As
visual culture pushes ever further into a ‘post-postmodern’ condition, the
incestuous breeding of signs and symbols will inevitably continue to occur on
larger scales, across large ranges of media, effecting larger amounts of
people. Due to advances in technology and the continual shift of attitudes and
preferences within the creative realms, we have arrived at a point in visual
culture’s timeline that is highly intangible and difficult to define...
The
renowned French sociologist, philosopher and cultural theorist, Jean
Baudrillard concludes in his 1981 text ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ that
“everywhere the Hyperrealism of simulation is translated by the hallucinatory
resemblance of the real to itself”. Baudrillard made this rather radical
observation in the later part of the 20th century, when mass media and more
importantly, the Internet, had no influence over our creative industries. If he
felt like that then, imagine how he would feel now!
Advancing
trends in today’s ever changing creative plain and so called ‘visual culture’
increasingly demonstrate incessant desires to re-reference ‘texts’ from the
past. It’s no shock that people are beginning to feel a sense of stagnancy,
particularly in the fields of visual communication.
At the heart
of most work that could be viewed as being postmodern are exciting, witty,
playful, irreverent and parodic intentions. However, an increasing percentage
of work produced today appears to have exhausted the once exciting avenues that
the postmodern avant-garde offered society.
This hopeless state
of constant recycling and regurgitation of symbols and signs has become
somewhat predictable in today’s hyper image-saturated environment. Very little
feels genuinely original, honest or authentic anymore. Our obsession with
technology, combined with the endless demands from our high speed society has
produced a sense that everything has already been done, that every creative
resource has already been exhausted. This can only be having a negative effect
on our visual culture.
Our current
attitudes and approaches to design thinking and making are not offering
anything ‘new’ to a world with a insatiable thirst for fresh aesthetics, and
these attitudes show no sign of disappearing any time soon.
This begs the
question: What does the future hold for visual culture? Well, Neuism may hold
the key to that very question…
Neuism
[adjective]
Derived from
the German word for ‘New’, a Neuism is a piece of work produced by a creative
practitioner which has considered four fundamental pillars which are
underpinned by key modernist and post-modernist principles, theories and ideologies.
A Neuism is
characterized as not existing before, featuring an aesthetic which is
distinctly contemporary. Work that has been produced, introduced, or discovered
recently or in the now or for the first time is considered a Neuism.
A
MANIFESTO FOR THE AGE OF VISUAL STAGNANCY
Creative
self expression is a fundamental part of contemporary visual culture, and it’s
something that the postmodern avant-garde held close to its heart. Neuism
recognizes this, but vitally teaches
creative practitioners to reconsider the functionality and simplicity promoted
by the modernist movement of the early 20th century.
Neuism
believes that a creative person must always have the right to total creative
freedom but must always bear in mind the four pillars of Neuism:
1) Neuism doesn’t believe in ‘art’ for
‘art’s sake’, nor does it value design for design’s sake. A neuism never compromises
communication for aesthetics
2) Visual culture must always look forward
to the issues and problems that will need to be solved. Neuism is always facing
ahead and tries to burrow as little as it can from the past
3) Visual communication should aim to
communicate with EVERYONE, not just those who are aware of contemporary trends
and aesthetics. Neuism is inclusive of all and doesn’t conform to trends
4)
Neuism promotes authenticity and originality, ultimately allowing individual
preferences and concerns to underpin the work, rather than constantly catering
towards other’s tastes
Neuism
is not a totalitarian vision for society. Rather, it exists simply to challenge
and agitate the condition we are presently experiencing. Neuism aims to
alleviate the boredom experienced by many consumers of contemporary visual
culture, hoping to ignite new passion in the collective creative consciousness,
encouraging the re-emergence of pure originality and individualism in the
creative environment.
At its core,
Neuism teaches us to try to adopt an ongoing conscious process of merging
contemporary attitudes with key principles from modernisms’ past. Neuism
accepts the fact the humans very much need nostalgia in their lives, but this
nostalgia does not need to define the present. Simultaneously, it values the
self expression and freedom that postmodernism promoted, but doesn’t believe in
taking things to the extreme. Neuism balances us.
It applies to
everyone and anyone who wants to embody it.
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