AESTHETICS OF MODERNITY AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY: MODERN – POSTMODERN – HYPERMODERN – METAMODERN

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyse the interpretations and transformational processes of the definition of “aesthetics of modernity” in the culturological thought at the end of the 20th – early 21st centuries. To this end, the study applies methods of critical analysis, contextualism, as well as a methodology relevant to the systematic culturological approach, including the method of synthesis and the system method. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the transformation of the aesthetic images of modernity in the applied culturological science has been analysed. Conclusions. It has been demonstrated that new postulates of aesthetic values are formed in the cultural and artistic environment and only later are comprehended and institutionalized by the rest of the society. The main characteristic of the “modernity” of the turn of the century is its accelerated variability. The study demonstrates the transformation of aesthetic values, which occurs between the creation of original modifications, the social purpose of art (modern), quoting, general pluralism, asociality, chaotic or transitivity (postmodern), the loss of corporeality, the total acceleration, consumption culture (hypermodern), ultimately returning to normal practices, but in the conditions of hyper-accelerated time. Metamodern is considered as the boldest attempt to comprehend modernity, using the concept of “structure of feeling” as a state of being here and now before its comprehension. It should be noted that the number of non-traditional approaches to the system of knowledge, practising the use of chaos theory is growing. It is proved that the understanding of the artistic direction precedes the definition of the time period, used as a colourful definition of modernity, which has not yet become a historical epoch. In each of the periods, understanding of novelty has no total characteristics, and is determined by diffusion, invasiveness, combining simultaneously the features of old and new, but each time in a new capacity. Before being legalized in scientific theories, each of the variants of modernity was structured primarily in artistic practices and, having reached an agreement with the general public opinion, lost its relevance in the sense of aesthetic newness. Each time we use a new prefix, we agree with the statement that society, along with the idea of modernity, has changed.