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Summary History of MKDA Modern Notes
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History MKDA ModernExam: Flashcards, lecture notes, literature
→ image recognition, knowledge questions (definitions of relevant terms & concepts),
insight (open questions)
Lecture 1 - 08. February. 2023
PART 1 - MEDIA
The (long) 19th century
1850-1900 ‘Modernity’
→ Industrialization, Urbanization, Reproduction
- Ensemble of socio-cultural norms
- Linking historical & cultural processes
- From feudalism to capitalism and market economy
- Secularization
- Development of the modern nation-state (nations are competing with eayh other economically)
- National institutions (public education, bureaucracy, etc.)
“modernité”
- Term coined by poet Charles Baudelaire in 1859
- Firstly, a term within the field of aesthetics and art criticism
- “Questioning and/or rejection of tradition”
- Later used to signify historical era
- Baudelaire as the one who gives voice to the shock and intoxication of modernity; “he is the poet
of the metropolis” (Walter Benjamin about Baudelaire)
- “To distill the eternal from the transitory”
Railways
See reading Schivelbusch
- Icon of modernity
- One can’t understand modernity without understanding the influence the railway had
“Industrialization of Space and Time”
- Concepts of time and space reflect the significance of media to civilization
- Media that emphasizes time are durable in character (clay, stone)
→ development of architecture & sculpture
- Media that emphasizes space are less durable and light in character (paper)
→ development in administration and trade
- Impact of constant technological change upon human perception in modern society
- Adaption to technological change (the development of a modern, industrialized consciousness) is
a learned behavior
- Contemporary perception of railroad as one of emancipation from nature & triumph of
mechanization
- At the same time: seen as terrifying and unnatural!
- Similar paradox: introduction of computers
- Trains had a disorienting effect on perceptions of space and time (overwhelming, dizzying)
- In only one generation people learned to accept a permanently accelerated relationship to
space-time as natural
- Collapse of distance between disparate spaces (from landscape to panorama)
- Similar to the montage in film: disparate images are placed one after the other
,- Re-organizing perception
- No static view points
- Perspectives keep changing
- “Panoramic” perception in contrast to traditional perception of landscape
- Traveler sees objects, landscapes, etc. through the apparatus which moves her/him
through the world
- Building infrastructure → reshaping cities (e.g., Amsterdam)
- Reshaping behavior → reading on the trains to avoid awkward interactions (today phone)
- Reshaping media economy → book stores at railway stations
Railway revolution had consequences on both the visual and material level!
PART 2 - ART
Romanticism & Revolution: Predecessors of the Avant-Garde (1800-1965)
Transition from modernity to post-modernity
Start: Romanticism (subjective choice)
- 1848: start of “modern era”, start of “avant-garde” movements
- A lot of people disagree with this
- Changes in perception of art, its use and its place in society
- Art is no longer seen as a job, artist has to be sincere in his work (Gombrich, p.503)
- Authenticity, originality now a standard in art
- “Official Art” of the 19th century = academia art, what the institutions taught/ bought, also called
‘Salon Art’ (in France)
- ‘grandes machines’ = especially appreciated pictures within salon art, that include complex
compositions in huge paintings
- Perspective of art production = oversaturated production of “official art”, lead to many artists
being forgotten today, whereas “avant-garde” art is popular now (atypical over the typical)
Rococo
- Connection between early modern and modern
- Aristocratic, related to French monarchy
- “frivolous”
→ the painter at crossroads between frivolous art style and return to antiquity
Neoclassicism
- Art teaches wise, honorable lessons and is not just there to amuse (as in Rococo)
- Linear, clear lines & colors
Romanticism
- Recognition of sentiments and emotions
- Medieval stories in a poetic / lyrical context; exotic Orient depicted in new ways
- Expansion of range of subject matter (Gombrich)
- less commissioners, but still a market for art (at markets) -> artist painted to sell
- more and more rich people -> more and more people who want to become artists in the
beginning of 19th century -> artist has to stand out/ be original to sell
- rebellion against what bourgeoisie want
- artist goes from being a mirror of what he sees to being a lamp
- Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus
- Religion (Caspar David Friedrich -> made an altarpiece without being commissioned)
, - “Rückenfigur” admiring nature
- Leaving tradition behind, contemporary scenes are painted
Realism
- “You have to be of your own time” -> artists depict the world their living in rather than the past
- Courbet – first realist (1848)
- Shocking to the world of salon art -> subject matter not seen as worthy to be depicted in art
- Depicting “real” people, not gods or heroes in big scale
Lecture 2 – 15. February. 2023
PART 1 – DESIGN
Craft, Industry, Design
What is design?
- Design is everything; it is within everything (substance of shape and color effect every
object, and therefore have been designed
- Design is all things that humans have made or used
- Design is all things humans have made and used intentionally
- Herbert Simon “to design is to devise courses of action aimed at changing existing
situations into preferred ones” (tree is made into planks of wood → bench)
- Design is the ideation/plan/concept of a product/process rather than its manufacture
- Design does not exist without man-made concepts and processes; it is not simply
out there in the world. This is why man design histories begin in the 18th – 19th
centuries within the Industrial Revolution
Before & During the Industrial Revolution
- Before: Production was mostly home based and decentralized (craft-based); one person
was responsible for the whole process of creation. From the collection of the sources, to
making the plan, to executing the plan → high-quality of craftsmanship required
- Geographical focus in the UK, later spread internationally (1750- 1850s)
- Why is the Industrial Revolution relevant for design?
- Rather than one person being responsible for the whole of the design process,
Design was separated into several components (1. Designer: creates plan
2. manufacturer: making the product; manufacturer consists of mass of laborers
each responsible for one step of the plan)
- Centralization: Expansion of factory size, as Revolution progresses. Therefore, the
demand for human craftsmanship declined → de-skilling of labor. Labor was
replaced with machines
- Division of labor between designer + manufacturer: designer made a plan/
drawing/design for a product and manufacturer produced it = birth of
professional ‘design’ practice
Examples of Industrial design
- Wedgwood Pottery – hand decorated table plates for the upper classes and cheaper
versions for the middle class
- for the cheaper end it required new technological inventions
, - similar to temporary tattoos the prints were soaked in water, peeled from
the paper surface and placed on the table ware; then burned
→ process of mass production, that made it affordable to the masses
- Wedgewood profited from disappearance of craftsmanship (retaining &
industrializing)
- Centralization: division of labor, replacement of labor with machines & cheaper products
- Thonet Model 14 chair – invented and patented process for softening solid wood with
steam, so it could be bent into furniture components
- Founded firm in 1853, huge multinational specialized in producing wide range of
inexpensive beechwood furniture
- Mass-produced, lightweight, flat packed, shipped cheaply, easy assembly → reminds of
IKEA
- Factories were close to the forest, so supply shipping was efficient and quick. After
forests were depleted, the firm moved geographical locations
Negative social and economic developments
- Mass migration: from rural, agricultural countryside to urban factories
- Increased profits: industrialists sought to lower prices by employing machines and
lowering wages
- Decrease of QOL and product quality: factory workers were treated poorly and in turn
the quality of the products suffered too
- Dissatisfaction with capitalist system
- Backlashes of these impacts
- Desire to improve the lives of the working class (Including/ especially children)
- The idea that improving the QOL would also improve the product quality
Arts & Crafts Movement
- Reform society and design at the heart of the ACM “Design is a tool to reform society not
for the benefit of the capitalist movement”
- John Ruskin (1819-1900) pointed out problems of the Industrial Revolution
1. Factory production lowers quality of goods
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