Avant Garde, Modernization And New Technology: Conceptual Review Of Literature

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1 Available online at GlobalIlluminators Full Paper Proceeding ITMAR -2014, Vol. 1, FULL PAPER PROCEEDING Multidisciplinary Studies ISBN: ITMAR-14 Avant Garde, Modernization And New Technology: Conceptual Review Of Literature Maryam Khan Ahmadi 1*, Tahereh Mehrollahi 2 Cultural Centre, University of Malaya50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Department of Psychology, Faculty of EducationUniversity of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Abstract This study aims to review the concept of Avant Garde in art from its inception to present state. The modernization of visual art and its impacts with Avant Garde art, also the emergence of new technology has shaped the new form of art. This study is an attempt to shed light on the emergence of new technology and new form of art in this era. The theoretical bases of sociology theories are used to build the new concept of technology, art and culture in present age. How this new form of technological art is going to transform the traditional concept of Avant Garde art is the main focus of this research. Future research directions are provided at the end The Authors. Published by Global Illuminators. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific & Review committee of ITMAR Keywords: Avant Garde; Modern Art; Technology; Technological Art, Mass Production Of Art Introduction If we discuss about the definition of Avant Gardemany people defined it in different ways based on their own context, philosophy, experience and exposure to the art and culture. As per general understanding about this concept; it is anything which is ground-breaking, untried and we refer it to persons and efforts associated with political situation, artistic phenomenon or cultural aspects. It is kind of extension in the landscape of tradition and status quo especially in the domain of culture.avant Garde has been considered as a very important movement in art and culture, having many proponents and followers. Diana (1987) explains that Avant Garde has been through many phases since its inception, like Dadaism, pop art, abstract expressionism and minimalism. Pop art was known as sketching the images from elite culture, while abstract expressionism is famous for its image of being rebellious, highly idiosyncratic, nihilistic and anarchic. On the other hand minimalism is termed as anything which is considered to be spare or stripped to its essentials. Avant Garde is also associated with explanation of high culture. When we talk about sociological theories and how these theories discuss interdependence and influence of media and society. These theories try to bridge the gap between cultural determinism and technological determinism. Technological determinism *All correspondence related to this article should be directed to Maryam Khan Ahmadi, Cultural Centre, University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia safa.khan.ahmadi@gmail.com 2014 The Authors. Published by Global Illuminators. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific & Review committee of ITMAR-2014.

2 discusses the influence of media and technology on culture and society. It states that technology & media of communication shapes the new face of everything else in the society. This emergence of social change has given rise to technological culture. Functionalism explains the media as a serving element fulfilling the basic need of the society (Wright, 1974). Media helps up in achieving following human needs such as surveillance of environment (i.e. CNN, Face book, , Twitter), interpretation (i.e. columns, editorials of newspapers), Transmission and socialization of values ( Sesame Street and other programs), and entertainment (like YouTube, flicker etc.). The famous theorist of technological determinism McLuhan (1962, 1964) described the print and electronic media as a great technological revolution in the art, culture and society. In his very famous aphorism The media is the message, he stressed on the importance of form of media instead of content itself. He very strongly believed on convergence of artifacts drawn from the technological innovation. His argument in 16th century is realized now and internet has realized his dream of global village. He noted that By electricity we everywhere resume person-to-person relations as if on the smallest village scale (McLuhan, 1964 p, 255) The visual art has been transformed into an unlimited technological variety and form. In this connection it is very much needed to re-evaluate the original concept of Avant Garde and new transformation in art. All forms of media are in rapid transformation process because of emergence of the internet and new technology. The very important question arise here about the originality and uniqueness of art is secured or vanished under concept of mass production in art with the use of new technology. This research is an attempt to fill the gap in research related to Avant Garde and influence of new technology on originality of art. How this new form of technological art is affecting the society is another major question to be raised. This research is important because of its contribution towards filling the gap in current literature and secondly its advancement in concept of Avant Garde in modern era. The next section provides the history of the concept of Avant Garde, followed by major proponents of this school of thought. Next section will describe the example of Readymades. Upcoming section will discuss the modern era and Avant Garde art followed by methodology section and at the end conclusion is provided with future research directions. History of Avant Garde Literature Review The history of this concept (Avant Garde) can be traced back to Swiss cultural movement during 1916 to 1922, inspired by anti World War I politics and popular as DADA.This movement provided base for abstract art and sound poetry, performing art, and surrealism (Mario, 2006).Roots of Avant Garde can also be traced back to French revolutionary movement (1957) named as Situationist International. This movement played the role of Avant Garde by advocating the life experiences against the very famous views of capitalism to improve the human life (Elliot, 2001). The concept ofavant Garde has also got inspiration from American Language Poets famous in 1960s and early 1970s. The language poets played the role of Avant Garde by innovation in writing actively which challenged the usual existence of a writer behind the text, it provided a new way of writing longer types of poetry against the traditional style of English writers and other norms in writing poetry (Greer, 1989). 756

