Comment on “An aesthetic investigation of modern landscape design in light of postmodernism: pop doctrine”

Xiaoyan Hao[1]

Commented Article: SHEN, Qing; WANG, WeiLiang. An Aesthetic Investigation of modern landscape design in light of postmodernism: pop doctrine. Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp Journal of Philosophy, v.47, n. 4, e0240049, 2024. Available at: https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/article/view/14521.

Postmodernism is a philosophical, cultural and artistic movement that emerged in the second half of the 20th century. It critiques the rationality, norms and linear thinking of modernism, advocating for acceptance of diversity, fragmentation and relativism. Under the influence of this movement, the aesthetics of modern landscape design have undergone significant changes. This article discusses the importance of pop art in contemporary landscape design from a postmodern perspective. Pop art, as an art form, has unique historical and social significance, providing a new perspective and creative approach to modern landscape design. It combines formal elements, such as color and pattern, with landscape design, adding aesthetic value to modern landscape design. The aesthetic appeal of pop art aligns with contemporary themes in landscape design, such as ecology and environmental protection. By integrating pop art into modern landscape design, the utilization of pop art style is maintained while embodying the characteristics of postmodern aesthetics.

Through studying the application of pop art in modern landscape design, the article reveals the significant meaning and value that pop art possesses in contemporary landscape design. The application of pop art can break traditional aesthetic norms and design patterns, creating unique landscape works. It can attract viewers’ attention, provoke thoughts, and raise awareness and appreciation for the landscape environment. Furthermore, the use of pop art can make landscape design more in line with contemporary social aesthetic trends and aligned with people’s lives and values.

Pop art holds an important position and role in modern landscape design. It brings new creative ideas and aesthetic value to landscape design, showcasing the characteristics of the postmodernist movement through its integration with contemporary themes. The application of pop art prompts a reevaluation of landscape design and injects new vitality and innovation into contemporary landscape design.

1 About popism art

Postmodernism has had a significant impact on various fields, including modern landscape design. From a postmodern perspective, pop art is explored in the context of modern landscape design. Pop art, with its distinct history and social significance, provides a new perspective and creative approach to modern landscape design. By integrating elements of color, pattern and form, pop art enhances the aesthetic value of contemporary landscape design. The aesthetic appeal of pop art aligns with contemporary themes, such as ecology and environmental protection.

The incorporation of pop art into modern landscape design not only maintains the utilization of pop art style, but also embodies the characteristics of postmodern aesthetics. It breaks traditional aesthetic norms and design patterns, creating unique and attention-grabbing landscape works. Moreover, the application of pop art in landscape design can attract viewers’ attention, stimulate reflection, and raise awareness and appreciation for the landscape environment. It also aligns with the contemporary society’s evolving aesthetic trends harmonizing with people’s lifestyles and values. Pop art holds a significant position and plays an important role in modern landscape design. It offers new creative ideas, aesthetic value, and a distinct perspective shaped by postmodernist thought. The integration of pop art prompts a reevaluation of landscape design, infusing it with fresh energy and innovation. Its utilization breaks away from traditional norms and enriches the development of contemporary art.

The emergence of pop art, in the 1950s, can be traced back to the “popular culture” movement that originated in the United States. During that time, “mass culture” referred to the social ideology shaped by mass media and consumer culture (Albaladejo, 2013, p. 1). Pop art introduced this “popular culture” into the realm of art, using popular means to express various abstract and contemporary art forms. Since its inception in the 1960s, Pop art has rapidly grown in popularity, becoming a prominent artistic trend in the United States. Its development is closely linked to the nation’s economic and cultural prosperity and has had a significant impact on American society and culture.

The creative techniques and forms of pop art have become highly sophisticated in the U.S., where all art with popular significance, style, taste and form is collectively referred to as pop art. The rich, diverse and unique formal features of the pop art have given it worldwide influence in the international art community. From its genesis, pop art has focused on “commerce” as its creative purpose. Instead of proposing its own ideas in the field of design, it employs various popular elements to reorganize and design, making it more accessible and commercial. The fusion of pop art and commerce created a commercial activity that has become an integral part of the legacy of pop art.

