Lecture: DESIGN AND POST MODERNITY

Some characteristics of Post-Modernism:

It is innovative and inventive
It involves participation
It communicates (through the sign)
It depends on interpretation
It considers wants as well as needs
It relies on performance, play, chance and choice
The part may represent the whole
It is a system of binary oppositions
It focuses on the marginal
It cannot be expressed through narrative
It is wed-orientated
Post Modernism is not restricted by the norms of consistency

Post modernism in one sentence:
Abandoned Obsolete celebrates new material in technology.

Design tells us about history, an important concept in post Modernism.
Post modernity is everywhere. From literature, philosophy to MTV, ice cream and underwear.
In the 1940’s the men were at war so the women were working in the factories. Through this came changes in society, women took on a new role as depicted in art (Rosie the riveter)

Value systems provide societal, cultural and economic meaning.
German company HFG were extensive in everyday design, with a systematic process, not a process of design.

Pop culture began, people developed wants, not needs. Pop art was easy to understand. Ettore Stottsass realised that man needed to like products and they need to sell to mass-market. (Aldo Rossi, bird kettle. Very Post Modern)