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US3

(This image was found at: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=green+rooftops&view=detail&id=CB8AADB382EB95CBDB269722971C60EB2D6927F9&first=61&
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   The themes and styles expressed during this final time period we covered in class, were entertaining to study, to say the least.  It seems as though our contemprorary understanding of modernism is far from complete, as we are not much closer to truly grasping what modernism is because we cannot truly say when it concluded, if it even has, as of yet.   We have supposedly experienced a post-modernist world and are now trying to conceptualize and name the time and style of which we are currently living under, but this is up for debate, since it can be argued that modernism and its structure and value are still very present today.
    Some of the notions that helped launch modernism were the Arts and Crafts movement which challenged the world to ponder  which was better, hand-crafted products to those created by machines.  It was expressed during a time when the industrial revolution was reaching its height, given innovations like the assembly line.  The Art movement asked the world to ponder the differences and enbrace the machine, in its skewed manner, through expressionsim, and post-impressionism, but still providing even bigger differences, represented in works like Picasso's  fauvism and cubism work.   The Art Nouveau movement challenged this notion even further as it enbraced the "line" and the products produced.  The Art Deco movement took this a step further as the products themselves were at the forefront of the concept of speed and motion.   The l'espirit nouveau movement asked the world to visualize the house itself as a machine for living, and finally Germany produced the Bauhaus movement, which eventially spawned throughout the world, with its notion of good design for all.  
    It is easy to see how there is no definitive end of modernism, since most of these ideas are still prevalent and pondered today (especially given the advent of the McMansions that suffocate the suburbia landscape).   As well, the potential for society to steer back into hand-crafted goods is certainly feasible, given projected gas prices, which will likely cause local and hand-crafted goods to potentially be on the rise again.   The other major problem with claiming that modernism was a static period in the past, is that it is so hard to define modernism; at best there are multiple modernism as we see from the various styles and notions that arrived with all of the movements of the time.   It is for these reasons that I believe our professor aptly named the section : Explorations.  Most likely the movement is still present  (or at least samples of it), but it is for us the students to decide and explore our interpretations of the world and its current ideologies. (He's a smart man.)   The only thing we can say for sure though, is that we are living in a "contemporary" time period (but simply by literal definitions.)
    The image I chose above, represents (in my mind) one of the most important ideas sparked during this time.   Le Corbusier, in his attempt to explain the house as a machine, presented his "five points of architecture."   All have great value that only solidify his idea, but it is the fifth point that holds great value for the world and its future generations.   The fifth point essentially notes that a rooftop garden should be created on the house to restore the area of ground covered by the house.   This is perhaps one of the most beautiful things I've learned while in this class.   To think, Le Corbusier presented this sustainable notion in 1927, makes me want to say...what the hell have we been doing?    Sure, this practice is finally starting to take shape and integrated more now, but really only in the last 15 years.   This man created the perfect dichotomy of a house in its operability and livability, and he did it by displaying it so simply, i.e. replace the area lost.   Genius.

Thanks so much for this class, your teaching methods, and your open ideals on expressions and explorations.   Matt Wallace