3 Following conditions has been identified to be fulfilled, to determine any piece of art work as an Avant Garde by using aesthetic; the art work should renovate the artistic standards, artistic tools and procedures should be used and nature of the art object should be re-invented (Diana, 1987). To elaborate this definition with an example which truly fulfilled all three prescribed conditions, this research will use the work of fountain by Duchamp, in which he portrayed a urinal and pitched it as a readymade form of art. Urinal was an already existing convention and he redefined it for artistic purpose. He used a new technique in production of new art and he renovated the nature of the art object as well. The following table summarises the few main legends of Avant Garde art, their period, country of origin and few examples of their influential work. Table 1: S.No Name Period Origin Example of Avant Garde work 1 Andrew Warhola America Painter, print maker of POP art, visual art movement, Avant Garde film maker, record producer, campbell s soup cans, member of 2 Pablo Ruiz Picasso Henri Matisse MarcelDuchamp Spain France elite of the times. painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, great artist of 20 th century, he gave master pieces of work such as Family of Saltimbanques (1905),Boy Leading a Horse (1906). Rose period, blue period, African influenced period, Analytic cubism, Synthetic cubism. Draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter, plastic art, classical tradition in French painting, Leading Figure of Modern Art.The Dessert: Harmony in Red painting. The green line portrait. France Artist associated with Dadaist and Surrealist movements,urinal art Fountain,art work as Avant Garde circles of his time.nude Descending a Staircase No.2 A French artist Marcel Duchamp is considered as one of the most prominent and significant artist of 20th century. He has been labelled with the movements of Dadaism and Surrealism; he helped shaping out the western art after World War I. His work of urinal art fountain challenged the traditions of art marketing and artistic techniques. Duchamp s initial work which dominated the attentions of art world was a painting of mechanistic motion of a nude. This work was very much alike to motion pictures of today. It exhibited the elements of destruction as well as cubism, which is known as showing object from multitude of view points as compared to one view point traditional approach. This nude picture also had aspects of futurist stream of art which was originated from Italy in 20th century and is famous for 757

