Representative Democracy as Kitsch, and Artificial Intelligence’s Promise of Emancipation

The chapter explores relations between modernity and the decentralization of authority, kitsch and partial centralization, the avant-garde and social media. Decentralization is identified as an important expression of modernist philosophy in current technology. As a characteristic of current directions of social progress, authority-opposing trends of modernism and post-modernism find significant support in new technology via less falsifiable decentralization based on crypto-currencies, blockchain, social media, search engines, and other products of the internet era. The scalability of classic athenian democracy to large societies is not yet accomplished by technology. Against the early modernity tendency to cheaply give the masses an almost effortless sense of participation (features associated with kitsch), the system of representative democracy promises to become more genuine through opportunities for electronic civic involvement.

SPATIAL COMMONING: RE-IMAGINING WELLINGTON’S CENTRAL-CITY LIBRARY & CIVIC SQUARE

<p><b>What if architecture could promulgate its resistance to urban inclinations of segregation, privatisation, and individualisation?</b></p> <p>The neoliberal climate of contemporary cities has reduced architecture to a mere tool for capital accumulation. Architecture, consumed and produced as a form of capital, is facilitating the progression of inequality and environmental degradation, nullifying its humanitarian agenda.</p> <p>In counter-reaction to the capitalistic conditions of the city, and the conviction that architecture can express social cognition, this thesis re-imagines, two essential community containers – Wellington Central Library and Civic Square as an urban common.</p> <p>The primary intent of this thesis is to develop a speculative commons framework that architectonically articulates sharing and commoning practices in the context of Wellington City centre.</p> <p>This research argues the pertinence of commoning theories in contemporary urban cities. It examines the genealogy and characteristics of the urban commons and how it could be spatially constructed.</p> <p>It examines the historical significance of the existing building to inform the tectonic characteristics of the urban commons. It investigates the conceptual and formal devices of Post-Modernism to drive the spatial and representational aspects of the design process.</p> <p>Moreover, it explores the evolving function and the societal role of libraries within the era of digitisation. It identifies an adaptable programmatic framework for the 21st-century library envisioned as a common.</p>

SPATIAL COMMONING: RE-IMAGINING WELLINGTON’S CENTRAL-CITY LIBRARY & CIVIC SQUARE

<p><b>What if architecture could promulgate its resistance to urban inclinations of segregation, privatisation, and individualisation?</b></p> <p>The neoliberal climate of contemporary cities has reduced architecture to a mere tool for capital accumulation. Architecture, consumed and produced as a form of capital, is facilitating the progression of inequality and environmental degradation, nullifying its humanitarian agenda.</p> <p>In counter-reaction to the capitalistic conditions of the city, and the conviction that architecture can express social cognition, this thesis re-imagines, two essential community containers – Wellington Central Library and Civic Square as an urban common.</p> <p>The primary intent of this thesis is to develop a speculative commons framework that architectonically articulates sharing and commoning practices in the context of Wellington City centre.</p> <p>This research argues the pertinence of commoning theories in contemporary urban cities. It examines the genealogy and characteristics of the urban commons and how it could be spatially constructed.</p> <p>It examines the historical significance of the existing building to inform the tectonic characteristics of the urban commons. It investigates the conceptual and formal devices of Post-Modernism to drive the spatial and representational aspects of the design process.</p> <p>Moreover, it explores the evolving function and the societal role of libraries within the era of digitisation. It identifies an adaptable programmatic framework for the 21st-century library envisioned as a common.</p>

Form Follows Function: A Statement Taken too far

This research article examines the study of the philosophy behind the statement "Form Follows Function", its relation to modernist architecture and its interpretation in contemporary architecture. It explains the basic principles of this philosophy, which began with the work of Louis Sullivan and how this statement actually came into existence. It defines the basic terms and vocabulary of this philosophy. It identifies the concepts of this philosophy that were transferred to architecture and became the basis of modernist architectural style. Modernist projects and buildings are very functional and lack any kind of ornamentation. The “transfer” of the concepts of form follow function to architecture was very direct and literal, this is the reason why it isn't suitable for the contemporary world. Moreover, the time when this statement was given was the time when world war one had just taken place and a fast and low funded restoration of infrastructure was needed. There is not any such kind of need in the contemporary world. The technology has advanced to such an extent that the functions can be fit into even the strangest forms which us to experiment. enables The focus is now more on the forms and the aesthetics which has been highly employed in the deconstructivist style. The new concept of adaptive reuse cannot be employed in the modernist architecture which is a big disadvantage. Keywords: form, function, modernism, post modernism