Pop art is a form of anti-traditional art expression that primarily utilizes commercial and industrial products. It does not pursue the traditional values of “purity” and “beauty” typically associated with painting. But, instead, it uses commercial elements to decorate and package products in a way that highlights their inherent characteristics. The use of popular culture, as creative material, is a distinct characteristic of pop art, employing simple and easy-to-understand techniques to express product packaging, advertising and other visually-based communications.

Pop art opposes the stereotype and staleness of traditional art, modifying and enhancing the abstract expressionism in painting to produce a more personalized and diversified design approach. Popism advocates against standardized and stylized design, representing a stark departure from conventional artistic approaches. Beginning with pop art, there has been a close interaction between popism and postmodernism, influencing the development and evolution of both artistic styles.

2 The Application of Pop Art in Design

Pop art and popism have had a significant influence on modern landscape design. Popism design style incorporates commercial symbols and serves commerce, emphasizing simplicity, directness, clarity and recognizability. Pop art, as a form of popular culture, has influenced landscape design by incorporating elements of commercial culture and creating works that are universally recognizable and admired. The characteristics of the pop art, such as vivid colors, powerful visual effects and a commercial appeal, make it suitable for landscape design. The application of pop art, in landscape design, can create a sense of contemporary flair and cultural significance, making urban landscapes more vibrant and lively.

The features and elements of pop art in landscape design include the use of commercial symbols, simplicity, directness, clarity and easy recognition. Popism landscape design defies traditional norms and focuses on creating works that are markedly different from traditional forms. The influence of pop art on modern landscape design can be seen in various examples, such as the Central Park, in New York City, and the campuses of universities, like the University of Chicago and the Royal College of Arts. These designs incorporate elements of pop art, transforming commercial spaces and integrating commercial symbols to create visually appealing and artistically designed landscapes. Overall, pop art has had a significant impact on modern landscape design, bringing a sense of contemporary flair, commercial appeal and artistic expression. The application of pop art in landscape design enhances the visual experience, creates a unique and vibrant atmosphere, and reflects the evolving trends in popular culture.

Following the rise of the pop art movement, contemporary landscape design has witnessed the emergence of “Pop-style” landscapes. This trend in modern landscape design can be attributed to the continuous evolution of social politics, economy and society (Bogen, 2010. p. 778). Initially, the term “Pop” referred to a style, but it has now transformed into a widely recognized popular artistic style. Initially, “Pop” did not denote works of art, but rather a specific social phenomenon. “Pop” came to designate social phenomena that shared similar characteristics. Over the years, the connotation of pop art has continued to develop, ultimately resulting in a fully-fledged cultural field. Pop art is not simply a concept for artists, but a genuine lifestyle. It has expanded the traditional boundaries of art from the exclusive realms of taste, sophistication and seriousness to the broader arenas of popular culture, becoming one of the most significant cultural phenomena in popular culture. Pop art has had a profound influence on modern landscape design, as evidenced by the emphasis on exaggeration, humor and even absurdity typical of Pop art, which is evident in landscape design. The application of pop art style, particularly in commercial landscapes, has become a prevailing trend (Calude; Longò, 2017, p. 595).

Aesthetics is the fundamental element of landscape design, guiding and shaping the design process. Aesthetic concepts form an integral component of landscape design, and aesthetics theory and art theory serve as generalizations and summaries of such concepts. The principles of aesthetics, including form, essence, combination and proportion, are fundamental to landscape design. The principle of form suggests that beautiful forms have the same or similar structural features, and mechanical imitation without analysis cannot create beauty. The essential principle implies that beautiful forms have the same or similar essential attributes that are distinct from other things. The principle of proportion indicates that beautiful forms have similar and harmonious proportional relationships. Aesthetics is a perceptual activity that is limited by a person’s level of understanding and emotional experience, and thus, aesthetic activities have their unique aspects, like other perceptual activities. The aesthetics of landscape design encompasses formal beauty, formal rules, artistic beauty and functional beauty. Formal beauty is defined by formal rules and a sense of form. The law of form describes the fundamental laws and principles applied when utilizing formal beauty in landscape design. Formal aesthetics utilizes artistic forms, such as patterns, colors and lines, to create and achieve aesthetic effects.