4 contemporary aspects of future, like violence, speed, technology and machines of the time. This work of Duchamp was challenged by society of independent artists in 1917, as traditional judges were not convinced to accept this innovation as an art. Readymades The first readymade piece of work done by Duchamp was already found object of urinal which was titled as fountain by him in 1917, and was marked as R Mutt. By meaning readymade show the meaning of already found object. In his readymade stream of work, the fountain is considered to be the best one. Due to inherent symbolic message of toilet, it portrays a cognitive challenge of intuitive extreme (Dave, 2007). Different scholars have explained the land mark object of fountain in a glorious way. Calvine (1996) described about fountain that "it does not take much stretching of the imagination to see in the upsidedown urinals gently flowing curves the veiled head of a classic Renaissance Madonna or a seated Buddha or, perhaps more to the point, one of Brâncuşi's polished erotic forms." Among the series of readymade, the associated first ever pure readymade A bottle drying rack in 1914 signed by Duchamp, followed by a broken arm in 1915, and a snow shovel named as advance in the broken arm, and finally the R Mutt signed fountain in 1917, astonished the world of art and culture.lately in 1919, the parody of great actress Mona Lisa was produced by Duchamp and it was crafted with the use of moustache and goatee. In this painting Duchamp tried to highlight the sexuality desire of a hot women followed by an earlier nude object in series of his readymade.marco De (2003) claims in the research that Duchamp invented few objects which already existed and named them as found objects. Based on our review of literature and using the available knowledge about Duchamp s work, its themes and philosophy in the art work and culture. This research can summarize that Duchamp s aim of readymade challenge to Avant concept has following significant influence on the social, political and historical dimensions of work of art: 1. As the procedure to createreadymade requires minimum interaction between the object and the artist as compare to other Avant Garde art works, it is the highest form of minimalism in the art work of that era. 2. This emergence of new form of art has not only changed the concept of artwork but also it has its roots in history of art. 3. Redefining the object, theme, idea, which already exists, has given a new touch in history of Avant Garde art. 4. This has challenged the definition of Avant Garde which talks about innovating and experimenting an advance in the art, music, culture because readymade are just redefining the already existing concepts in new style. 5. Duchamp challenged the traditional concept of what is art, and what is not art, by pitching the idea of readymade. 6. Stuckists claims readymade as anti art and they claimed that its anti art which become art now, and people have accepted it as original art. So readymade challenge the overall history and techniques of the art. 7. Socially the nude fountain, Mona Lisa portrait and the controversial comments of Duchamp s has created a great debate on the issues which were previously not taken as 758

5 issues of discussion. So readymade gave the challenge to traditional approach of conceptualization. 8. Avant Garde has been considered as ambiguous and heterogeneous phenomenon but readymade are the simple unique conceptualizations challenging that ambiguity. 9. Avant Garde has been considered as an opposition phenomenon playing important role in political scenario of the time, but instead readymade has given a humorous, creative and soft touch to the art. So challenged the traditional political landscape of the art and society relationship. Hence leading a change or shift towards sensational issues of life, instead of political issues. Modern Era and Avant Garde The concept of mass distribution and mass production in art work is inspired from industrial revolution of 19th century which focused on lowering cost of production by producing much number of units. Technology made this concept applicable in art by providing latest state of the art techniques and tools for producing artifacts. This emergence has made art work available to many spectators and lovers of art across the globe. The concept of marginal cost made it possible for people to afford many media devices and sources at their homes and offices simultaneously. We can also find concepts of economics equally applicable in art and music related businesses and industries, such concepts discussed in book as supply and demand, oligopoly, monopoly, duopoly, barriers to entry and other economics concepts. The emergence of political economy has influenced the world by commercialization of international brands such as coca cola, Nike, and KFC. This commercialization has undermined the traditions of local culture and encouraged the consumer culture. (Featherstone, 1990). Live coverage of the important events, accidents and alerts has given new horizon to the news and electronic media. How technology and theories of technological determinism predict effects on society and culture. Ethnographic studies are considered better for this research with low generalizability. Early theorists believe on immediate effects of mass media on individual s attitude and behavior but later on this concept changed. Few very famous theories explaining this phenomenon are Social learning theory (Bandura, 1986), cultivation theory (Wilson, Martins, & Marske, 2005), Priming theory (Berkowitz, 1984). Experimental research has also shown some negative impacts of media on society such as violent behaviors and negative attitude in children, promoting sexism and racism in men. On the other hand, the studies has reported significant impact of media and technology in development of pro-social behaviors in society, such as cooperation, sharing, information campaigns, entertainment, education and distance learning. Another impact of media is political advertising which very rarely influence the majority, but is always used to make puffery about its impact on millions of people. Another major aspect highlighted is the social inequality and lack of access to media by all groups and members of society. It increases the gap between majority and deprived minority. The communities lacking social support become more isolated, which is an adverse impact on society. The emergence of global village and social groups and virtual communities has also impacted the social relations in society and culture. The alarming 759

