Mass Culture essay

Stream-of-Consciousness – A stream of consciousness is a way of describing an individual’s thought process. When spelled out in written form, it may appear nonsensical as stream of consciousness writing is more or less a description of an internal dialgue. 3. Epic Theater Bertolt Brecht was the architect behind this form of theater which promoted the notion that while entertaining a crowd is important, the main goal of a play should be to impart a sense of though provoking questioning in the audience. 4. Logical Positivism

Existentialism – Existentialism is one of the more misunderstood philosophical movements. Often confused with cynicism, existentialism seeks to discover the meaning of life and the place of the individual in the world. Ultimately, existentialism seeks to view life on its own merits and not on a subjective basis. 6. I. M. Pei 7. Constructivism – This was an art movement that was founded in the very early 20th century in Russia. Originated by Vlad Tatlin, this was an expansion of abstract art to include constructed images within the confines of artistic sculptures.

8. Socialist Realism – This movement of art came out of the old Soviet Union and was designed to sing the glory and praises of the socialist state. While socialism has long since proven to be an utterly failed system of government, at least the paintings were nice. 9. De Stijl 10. Dada – This art movement stressed a departure from the boredom of convention and tradition to such a degree that Dadaism could even be considered iconoclastic. In a way, Dadaism preferred an abolishment of traditional culture and sought to replace it with a new way of living.

Surrealism – This is a movement of art that seeks to present images that appear out of a dreamlike state in the sense that there is a great deal of emphasis on combining objects that do not seem to go together within the context they are presented. Surrealism, however, does not represent chaos, but rather an orderly version of the illogical. 12. International Style – Born in Western Europe in the 1920’s, International Style was a very popular form of architecture that took the world by storm with its simplistic concept and look.

Based mostly around rectangular shapes, this style was the dominant form of architecture in the USA in the 20th century. 13. Serial Music – On a basic level, serial music refers to certain types of music that is based on a repetition of elements such as pitch, pace, timbre et al. This does not mean that any music that throws a series of repetitions together yields “serial music,” but rather serial music would use the repetitions to create a clear and original sound that is of high aesthetic quality. 14. Frank Lloyd Wright – Wright was probably the most influential architects in history.

The reason that Wright is so revered is because he emphasized innovation as opposed to imitation. By not playing it “safe” and stressing innovation as his motivating factor, Wright’s work rose far beyond others in his field. 15. Twelve-tone Scale This is a system of music designed on a specific sort of pitches and tones. On a piano, the tones are marked by white and black keys. While it would seem that such a methodology of creating music would be one dimensional, the variety of music that can be created within this realm is actually fairly vast.

Neoclassicism – In the complete spectrum of the arts, neoclassicism is essentially a response to classical movements. That is, while an artist may study the basics of the classical system of his medium, he will later abandon the classics so as to avoid mindless repetition. 17. Late Modernism 18. Post-Modernism 19. Structuralism in art 20. Theater of the Absurd – This was a movement in drama that departed from realism and took place in a complete fantasy world. The absurd realm in which this type of theater took part in was designed to heighten the absurdity that life sometimes embodies. 21.

Magic Realism – This was a literary movement that originated in Latin America where it achieved great popularity, a popularity that would later expand to other parts of the globe. Essentially, this literary movement put great emphasis on realism, but combined aspects of a magical “realm” or magical elements in such a way that their inclusion could be considered plausible. 22. Abstract Expressionism – Probably the most misunderstood of all art movements. In order to understand what abstract expressionism is, one needs to understand what it is not. What it is NOT is nonsensical mayhem masquerading as art.

What it is, is the representation of emotional power in the form of artwork that combines seemingly nonsensical images and chaotic backdrops designed to evoke an emotional response. 23. Assemblage Art – This is artwork that is made by “stitching” together objects that results in a clear three dimensional design process to the actual artwork. In a way, this could be considered an offshoot of creating a sculpture, but because it is a style of art most are not familiar with, assemblage art is not held in as high of esteem as sculpting. This is a shame as it is a creative and viable form of artistic representation.

24. Pop Art – This art movement was started in England in the 1950’s, but did not achieve its greatest success until NYC’s Andy Warhol rose to the forefront of the movement. Basically, pop art deals with an emphasis on presenting consumerism and pop entertainment/culture in a highly positive light. 25. Neo-realism – Neo-realism seeks to make realism the centerpiece of art as opposed to centering art in an imaginary world. Probably the most popular form of neo-realism was found in the Italian cinema and was designed to show how people truly lived.

Neo-expressionism – This was a very “1970’s” art movement designed to shock audiences. This movement took recognizable images and had a tendency to present these images in a violent manner designed for emotional (nee shock) response. 27. High Tech 28. Glissando 29. Synthesizer 30. Performance Art – Performance art is when the artist becomes the actual art. An example of this would be a group along the lines of BLUE MAN GROUP where there is not a creation of a separate work of art, but the physical movements of the artist becomes the actual art. (Hence, the artist is the art)