Post-Modernism

1. Post-Modernism
byTasneem Ramadan & Louise Douse
Week
9
Understanding
Performance

2. Post-Modernism
 Post-Modernism is one of the most controversial
movements in history
 It emerged in 1940, but became popular in the 1950
and gained academic momentum in the latter parts of
1960
 It was a departure from and a large reaction against
the intellectual assumptions and values of Modernism
in the works of architecture, design, literature, drama,
etc.
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3. How was it
different from
Modernism?
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4. Meta-narratives
 Scepticism – no “absolute truth”
 Education
 Family
 Religion
 Moral relativism
 Values cultural diversity and promotes
tolerance
 Problematises moral objectivism
 Relative to a particular standpoint, without
privilege
 Marxism
 Scientific progress
 Mastery of craft
 Dismisses common or shared values
 Nihilism – extreme pessimism, value destruction
 Implies obvious wrongs are acceptable
 Opposed to imperialism/authoritarianism
 Abandoned foundationalism
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Understanding Performance

5. Simulacra, Simulation, & Hyperreality
 Interrogate the relationship among reality, symbols, and
society
 Simulacra are copies that depict things that either had no
reality to begin with, or that no longer have an original
 Simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world
process or system over time
 Media no longer holds a mirror to society. Reality has become
constructed by mass media – we are living in a post-truth
world
 Life imitates advertising, a life that is mediated = Hyperreality
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6. Philosophy of the Art
 Post-modernists rejected the aesthetics upon which
modern art was based; the idea that art is something
"special" and should be in an "elevated from"
 A collapse in the distinction between high culture and
mass or popular culture, and between art and
everyday life
 Definition of art was stretched to include anything,
and art was accessible by everyone
Understanding Performance Week 9
Pink Panther by Jeff Koons (1988)

7. Characteristics
of the Art
 Explored artistic
experimentation with new
media and new art forms due
to technological
developments
 Refused to recognise the
authority of any single style or
definition of what art should
be (Anti-authoritarianism)
 Mixed genres and styles
 Focused on pop culture
Understanding Performance Week 9
Vasarely in Texas Sky by Angelo Accardi

8. Visual Arts
 Appropriation
 Interaction ofText & Image
 Hybridity
 Juxtaposition
 Layering
 Recontextualisation
 Identity representing
 Bricolage
 Conceptual
 Performance art
 Installation
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Understanding Performance
A Moment on the Lips by Mohamed Ali
In Italian by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1983)
El Caso by Christian Boltanski (1988)
Son of Man by René Magritte (1964)
Conversational by Lui Gonzales (2019)
Rebellious Silence by Shirin Neshat (1994)
Sound Wave by Jean Shin (2007)
Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View by Cornelia Parker (1991)

9. Architecture
 Preserving history, while encouraging a progressive
approach to design
 Asymmetry
 Humour
 Fragmentation
 Complexity
 Bright colours
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Understanding Performance Royal Ontario Museum
MIT Institute for Foundations of Data Science
The Golden Pineapple Inn, China
The Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA
Heydar Aliyev Centre by Zaha Hadid, Azerbaijan
Cleveland Clinic - Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health Frank Gehry
Duncan Hall, USA

10. Music
 Diverse approaches to music
 Rejected standard musical concepts; such as
key, chords, and harmony
 Considers technology not only as a way to
preserve and transmit music, but also as deeply
implicated in the production and essence of
music
 Includes fragmentations and discontinuities
 French composer Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)
 Extended on Serialism: a method of composition
using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres
and other musical elements
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Understanding Performance

11. What are the characteristics/stylistic features
of Postmodernism?
 INTERTEXTUALITY – the meaning of cultural texts produced by the
reader as mosaics or pieces of other pre-existing cultural texts
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Understanding Performance

12. What are the characteristics/stylistic
features of Postmodernism?
 PASTICHE – a composition made up of bits of other works or styles, it
celebrates the other styles
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Understanding Performance

13. What are the characteristics/stylistic
features of Postmodernism?
 PARODY -work that imitates another work in order to critically comment
on the work itself or the subject of the work.
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Understanding Performance

14. What are the characteristics/stylistic
features of Postmodernism?
 IRONY - a gap or incongruity between what a performer or author
says/communicates, and what is generally understood
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15. What are the characteristics/stylistic
features of Postmodernism?
 JUXTAPOSITION - an act or instance of placing two things close
together or side by side. This is often done in order to highlight contrast
and incongruity
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Understanding Performance

16. What are the characteristics/stylistic
features of Postmodernism?
 FRAGMENTATION - conscious highlighting of the discontinuous,
disparate elements of the structure
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Understanding Performance

17. What are the characteristics/stylistic
features of Postmodernism?
 NON-LINEARITY -events portrayed in a non-chronological manner.
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Understanding Performance

