Charles Jencks and Postmodernism - Essay Example

Charles Jencks and Postmodernism In art, architecture, literature and music, Postmodernism is a word for many developments and stylistic responses toModernism. Postmodernist architecture is a style which occurred as a reaction to modernism. Not inventing the term 'Postmodern' Charles Jencks, with his book The Language of Postmodern Architecture published in 1977, is often regarded as the main definer of Post-Modern architecture. This influential book extended the concept of Postmodernism from literary criticism to the visual arts. He is considered to be the individual who has most directly defined postmodernism. He is the first to theorize Postmodernism from the perspective of architecture. Postmodernism defined the exaggerated and incessantly revolutionary form of Modernism. For Jencks Postmodernism hybridises Modernism by reweaving the recent modern past and local culture. Charles Jencks referred to Modernism as to the international style deriving from facts of the new means of construction and satisfactory to a new industrial culture. He also stated that the goal of Modernism was the change of society, both in its social structure and taste. Being an "international" and a "universal" style, this movement proved unwilling to historical and cultural context considerations. Postmodernism, according to him, replaces the shortcomings of Modernism by relating the architecture of a place with the place itself by deriving inspirations from the local construction style and culture of a place. The Classical explanation of Postmodernism was made by Charles Jencks in 1978. He characterized Postmodernist architecture as "double coding": the mixture of Modern techniques with traditional construction so Postmodern architects could communicate with the society and create buildings that are more relevant to the surroundings as compared to the international style. Jencks also defines pluralism as the key concept of Postmodernism which offers a new synthesis at a higher level and overcomes the modern world picture. Pluralism describes one of the main points of postmodernism, namely the idea that an architect has to consider different cultural tastes in his designs. It meant a conception of architecture as a communicative language of forms and this led to his advocacy of the free use of past (pre-modern) styles in combination with the internationally styled buildings. Post-modernism means the end of a single world view and a resistance to single explanations, a respect for difference and a celebration of the regional, local and place particular peculiarities. Yet in its suffix 'Modern', it still carries the essence of a process which is international and in some senses universal. In this sense it is always hybrid, mixed, ambiguous, and 'double-coded" architecture which results out of the process of Postmodernist thinking. His theories hold distrust in architecture that 'expressed' through its form; whether function, or feelings & associations: Jencks argues that these expressive forms could give rise to unintended meanings and at times ends up in confusion. For example the form of the Ronchamp chapel designed by Le Corbusier relates itself to that of the hat of a man, a ship and the praying hands of a man or a flying bird. This according to him created confusion. Jencks describes Postmodernism as a movement that is irreducibly multiple, located between the demands of past aesthetics and those of present-day technologies and struggles. He opines that architecture must relate everyday meanings to more important manifestations in terms of architectural functions in a building, be they social, political, religious or cultural. As described in the book Language of Post-Modern Architecture, the end of Modernism and architecture as social experimentation was epitomised by the blowing up of the St. Louis Pruitt Igoe public housing estate in 1972. In his book Jencks describes this event as a milestone in history that marked the formal death of modernism owing to its failure the experiment in high-rise public housing for low income families. The earlier definition of Postmodernism according to Jencks specifies that all the architecture built after this event is Postmodern. In his book Post-modernism he lists eleven qualities of postmodern architecture: 1) fragmented unity, 2) pluralism, 3) a balance between the past and the present, 4) humanism, 5) remembrance of the past through parody, 6) intertextuality, 7) the use of irony for double meaning, 8) are interpretation of traditions, 9) the use of rhetorical tropes, 10) ambiguity, and 11) a movement from the margin to the center (Jencks 330-46). Jencks mentions characteristics which Postmodernist work of architecture needs to follow. Charles Jencks considers the concept of Postmodernism as it relates also to the arts and literature and offers a defence of the movement against the growing Modernist reaction. Using typical Postmodern devices of exposition, including irony, allegory and parody, he shows the evolution of this tradition to the point where it becomes academic in the 'Counter-Reformation'. But this also challenges a major misconception. For too long, Postmodernism has been confused by many critiques with any art form that comes after the waning of Modernism, whether it is Minimalism in art, High-Tech in architecture or Deconstruction in philosophy. Jencks argues that these movements are really Late-Modern, and that the concept of Post-Modernism should be applied only to those artists and architects who have a more complex relation to tradition and communication; who both continue and transcend Modernism which, according to him, is a process of double coding. For Jencks, Postmodernism is a movement that is irreducibly multiple, located between the demands of past aesthetics and those of present-day technologies and needs of the time. Postmodernist architecture means a return to the sense of meaningful or referential function of architecture. The works of Charles range from architectural designs to furniture, sculptures and landscapes. One of the famous works by Charles is the Garden of cosmic speculation', designed with Maggie at Portrack House. It is a thirty acre garden in the border areas of Scotland and is a joining of terrestrial nature with fundamental concepts of modern physics. This consists of hand work to make symbolic mounds and patterns cut into the grass. This consists of twisted undulated landform and terraces.This case he employs a metaphor of the division of cells and the way that cells exchange information with each other. The landscape work is inspired by fractals, waves. The garden contains many waves with images of soliton waves being the most prevalent. They are found in the iron fence work, the small and large land sculptures and in details of the stonework that abound in the garden. Selected Bibliography 1 Jencks, Charles. The New Paradigm in Architecture, (seventh edition of The Language of Post-Modern Architecture), Yale University Press, London, New Haven, 2002 2 Jencks, Charles. What is Post-Modernism New York: St. Martin's Press, and London: Academy Editions, 1986. 3 Jencks, Charles. Iconic building: the power of enigma. London: Frances Lincoln, 2005 4 Jencks, Charles. Garden of cosmic speculation. London: Frances Lincoln, 2003 Read More