The Development of Postmodern Art: A Historical Overview

In general, modernists see the art form as a pure form independent of the art form itself. They give priority over what is shown. Or more importantly, the form or medium of representation they use is themselves. Based on this opinion, it seems that in its development the post-modern travel model can roughly be distinguished between those that are deconstructive and constructive or revisionary. Actually, one of the most prominent characteristics of modernism that distinguishes it from previous cultures such as romanticism, realism or naturalism is the existence of a systematic and amazing categorization. The energy that appears in each part is recognized for its strength. As in this case are the schools: post-impressionism, symbolism, cubism, vorticism, imagination, akmeism, and neo-plasticism. The term modernism was first used in 1890 by the Nicaraguan writer Ruben Dario to distinguish between Latin American literature and Spanish literature. Until the 1920s, modern artists managed to maintain by inspiring and integrating various art groups as a cultural force. These artists include; novelists James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and Andre Breton. In post-modernism also emerged conceptual art, a movement that attaches great importance to concepts. Often the work of conceptual artists is not shown in reality, but the work is limited to sketches and texts in which the artist's ideas are depicted. Post-modern thinkers are disillusioned with grand visions of the past such as Marxism and various religions. According to postmodernists, these visions bring only misery. These old views are being erased and replaced by more personal ideas.

Reescrita de si pelo outro: identidade portuguesa e paródia em Deus-dará, de Alexandra Lucas Coelho / Rewriting oneself through the other: Portuguese identity and parody in Deus-dará, by Alexandra Lucas Coelho

Resumo: O artigo aponta o modo como o romance Deus-dará de Alexandra Lucas Coelho, escritora portuguesa contemporânea, pode ser compreendido como um exercício de renegociação da identidade portuguesa em relação a questões referentes à colonização no Brasil. Mais do que isso, problematiza-se como, por meio da estratégia da paródia no texto ficcional, a autora consegue expressar uma necessidade e possibilidade de se redefinir pelo outro em um movimento contrário ao do discurso colonial – o que também ocorre em suas entrevistas e em suas narrativas de viagens, tais como em Vai, Brasil e Cinco Voltas na Bahia e um beijo para Caetano Veloso. Palavras-chave: identidade portuguesa; paródia; pós-modernismo; escrita portuguesa contemporânea; Alexandra Lucas Coelho. Abstract: The article observes how the novel Deus-dará, by Alexandra Lucas Coelho, a Portuguese contemporary writer consists in an exercise of renegotiation for the Portuguese identity in relation to issues that refer to the colonization process in Brazil. Moreover, this text seeks to show how parody as a fictional literary strategy helps the author in expressing a necessity and a possibility of redefining oneself through the other, in a direction that goes in the opposite way of the colonial speech. This necessity and this possibility also appear in the author’s interviews and travel books, such as Vai, Brasil and Cinco Voltas na Bahia e um beijo para Caetano Veloso, which will also be mentioned in this article.Keywords: Portuguese identity; parody; post-modernism; Portuguese contemporary writing; Alexandra Lucas Coelho.

What is a Philosophy of Education?

The article considers what is a philosophy and its relation to education . The modern academic development of philosophy has questioned the theoretical basis of specific aspects of knowledge and human experience, including education. It is an active rather than a passive or descriptive discipline. Education is defined similarly as a process by which knowledge, skills (including collecting empirical evidence and reasoning from it), cultural norms, values, and beliefs are acquired. The development of the modern philosophy of education is considered with its emphasis on conceptual analysis. Education is philosophically the conscious development of maturity requiring capacity for both intellectual and economic autonomy. Issues in the contemporary philosophy of education are then considered, particularly the challenges of post-modernism and post-truth for a philosophy of education in an Internet world. It identifies the need for comparative philosophical perspectives other than Occidental ones and suggests philosophical anthropology and comparative education as potential guides. It concludes that although there is now no consensus on how a coherent contemporary philosophy of education may be developed, analysis of concepts, metaphysical reasoning, and ethics may still provide a basis for a coherent and defensible philosophy of education whatever the comparative cultural setting.