18. So how do these
ideas inform
performance, theatre
and dance?
Week
7
Understanding
Performance

19. Post-ModernTheatre
 The accepted norms of seeing and representing the world
are challenged and disregarded, while experimental
theatrical perceptions and representations are created
 Each new performance of a theatrical piece is a new
Gestalt, a unique spectacle with no intent on methodically
repeating a play
 Post-modern productions are centred around highlighting
the fallibility of definite truth, while encouraging audience
to reach their own individual understanding
 It raises questions rather than attempting to give answers
Understanding Performance Week 9
Mama, Big Bird and the Cat by by Margaret Chan (2015)

20. Post-dramaticTheatre (1970-):
ATheatre without drama
 Post-dramatic theatre tradition emerged
in the 1970s and 1980s
 Hans-Thies Lehmann defines this new genre
as theatre beyond drama – encompassing
experimental, avant-garde, subversive,
radical, risk-taking and post-modern
strategies – or ‘theatre after theatre’ which
seeks to overrule social norms, conventional
notions of character, theatrical space, time
and storyline
 A theatre that no longer focuses on the
dramatic text, or have dramatic text as its
primary signifier, but rather it forms new
theatre aesthetics
Understanding Performance Week 9
Odyssey by Robert Wilson (2012)

21. Key Stylistic Features
Post-ModernTheatre
 Minimalism
 Maximalism
 Randomness
 Deconstruction
 Discontinuity
 Empty space
 Heterogeneity
 Non-textuality
 Pluralism
 Multi-modality/Magical realism
 Mediation
 Nihilism
Post-dramaticTheatre
 Grotesque
 Multi-modality
 Deconstruction
 Non-textuality
 Anti-mimetic
 Empty space
 Overcrowded space
 Silence
 No hierarchy among theatre elements
 Hybridity
 Rejection of simple, logical and causal
 No plot at all; concentrates fully on the interaction between the
performer and the audience
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Understanding Performance

22. Key Plays
Post-Modern Post-dramatic
 Hänsel and Gretel
 Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio (1993)
 Attempts on her life
 Martin Crimp (1997)
 Shakespeare’s Sonnets
 RobertWilson (2009)
 Bertolt Brecht’s The Mother
 TheWooster Group (2020)
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Understanding Performance
 The Homecoming
 Harold Pinter (1965)
 Buried Child
 Sam Shepard (1978)
 The Mission
 Heiner Müller (1979)
 Kafka's Dick
 Alan Bennet (1986)

23. Post-Modernism in Dance
 Judson Dance Theatre
 A dance collective that was historically based at Judson Memorial
Church in Greenwich Village, New York during the sixties.
 The Judson Dance Theatre stemmed from a series of ‘Composition
workshops’ run by Robert Dunn (musician and dancer) who was inspired
by the ‘chance methods’ of Merce Cunningham and John Cage in the
late 1950’s . The results of these workshops culminated in A Concert of
Dance #1 (1962) held at the Judson Church.
Artists including;
 Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, David Gordon, James Waring, Trisha Brown,
Fred Herko, Simone Forti, Lucinda Childs and Robert Morris.
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Understanding Performance

24. Artistic Manifesto – Yvonne Rainer
No to spectacle no to virtuosity no to transformations and
magic and make believe no to glamour and transcendency of
the star image no to the heroic no to the anti-heroic no to
trash imagery no to involvement of performer or spectator no
to style no to camp no to seduction of spectator by the wiles
of the performer no to eccentricity no to moving or being
moved.
(Rainer, Y. in Banes,S. 1998, pg.150)
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25. Key choreographers
Early PM
 Yvonne Rainer
 Trisha Brown
 Steve Paxton
 Simone Forti
 Lucinda Childs
Later PM
 Lloyd Newson
 Pina Bausch
 Matthew Bourne
 Jonathon Burrows
 Michael Clarke
 Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
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Understanding Performance

26. Key stylistic features
 The main features of postmodern dance:
 Borrowing/stealing
 Referencing other cultural forms
 Parody/pastiche/re-creation
 Challenging stereotypes
 Irony, juxtaposition
 Playing with identity representation
 Using new technologies to distort/disrupt
 Leaving in editing/improv
 Repetition, non-linear form
Understanding Performance Week 3

27. Bibliography
 Baudrillard, J. (1994) Simulacra and Simulation. Translated from the French by Sheila Faria Glaser. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press.
 Elam, K. (2002) The Semiotics ofTheatre and Drama. London: Routledge.
 Lehmann, H. (2006) PostdramaticTheatre.Translated from the German by Karen Jürs-Munby. London: Routledge.
 Lyotard, J. (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Translated from the French by Geoffrey
Bennington & Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
 Pavis, P. (2003) Analyzing performance: theater, dance, and film. AnnArbor: University of Michigan Press.
 Preson-Dunlop, V. & Sanchez-Colberg, A. (2010) Dance and the performative: a choreological perspective: Laban and
beyond. London: Dance Books.
 Storey, J. (2006) Cultural theory and popular culture: an introduction. Harlow: Pearson Prentice Hall.
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Understanding Performance