons’s vacuously overinflated ironic baubles, towards a re-engagement with materiality, affect and the sublime.”(Metamodernism) One can even find Metamodern analysis in architecture.

(This is a building in what I believe to be Germany?)

The style of the cartoons can be said to hold some of the ideals of ironic postmodernism, while still holding true to sincerity in that it has a optimistic aesthetic. The Oscar nominated film LA LA Land, can also be said to have some metamodern truths to it. A musical with full fledged choreographed numbers is a major motion satire, poking fun at Los Angeles, and the entire entertainment business. “Oscillating between unabashed, modernist extravaganza and postmodern self-deflation… The Hollywood ideal of artistic triumph is first shown as hollow fantasy, then shown to be attainable through grit and determination, and then shown to come at a cost.”(What Is Metamodern) The faults in Metamodernism come in that it is harder to give analysis to the medium based arts, like sculpture, photography, and painting. Metamodernism holds true in defining the dominating culture and aesthetic in western countries.

Reality Check

Metamodernism holds a unique outlook on the contemporary world around us. It does not claim to be bonafide art movement, but yet a way to make sense of the clutter and swirls of aesthetics surrounding us. It holds no real philosophies toward the world, only an aim to view the situations around us as realistically as possible. Metamodernism swings peacefully between modernism and postmodernism, irony and sincerity, and on and on. If only to give in to caricatures, Modernists viewed everything through rose colored glasses, and the postmodernists lived perpetually under a rain cloud. Glass half full versus the glass half empty. Metamodernism is just the water in the glass flowing between the two points. The Metamodernist aims to yearn for utopia with the understanding that life will presumably never get there. Slightly optimistic and a sensible and tolerable outlook on the world. They do not aim to deliver any kind of message but only to describe. It is an extension of postmodernism because postmodernism no longer gives us the adequate terms necessary for analyzing the world around us. It is as easily described as “at once coherent and preposterous, earnest and somewhat self-defeating, yet ultimately hopeful and optimistic.”(What Is Metamodern) 

It is simultaneously everything and yet nothing.






Works Cited
What Is Metamodern?N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

"Metamodernism: A Brief Introduction."Notes on Metamodernism. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

Turner, Luke. "Metamodernist // Manifesto."The Metamodernist Manifesto (2011). N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

(some notes on the Bauhaus Art movement coming soon to a blog near you) 

Magnolia Grandiflora

Growing up, I would stand by my window and gaze out into the world. My second story bedroom gave a great view of the crumbling, low middle-class neighborhood I lived in. More often than not I would stare at the house directly across the street. A modest, single family home. The porch too small to use, a light green Ford pickup that looked as if it had stopped running 15 years ago, and a magnificent magnolia tree in the front yard. 

If it wasn't raining then you would be able to find my best friend under that tree. She would be sitting in a plastic lawn chair, in the shade, drinking iced tea. Mary. She is now 62 years old and she is one of the best people I have had the chance to meet. 

Summers smelled heavy of that sweet magnolia tree. It was the only thing that penetrated the sticky Florida heat. We kicked around the seed pits in the street until we tripped on the broken asphalt. I counted the blossoms during our piano lessons in her cozy home. She was a big part of my life and that tree was in the background of it all. 

I've been thinking about that tree a lot lately. Summer is here and the Magnolia trees are trying to hold onto their blooms for as long as possible. Soon the heat will become too much and they will wilt into a light brown, decaying version of themselves before falling to the ground. Fall will come and they will just be strong trunks of large waxy green leafs waiting for their lovely friends to blossom again. 

There are many different kinds of magnolia varieties. Some have pink petals. Others, small delicate blossoms. The ones I am talking about are an icon to the American South. The Magnolia Grandiflora. Their large white velvet blossoms symbolize purity. They are beautiful and have even been used to discreetly send messages of love between one another. (life goalz to have someone give me magnolias in this context) 

                        

They are so perfectly gorgeous. Constantly in a cycle of growth and death and it still looks beautiful no matter what stage it is in. I like it for all the same reasons Van Gogh's Sunflowers is one of my favorite painting. (HA, you thought I was going to say Van Gogh's Magnolia.) While I realize this could be said about any living thing, it is a little more pretty to use the Magnolia Grandiflora or Helianthus as a metaphor for life. 

I made a playlist for a friend that was inspired by all these thoughts of Magnolia trees in the summer rain. Have a listen H 2.0 

((DATE IDEA- walking through a magnolia plantation. damn that would be some b e a u t i f u l  shit right there))