The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from objects of daily use.
Adolf Loos (1870–1933), from Ornament and Crime (1908)
Adolf Loos (1870–1933), from Ornament and Crime (1908)
reichsstadt, if you haven’t read already –– this will probably leave you with thoughts on how to perhaps think about the “new” minimalism? Nietzsche made fun of the whole turn towards simplicity in dress (without making fun of dandies) as indicative of intellectual prowess. It’s “Fashion and Modernity” in Human, All to Human. “Ornament and Crime” is a great essay, but when it comes to his dismissal of ornamentation as “primitive”/given the fascination with anthropology/the ways anthropology has been done…it squicks me out. Besides the whole “hurrr durrr durrr isn’t lack of ornament still a form of ornamentation lulz.” schpiel. There’s also an article by Anna Chave called “Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power” David Batchelor does an amazing job of talking about the difference between minimalism-as-understood-in-the-art-world & minimalism-as-shorthand in relation to colour. It’s in “Chromophobia”, where he looks at the fear/distrust of colour. There’s a great primer on colour & interiors & chromophobia here. I’ve found less about minimalism “as a lifestyle”, and more about it as an artistic/musical/sculptural/architectural practice. Although asceticism may be another way to filter minimalism here. I mean, the class bent is pretty obvious. Ditto a weird underlying sense of orientalism (a fascination with the purity of “Japanese design”), OR that whole Bauhaus/Scandanavian thing. Ditto the whole cleanliness & order thing. I would wonder about the relationship between minimalism & computers/computer programming/computer programming language/mathematics. Or even how minimalism gives off the appearance of being “timeless”/”of the future”/”eternal”. Certainly, the objects betray themselves by very virtue of what they’re made from/construction techniques, etc. Maybe I have a bad eye, but there are times when minimalism feels atemporal. …I have to think about that more, because I’m already disagreeing with myself.
(via sylvides)