Thursday, September 9, 2010

Art as an expression of a free mind

When Charles Jencks stated that "consciousness of rules, conventions and cannons [are] thrust upon us" and that "the only way to escape from rule-governed art is to suppress from consciousness the cannons behind one's creativity" he really exposes how rules and canons for all forms of production, under postmodern classicism, are seen as preconditions for creativity. I thought that these ideas were interesting because they really describe how the meanings, values, and forms of modernism and classicism fuse together to create a postmodern classical environment. With this in mind it becomes clear why feelings of strangeness and familiarity exist simultaneously under postmodern classicism. Many rules, conventions, and cannons exist as the result of society grasping to classic beliefs and practices. This results in a rule-governed form of production and art Jencks says inhibits creativity and progress. Even when new beliefs and ideologies are formed many old ones continue to exist. It is under these conditions that postmodern classicism exists. It is not until people begin to rid themselves of these boundaries that true creativity and originality reveals itself. Rid ourselves of the cannons associated with creativity and art will be free.

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