Metamodern again...

I finally watched the (private) recording of Gia Milinovich's session for our group on the Metamodern. I learnt a bunch of things, the first of which is that it's not 'metamodernism' as it's a epistime, not a philosophy (i.e. it's a 'trend' observed in culture, not a school of thought). The second thing I learnt was a much better (but perhaps still shaky) understand of what the meta-modern is... To build on my previous post, broadly:

• Modernism: What is truth? How can we create utopia? What is the ultimate right answer? Let's make the world a better and better place.... Let's dream of a great future
• WORLD WAR
• Post-Modernism: There is no truth, there is no utopia, you all suck balls, there is no future so let's just be funny and snarky
• 9-11
• Metamodern: There is no truth, you all suck balls, but that's ok, and actually there is the chance of a future so let's still try to make the world a better place, even if we aren't sure what we mean by 'better place'

Maybe  put more reverently, things that are 'metamodern' tend to constantly swing between (I can't spell the word that starts with 'o' and means that) the idealism of modernism, and the snarky of post-modernism - when things get too serious, metamodern gets sarcastic, but just as things seem to be flippant and cynical, it catches us out and makes us cry. Moreover, it sometimes attempts to use both to enhance the other - a really flippant delivery to make a really earnest point, or a really earnest delivery of something very flippant. I think the movie 'Barbie' (which I loved) is a good example - it makes serious points in a light way - you can watch it as a rather silly comedy, or you can be really moved by it... Or both. Like most metamodern works, it doesn't want to be pinned down.

Which made me think that a lot of the stuff I made last year was metamodern in it's sensibility...  Flippant but with dark undertones, ironic irreverent language to describe earnestly felt emotions...

The "metamodern methods" were interesting:

They are more observations than approaches - i.e. again, they are applied retrospectively, but a few of them could describe my work, especially "ironesty".  

Am I excited to have finally found my true home? Nah. I think it's interesting that I stumbled into making work that fits metamodern, probably because I was aping contemporary work that I admired, but I don't think it's something to 'aim for'. I think my work is already moving away from some of these characterisations, and that's ok.

Another interesting titbit was the idea of 'operational aesthetics' - the attraction to, and fascination with, understanding how artistic things (with their own aesthetic) work - admiring a book for it's plot devices, watching the 'make of' of a movie, watching how a magic trick is done. I'm not sure how it relates to my work, but it feels quite 'me', given my rather analytic mindset, plus it's interesting to learn there is a term for it.