Essay - "Pandoras box"// A List...

I read this essay on www.AllFreeEssays.net and I liked it so much that I thought I'd link to it here

There's quite a few essays like this being banded about the internet these days, and most of them I like. Not by me, it's signed by an anonymous student - although in the comments section (bottom of page) there is some disagreement about this! You can see my comment on the comments section as well.


I'm going to make a brief list that, hopefully will prove informative to critics/artists (more to the former than the latter I believe) when one considers art today.

- Postmodernism is not an art movement, it is a temporary sense of stasis and reflection. This reflection will lead to a rejection of many Western values and established modes of thought.

- Modernism did not experiment with art-forms in every possible way, as is often stated. Within the context of the times that "Modernism" functioned, it experimented in many ways. However, as times change, institutions and modes of thought change, Modernism's experiments will eventually seem somewhat limiting and irrelevant, to the times when it was functioning.

- Art is returning to the people. Indeed, it may be more accurate to state that the arts are returning to the people. The social hierachies in Western countries ( see Derrida's Ecriture) are becoming more and more irrelevant. The majority of people living in Western countries can read and write and carry out basic arithmetic. The great advantage of being able to read and write (and its associated cultural status) is now the advantage of the majority.

- Multiculturalism. How can Western countries absorb people from different cultures and keep
unchanged Western value systems? Currently, in the UK the labour government that is in power, promotes cultural diversity, yet at the very heart of its government it cannot accept this diversity. This is because the systems that keep the UK government in place would collapse if cultural diversity became intrinsic to the UK. This paradox can be described as "hypereal" (Derrida). It can also be seen as a worthwhile attempt by labour to accept multiculturalism, that ended in stifling beaurocracy that represents the inability for the UK to change, at its most powerful institutions. Ultimately, this reveals an extension of the already manifest condition of New Labour as a party of soundbites over substance. The arts, of course, are addressing this, making fluid the cross-polination of differing cultures. Without activities such as the arts and sport, the uniting, celebration and, ultimately the acceptance of diversity would be a near impossible task.

as yet unfinished....