6 rumors about information technology are about a significant increase in unemployment by cutting jobs due to automation of processes. But in the long run it is expected that new forms of labor requirements will emerge in virtual societies and will not hamper the employment in society. But surely it will change the requirements of labor skills from hard skills to soft skills. This situation has brought many challenges for the visual art in this era. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction In spite of its conciseness, this concept has got significant mass attention of art critics and scholars by discussing the role of technological reproduction of art in explaining the artistic experience. Especially the role of new techniques of photography and film in decline of autonomous aesthetic experience has been briefly discussed. The essay starts with discussion of shift in perception and how it affects the art work, special examples of film and photography has been given with emphases about rebellion of romantic and classical aesthetic ethics. The aesthetic inherited magical power of all types of artifacts, when reproduced at mass level will hamper its uniqueness and the artistic attribution of its theme. To explain this concept Benjamin introduced a new concept of aura, which is defined as a unique phenomenon of distance, space and time with natural existence in first hand artifact. To explain the concept of aura he used the example of mountain and branch of tree shadowing you in a summer afternoon. Now both of the examples reside free from any kind of human ideological intervention, and the true spirit resides itself in the theme. Here Benjamin make a stance that mass mechanical reproduction of art work has lost the true natural spirit of artistic experience. The modern art is thus hampering the aura in old and natural artistic historical streams of art. He recognized mechanical reproduction as a new revolution in the history of art work. The example of film and photography are pitched that millions of original images are transmitted or reproduced but they all lack the authentic aura of their original source. The example has been floated with developing a contrast, why a painting has a special authentic aura and a film or photograph do not have that original aura in it. A photo of a catholic cathedral uncovers the aura effect from it by converting the role of photographer as a spectator or commentator who is detached from the spirit of the place in it. But in case of painting of the same have an aura in it because the painter is part of that aesthetic experience and cannot be detached from the spirit of the place in itself. Benjamin states a photograph as an image of the image as compared to the painting which is original and contains the true spirit aura in it. While discussing the revolutionary modern mechanical art of film which don t have aura in it due to following reasons stated by Benjamin; the audience view and response is part of aesthetic experience for actor which is missing in the film as compared to stage actor. The audience in film is idle and limited to critique on invention. The film is just a series of cut and pasted images modified, cropped, and magnified by technological equipment s to impress the audience. Benjamin discusses that destruction of humanity becomes an aesthetic experience and communism gave significant positive signals by bringing politics into the art. The example of surgeon and magician gives an interesting play between two different streams in original artwork and mechanical reproduction of art. Another wonderful example of canvas and film screen comparison with conclusion of physical shock effect and the moral shock effect phenomenon. Benjamin quoted film as a 760

7 reception in a distracted form, which is said to be evolving in almost all forms of art. A great stance by pitching the idea that mechanical reproduction of films encouraged the mankind to get pleasure and aesthetic experience in theirown destruction, making comparison of response to art by fascism and communism. Theories and commonalities Studying the Benjamin essay reveals fascism, Dadaism, Communism theories in relation to politics in the art. Psychoanalysis approach has been discussed with the example of the slip of tongue notice, as contrasted with Freudian theory. Comparison of film with hieroglyphs by Able Gance our eyes cannot adjust to what happens is a wonderful contribution in Benjamin essay. Technological determinism and historical art work approaches has been postulated in the essay with a beautiful theoretical frame of reference. Dadaism theoretical aspects have been highlighted as challenge to elitism of art. Traditional approaches to the art like orthodox have been encouraged and surrealism approach has been discouraged in it. Perception of human being has been articulated with changes based on historical evidence and Benjamin says this change of perception causes perish in aura. In Technology and media many major theories has been discussed, such as hypodermic model which shows significant powerful influence of mass media and the concept of persuasion is considered most important in changing attitudes, beliefs and behavior of people (Hovland, Lumsdane, & Sheffield, 1949). Multi step approach call the influence of media indirect through a mechanism of opinion leadership (Katz & Lazarsfeld, 1955), while Klapper (1960) says these effects as slighter in his stance of limited effects. Uses gratification theory is based on active selection of media as per our needs (Palmgreen & Rayburn, 1985). The culture determination is the combination of work done by media and the audience (Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000). Social learning perspective describes media in terms of expected outcomes (Bandura, 1986). Cultivation view posits that exposure to media results in formation of view of the world which is mediated by consistent reality (Wilson, Martins, & Marske, 2005). Priming theory states that media image positions a relevant view point in the mind of the audience (Berkowitz, 1984). Along with these theories some other approaches has also been discussed in the book, such as Agenda setting theory (Wanta, 1997), Catharsis (Feshbach & Singer, 1971) and critical theorist (Marti Bon-Barbero, 1993). Methodology Method for this research is a review of literature in which majorly we have made a comparison of literature among two famous books Benjamin essay and the technology and new media. We have traced the roots of Avant Garde art and then influence of modernization on art culture and society. The bridging of both the concepts in this research is the main methodology and contribution of this research. We adopted the review method used by major conceptual articles in the field. Conclusion We can see the commonalities in both of the streams of theories are that human behavior, perception, and attitude may be influenced by images of mass media, and mechanical reproduction of art has significantly influenced the society and culture, resulted in emergence of new virtual culture. Both streams are of the point that technology has formed a new form of art with some advantages and disadvantages in it. 761

8 Our own stance on this topic is that no one can deny the emergence of global village era and influence of technology on all spheres of life including art, culture and society. The use of these technological forms of art for commercialization and political purposes has drawn some drastic effects on the quality of natural art and its originality as well as authenticity. Here we are surely agreed with Benjamin that the pure aura has been lost from today s art. But it s not possible for artistic scholars to go back into the history just for the sake of bringing aura of Benjamin into all existing art. What only we can do is to come up with the new ideas through which we can improve the authenticity and validity of the modern art. Another step we can take is to preserve all natural and unique forms of art for our future generations to give them a very rich cultural history of our times. More research should be diverted towards bringing originality in the technological art and towards methods of preserving old time artifacts. On the basis of above conceptualization we pitch an idea if Techno aura to give advance to the Benjamin aura. According to this research techno aura mean try to bring the originality and uniqueness in technological art to answer the draw backs of distance, space and time pointed by Benjamin in his definition of aura. In conclusion this research brought many significant contributions to literature related to Avant Garde and modern art as well as the literature related to influence of new technology on art and culture in society specifically in context of visual art.first of all this research is a unique attempt by nature of methodology in comparing two school of thoughts Benjamin essay and the new technology and media. Secondly, this research is unique in tracing back the roots of the concept of Avant Gardeand also in discussing major proponents with examples such as readymades. Thirdly, this study has grouped all different forms of definitions of Avant Garde art into a single study to develop better understanding of the future scholars in this area. Fourth major contribution of this research is to discuss and group the concept of Avant Garde in modern era. Fifth contribution of this study is the discussion about work of art in age of mechanical reproduction which is ultimately leading towards over all conception behind this study.sixth contributionof this research is the discussion and integration of different theories from different fields with the elaborated artistic concepts. This will help the field to further integration of theoretical notions in modern era of art and culture. Lastly, this research proposed the new concept of techno aura in the field with solid arguments and literary support. This concept will help future scholars in bridging the gap between Avant Garde, traditional aura, Benjamin concept of aura and the rapid transformation in visual art by emergence of internet and new technology. This concept may be applied and integrated across different cultures and forms of art and media for better explanation of state of modern visual art in global village. Future Research Directions Future research to support this intuition of techno aura may bridge the gap of impact of technology on culture, art and society as well as it may help artists and scholars to ensure the aesthetic beauty, and originality of the technological art of this modern era. How the concept of techno aura can be termed in Eastern and Western culture, art and society and what are the commonalities and differences in both societies could be a major area of future research. Future research may also look into the detail how technological aura can be sustained and ensured in different forms of art to preserve the originality and value of the real art.how scholars can bridge the gap in art and culture emerged by the drastic impact of 762

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