OUGD401 - COP - Mind Mapping and Hypothesis

Today I produced an in depth mind map of information surrounding the topic of post-modernism, which I have selected to investigate for my context of practice essay and supporting body of visual research. I had to consider following points:

• Context - what spawned this movement and what did it aim to do?
• Historical background - what was going on in the world of art and design at the time? What was going on in the world in general at the time?
• Visual nature - what visual components make something post-modern? Are there any trademarks?
• Aesthetic nature and style
• Technology - production methods, materials, point in time, how did this shape the movement? 
• Visual language - communication, tone of voice, concepts
• Ideologies - politics, social and moral and theoretical considerations
• Identity of the designers and visual artists, design companies etc - what were they attempting to portray and communicate
• Values and ethics surrounding the designs - corporate identities, visual identities

This exercise was helpful in gathering my ideas together and finding out what interests me most about post-modernism and where I want to direct my research and investigation.

Essay question: How has post-modernism impacted graphic design?

Hypothesis:
Many people argue that post-modernism had very little, if any, impact on Graphic Design practice since its inception in the mid 1940s. I aim to investigate within this essay the extent to which these views are true. Post-modernism within the realms of graphic art and communication is difficult to define. This is because the movement facilitated so much self expression, exploration and experimentation, resulting in a style that isn't as instantly 'recognisable' as say a piece of Bauhaus design. For me, this is what makes post-modernism so enticing and intriguing as an ideology and movement.

Post-modernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality. In essence, it stems from a recognition that reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding of it, but rather, is constructed as the mind tries to understand its own particular and personal reality. For this reason, post-modernism is highly sceptical of explanations which claim to be valid for all groups, cultures, traditions, or races, and instead focuses on the relative truths of each person. In the post-modern understanding, interpretation is everything; reality only comes into being through our interpretations of what the world means to us individually. Post-modernism relies on concrete experience over abstract principles, knowing always that the outcome of one's own experience will necessarily be fallible and relative, rather than certain and universal.
Post-modernism is "post" because it is denies the existence of any ultimate principles, and it lacks the optimism of there being a scientific, philosophical, or religious truth which will explain everything for everybody - a characteristic of the so-called "modern" mind. The paradox of the post-modern position is that, in placing all principles under the scrutiny of its scepticism, it must realize that even its own principles are not beyond questioning. As the philosopher Richard Tarnas states, post-modernism "cannot on its own principles ultimately justify itself any more than can the various metaphysical overviews against which the post-modern mind has defined itself."

http://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/gengloss/postm-body.html
http://shanny12.wordpress.com/modernism-vs-postmodernism/
http://www.emigre.com/Editorial.php?sect=1&id=20
http://ha065.wordpress.com/gamswen/postmodern-graphic-design/