POST MODERNITY.

Post modernity emerged as a cultural movement in the mid 20th century, post war, but started to gain popularity around the 60s and 70s. Post modernity was not the end of modernity, but simply a continuation of modern thinking just in a different way. Moving away from traditional practices, post modernity focused on the relationship between the artist and the audience, between absence and presence and the fusion of genres. I would say absence and minimalism were key to what post modernity was about, using repetition to shift listeners focus onto the subtle differences within the sound. There was a real aim to move away from such heavy structures that artists and musicians traditionally focused on and create a more fluid dynamic between each person.

Post structuralism and rhizome were 2 movements heavily involved with post modernity.

Post structuralism emerged in the late 1960s as a reaction against structuralism, which pushed against the idea of having full knowledge, arguing that meaning is not fixed, but instead fluid, and constructed through culture, language and power dynamics. Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher known for developing ‘deconstruction’, a method of analysing texts to reveal ambiguity and multiple meanings. Deconstruction shows that meanings are not permanent but instead, are constantly changing, challenging this idea of a single meaning. Questioning western philosophy, Derrida became central to post-structuralism and had an immense influence.

Rhizome was introduced by philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in their book ‘A Thousand Plateaus‘ (1980), it is a model for understanding society in a non-hierarchical way, contradicting the tree like structures traditionally used. The term ‘rhizome’ comes from a type of plant root system that spreads horizontally through connected points, without a clear beginning and end. Rhizome focuses on this idea that there is no hierarchy controlling the flow or importance of ideas; every point is relevant to the next. You can enter or exit from any point you wish to choose from. Rhizome structures are found everywhere in contemporary life, a massive example being social media, there is such a lack of organisation in terms of the hierarchy of social media, nobody is really incharge of it and everybody can enter or leave as they wish. In fact, this probably stems from the structure of the internet, which again is a structure that can be seen as a rhizome, it holds a vast network of interconnected sites and links, there’s no central hub; any page can link to any other page.

When it comes to the impact that post modernity had on sound arts, it was big. It influenced how sound is created, perceived, and understood. Post modernity encouraged the combining of various musical styles, genres, and influences. This approach allowed sound artists to take from traditions, break them down, combine with the new technology available and create something entirely new. It created this hybrid form of art where sound artists were using other medians such as sculpture and fine art to combine with sound, like they were in modernity, however on a different level. Post modernity also created the remix culture, where artists rework existing material, something that has been incredibly influential for the music world and is still used and is crucial in contemporary music. Although a slightly later aspect of post modernity, arising in the 80s/90s, like I mentioned earlier, the internet is a significant aspect to post modernity. Embodying many of the characteristics and themes associated with post modernity, it runs off a complete non linear structure and is arguably the most influential aspect of post modernity affecting society now in 2024.  

Rhizome and deconstruction were perhaps the most integral aspects to post modernity as this lack of structure was something very new, something that pre war would be looked at with disgust and chaos. It is more accurate and relevant to how artists, of all medians, work in modern society. And personally I think it was an incredibly important movement. It created a way for artists to share their work without having to go through such a tedious and destructive process. It encouraged sharing and destroyed the huge amount of competition that lived within the art world. Although, this competition is still present, it is less so and in less of a hierarchy way.

One thing I have noticed about sound arts, specifically as a female, is how heavily male dominated it is. This isn’t uncommon when looking into artists of the early and mid 20th century, but even still today, more men are well known than women within the sound arts world. One female artist who was very influential for post modernity was Laurie Anderson, a multi media artist known for blending sound art with performance and visual media. Her work often incorporates voice modulation, synthesizers, and experimental techniques to create immersive experiences for the audience. Her most famous work is “O Superman,” an iconic sound piece combining pop, spoken word, and minimalist elements to create a rather indescribable feeling .

Laurie Anderson is often associated with the Fluxus movement, which was as an avant-garde art movement that emerged in the early 60s, defined by a focus on experimental practices and the blurring of boundaries between art and everyday life. The term “Fluxus,” comes from the Latin word for “flow,” reflecting the movement’s emphasis on the process and change of making art. Fluxus artists were those who combined medians and art forms to create multi media pieces, breaking down the boundaries between the different styles. Live performance was a big aspect of Fluxus, focusing on making the act of creation become the artwork itself, often involving audience participation. This use of performance and multi media was all part of this idea to challenge traditional art forms, which is what modernity and post modernity was all about really.

Overall, post modernity, to me, was more about breaking down things than adding more, it focused on the importance of absence and how challenging social norms can be incredibly useful when it comes to creating art. It gave society an entirely new perspective on things that hadn’t changed previously for hundreds of years, and this change was good, it was fresh and it allowed for a chain of change to continue and is a movement that has affected us now in a big way.