However, even this disjointed reality is open to analysis and scrutiny. While this statement may sound unduly pessimistic or even dystopian, there is no denying that fragmentation forms an integral part of our everyday reality. One does not need concentration when reality effortlessly floats by like a series of fragments, images, stimuli, informational content, episodes of a TV series, or handy slogans. And when the “new” is endlessly replenished, concentration is superfluous. The cultural attitude of the early 21st century may perhaps one day be known as “the assault on concentration.” In an endless stream of information, the “new” is what counts. Superimposed on each other, these normative images result in spaces that demand self-renunciation of each individual. This is best explained by identifying two normative images that structure these spaces: the first is the normative logic of instrumental rationality the second is the normative aesthetic of austerity. Instructive spaces, although more varied due the infusions of faux authenticity operate still according to the two core notions of modernism. However, even these spaces are closely regulated as part of the instrumental rationality in instructive spaces. This feeling of alienation leads to a counter-reaction, namely escapism and a search for authenticity. In turn, the proliferation of such instructive spaces leads to ubiquitous alienation, namely a tacitly, pre-reflective, subjectively and fully embodied experienced feeling of alienation permeating instructive spaces due to their instrumental, reductive and objectifying attitudes towards individuals. The acceleration of modernity (labelled “supermodernity”) saw the perfection of this idea in the development of instructive spaces - namely spaces that are constituted by their forcible imposition of fixed, reductive identities on individuals, aiming at directing their behaviour by placing then in a predefined and/or narrowly defined role, and reinforcing the behaviour deemed appropriate for this role by means of continuous instruction, coercion, nudging and guidance. On the aesthetic side, the two ontological notions led the ideals of austerity and exactitude to be elevated as the closest expression of rationality within the built environment. Adherence to these two notions led to the elevation of instrumental reason as the final justification for creating the built environment. First, its natural mechanism second, its atomism. This situation is a logical consequence of two ontological notions on which modernism is based. It is experienced through the senses and through the manipulation of our mental dispositions. In this essay, I provide an account of the “generic eternal”, which is an aesthetic condition.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |