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MOVING FROM MODERNISM TO POSTMODERNISM**__

We are an essay based reading group that meets bi-weekly at SPACES that will be (re)investigating and (re)interpreting the philosophies and practices influenced by the Modern and Postmodern paradigms. Essays selected by participating members will act as the theme for discussion during each meeting. The essays will be investigated directly from the source to avoid the over-simplified and one-dimensional conception created by textbook-like models. Extremely open to new and different approaches, the group welcomes everyone interested in joining. In addition, each member will have a democratic say in what routes will be taken to allow greater diversity within the materials studied. Whether or not the theories talked about are found to be ideal or disenchanting, the hope is that each individual participant will gain a deeper awareness of the ideologies that form today's art culture (and society at large).


 * HERE IS AN IMAGE OF THE FLIER:**



STATEMENT OF INTENT:

To what validity do //grand// theorists have the “authority” to assert that contemporary society suffers symptoms created by the Postmodern condition? A theory that is highly contested and at many times disregarded because of the intrinsic irony behind the method of conclusions created from its canon, Postmodernism is a theory that rejects theories¹- that is- Postmodern thought rids of the hierarchical status the “expert” theorists have over creating the most //truthful// ontology, which in turn jeopardizes even the most concrete models explaining our existence. Ostensibly nihilistic in character, Postmodernism asserts that the theoretical playing field has leveled, meaning that any idea is as good as any other. Yet, it is precisely still the “experts” (those who are highly specialized in a particular discipline and/or represented by notable institutions) that are diagnosing society as experiencing this “reality”. The drawback of the situation (the expert still holds their authority while refusing the relevance of their position) is the fact that Postmodernism self-trivializes the very own framework their theories are structured upon, hindering further //progressive// ideas to stem from the theoretical “movement”. In this respect, both the theories and history of this philosophy are stuck in limbo because we, including the academics and experts, can no longer identify what represents the //one// best way of advancing thought. With the fall of the expert, it seems as though no one can claim to have the authority in preaching Truth. Alas, what was once a clear monolithic reflection of reality has become the infinitely fragmented image created by a hall of mirrors.

Although Postmodernism has brought us the ideas that meaning is relative and certainty of Truth is now dismantled, this does not mean that we must throw up our arms and submit to the role as the tragic victim mourning over the loss of once having the luxury of a self-assured meaning to life. We can in fact trace an emancipatory facet within Postmodernism’s paradox (that of relying on theories that rejects the nature of theories); this potential freedom can be obtained through recognizing that although progress is interpreted as an illusion on the universal sphere, it may be that progress is a possible phenomenon on a localized level. Therefore, for Postmodernism to unfold from its self-imposed hibernating state, these ideas and issues must be debated at a local level within communities such as our own. Even a community that is small and at times considered entirely insignificant, through the lens of Postmodernism we have the same power as the “experts” to resurrect our agency by joining the quest in (re)interpreting and fleshing out new meaning behind the profound/absurd realizations created by the Postmodern condition. The aim of this reading group is to do exactly that: to add to this expanding dialogue while at the same time maintaining a local and unique interpretation of what it //means// to be a society that both contributes to and is affected by an overarching Postmodern culture. Through a historical, analytical, and cultural reading of the models created by Modern and Postmodern practitioners and thinkers, we as a community will find our (always evolving) position within the unstable grounding that holds today’s //grand// theoretical and ontological scaffold.

-Chris Mansour, group facilitator

¹Quoted from Wikipedia quoting Tony Cliff