Christian Tradition and (Post) Modernity in the Context of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński’s Personalist Concept of Culture (2)

The subject of this article is to present the Christian cultural tradition in the context of (post) modernism from the perspective of the personalistic vision of culture presented by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. The author’s interpretation of source materials aims to show Christian culture as a “sphere of earthly reality” shaping the human person in its integral dimension, i.e., both in the individual and social dimensions and the temporal and supernatural. In the personalistic-praxeological sense, Christian culture is rooted in the biblical-traditional values, which – perceived as a gift and obligation – are developed primarily in the sphere of the daily Christian life, especially in the dimension of family and nation. The author of the article asks whether the aretology of Cardinal Wyszyński’s personalistic concept can be applied to the specific realities of the up-to-date fact of cultural life? The answer to such questions is essential, especially in the context of the currently proclaimed “ideological pluralism” characteristic of the contemporary post-modern culture that emphasizes the moral ambivalence of “liquid” postmodernity.

Metamodernism and Language: Pandemic Era Advertising

In cultural theory, metamodernism becomes a new cultural paradigm of the twenty-first century, epistemologically with (post) modernism, ontologically between (post) modernism, and historically beyond (post) modernism. It appears in the context of political changes following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the environment of digital progress, but also in periods of financial and ecological crises. Rather than simple “zeitgeist”, metamodernism as an arriving cultural paradigm is to be understood more as a “structure of feelings” or sentiment so pervasive that it becomes structural. Metamodernism is symbolically presented by the dual nature of God’s messenger Eros, who operates between the worlds of mortals and immortals. Another metaphor to illustrate metamodernism is a pendulum that constantly fluctuates between opposites such as modern hope and postmodern melancholy, empathy and apathy or enthusiasm and irony. This paper examines Italian advertisements during the largest contemporary health crisis, the SARS-CoV-2 virus outbreak. The semiotic textual analysis is performed on the audio-visual commercials of well known companies, such as Vodafone and Barilla. In addition to this, several print advertisements of a local company for funeral services Taffo are considered. Different metamodern characteristics are recognised in all examined texts. In already confirmed pandemic narratives (such as “the celebration of being Italian and patriotic solidarity”, “the juxtapositioning of the “inside” and the “outside”, and the “humanization of technology at the service of human affections and emotions''), now the metamodern characteristics, as a new structure of feeling that brings hope, continuous oscillations between contrasted polls and a certain quirkiness, are being identified. The most relevant morphosyntactic, lexical and semantic traits of the Italian language in pandemic advertising are being compared with the same language tools in postmodern Italian advertising. Finally, different stylistic and pragmatic, rhetorical and semiotic tools are being interpreted and analysed, defining more closely the unique characteristics of “metamodern” pandemic advertising.

The Development of Postmodern Art: A Historical Overview

In general, modernists see the art form as a pure form independent of the art form itself. They give priority over what is shown. Or more importantly, the form or medium of representation they use is themselves. Based on this opinion, it seems that in its development the post-modern travel model can roughly be distinguished between those that are deconstructive and constructive or revisionary. Actually, one of the most prominent characteristics of modernism that distinguishes it from previous cultures such as romanticism, realism or naturalism is the existence of a systematic and amazing categorization. The energy that appears in each part is recognized for its strength. As in this case are the schools: post-impressionism, symbolism, cubism, vorticism, imagination, akmeism, and neo-plasticism. The term modernism was first used in 1890 by the Nicaraguan writer Ruben Dario to distinguish between Latin American literature and Spanish literature. Until the 1920s, modern artists managed to maintain by inspiring and integrating various art groups as a cultural force. These artists include; novelists James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and Andre Breton. In post-modernism also emerged conceptual art, a movement that attaches great importance to concepts. Often the work of conceptual artists is not shown in reality, but the work is limited to sketches and texts in which the artist's ideas are depicted. Post-modern thinkers are disillusioned with grand visions of the past such as Marxism and various religions. According to postmodernists, these visions bring only misery. These old views are being erased and replaced by more personal ideas.