The aesthetic principles of popism landscape design are a critical area of exploration for popism aesthetics, offering novel perspectives for comprehending this design style. By examining the distinguishing features of popism landscape design, the aesthetic principles that inform this design can be extrapolated. Among the most vital aesthetic attributes of popism landscape design are “commodity”, “consumption” and “popularity” (Furner, 2017, p. 55).

These features embody the key aesthetic implications of popism landscape design. “Commodity” represents the most prominent element in popism landscape design, where artistic forms are transformed into popular aesthetic expressions, emphasizing commercial value. “Consumption” represents the second crucial aesthetic component, with the designer creating works of art that resonate with popular aesthetic sensibilities.

Conclusion

Pop art, rooted in commercial culture and guided by mass consumption, redefines art from pure form to popular aesthetics, embodying several distinct modernist attributes. This shift in design concepts, from pure form to popular aesthetics, has created ample space for the development of pop art. The pop art style is characterized by planarity, disorder, polyphony and popularity, standing out for its strong visual impact. These features bear similarities to the formal rules of plane composition and color composition in landscape design. The formal elements of pop art, such as patterns and colors, are also relevant elements in landscape design. Analyzing the pop art style underscores the crucial importance of it in modern landscape design.

As an expressive art style, pop art carries distinct historical and social significance, constituting an essential component of popular culture. The unique expressive techniques of pop art offer new perspectives and creative approaches to contemporary landscape design. Drawing inspiration from po art styles, landscape designers can explore new sources of creativity and add aesthetic value to modern landscape design. Therefore, the formal features of pop art can be seamlessly integrated into modern landscape design, effectively capturing the defining characteristics of pop art forms while maintaining stylistic uniformity.

Furthermore, there are striking similarities between the aesthetic sensibilities of pop art and the thematic priorities of contemporary landscape design, such as ecological and environmental preservation, emotional expression, and more. Under the umbrella of postmodernism, the integration of pop art into modern landscape design cannot only maintain the application of the po art style, but also infuse contemporary landscape design with postmodern aesthetics.

This paper primarily discusses the application of pop art in landscape design and explores the aesthetic principles of it. It emphasizes that pop art has shifted the design concept from pure form to popular aesthetics, creating space for its development. The paper highlights the distinct features of the pop art style, which significantly impact modern landscape design. By analyzing the integration of pop art into landscape design, this paper makes valuable contributions to the application of pop art in contemporary landscape design and explores the aesthetic principles behind this artistic movement. This is our comments about Shen and Wang (2024).

References

ALBALADEJO, T. Retórica Cultural, Lenguaje Retórico Y Lenguaje Literario. Tonos Digital, v. 25, p. 1-21, 2013.

BOGEN, J. Noise in the World. Philosophy of Science, v. 77, n. 5, p. 778-791, 2010.

CALUDE, C. S.; LONGÒ, G. The Deluge of Spurious Correlations in Big Data. Foundations of Science, v. 22, n. 3, p. 595-612, 2017.

FURNER, J. Philosophy of Data: Why? Education for Information, v. 33, n. 1, p. 55-70, 2017.

SHEN, Qing; WANG, WeiLiang. An Aesthetic Investigation of modern landscape design in light of postmodernism: pop doctrine. Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp Journal of Philosophy, v.47, n. 4, e0240049, 2024. Available at: https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/article/view/14521.

Received: 20/08/2023 - Approved: 30/08/2023 – Published: 27/02/2024

Notes

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Ph. D. School of Art and Design, HuangHuai University, Zhumadian, 463000 – China. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7357-2866. E-mail: hxy9341@yu.ac.kr.

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