Social Phenomenology and Political Experience in Postmodern Aesthetics

We inhabit an era characterized by an aesthetics of undecidability, marked by ambiguity as the prevailing condition of our time. In such a context, we must question the moral and cognitive roles attributed to art. How do we interpret contemporary artworks? What defines the contemporary, and where can it be located? Our engagement now involves navigating indeterminacies, traces, and uncertainties.

The crisis in contemporary art should be understood as an intellectual crisis, inherently intertwined with political crises, thereby encompassing the broader complexities of culture. The notion of an avant-garde is obsolete; there are no longer clear lines or perspectives to follow. Historically, the avant-garde was aligned with robust political ideologies such as Marxism and philosophical discourses like existentialism and psychoanalysis, challenging the foundations and presuppositions of modern thought and civilization. The disappearance of alternatives and skepticism toward the grand narratives of modernity creates a void in the art field, but also introduces new possibilities, as this analysis will explore.

The abandonment of normative aesthetic values can be seen as a consequence of the integration of artistic creation into the global economic system, particularly capitalism. This capitalization has diminished art’s critical and emancipatory potential. The art field has lost its autonomy, with conceptual innovation and aesthetic rules increasingly dictated by profit motives and the tastes of affluent collectors. These buyers, representing a specific social group with a capitalist ideology, shape the market’s interest and pricing of artworks, emphasizing a synthetic aesthetics—one that is artificial, low-energy, and devoid of profound ethical or political dialectics. This is reflected in a preference for monochrome palettes and the creation of art that lacks deeper engagement, focusing instead on ambience and atmosphere that do not disturb social settings, epitomized by the “lounge” and the emphasis on “design.”

This negative aspect of postmodernity, or hyper-modernity, contrasts with the potential for positive developments. Despite the perceived demise of the avant-garde, deconstructed ideologies, and blended conventions, the question remains: how can contemporary art advance without merely transgressing boundaries? The challenge lies in producing new meaning without replicating the history of art or the schemas of modern avant-gardes. How can we re-read and re-write their progressive substance without resorting to mimesis, pastiche, or patchwork?

This endeavor necessitates a political and intellectual reflection on the postmodern context. Our current political, social, and moral situation differs significantly from that of the modern avant-garde. The erasure of alternatives and utopias, alongside the end of grand narratives and the decline of universalist principles, has led to the emergence of micro-narratives focused on particularism. There is no longer a vertical imposition of a single truth but rather a horizontal mixing of multiple truths. The public, skeptical of universal references, may seek pragmatic perspectives from art.

Thus, we must distinguish between ethics and morality. Morality is modern, vertical, and transcendent, derived from tradition and great principles across various spheres such as politics, philosophy, and art. Ethics, on the other hand, is non-impositional and horizontal, aimed at fostering individuals' capacity for judgment without prescription or presumptive superior knowledge. This judgment is not predetermined but evolves through tension between different conceptions, allowing for pluralization and dissemination—alterity as alteration.

John Dewey’s pragmatism challenges Immanuel Kant’s elitist conception of judgment in art, opening up art as a space of expression for all. Art provides elements for judgment that must affect personal experience, serving as initiation rather than education. Fragmentation, then, becomes central to contemporary philosophical problems, as traditional forms of experience have dissolved. As Lyotard posits, postmodernity shakes the foundations of space and time, leading to a crisis in the understanding of reality. Similarly, Jameson advocates for using aesthetics as mapping, drawing new cognitive, sensory, and perceptual maps to navigate contemporary society.

In a fluid, unstable world, morality becomes impracticable, and ethics targets reconstruction around ontogenetic conditions. Foucault’s concept of the self’s ontological linkage to the world emphasizes the gradual construction of an ontological adequacy of the self to its environment. This reconstruction, grounded in phenomenological diversity, marks a shift from the telos of collective history to the individual’s journey of self-realization and subjectivation within a complex world.

Postmodern aesthetics, by revealing fragmentation and providing an expressive framework, brings art closer to life and existence, from transcendence to immanence. It disrupts the boundaries between high and low culture, decentralizes exhibition spaces, and emphasizes interactive settings that engage spectators in the experience of judgment. Aesthetics becomes political as it permeates society, serving as an integrative part of societal reform.

For postmodernists like Lyotard and Jameson, aesthetics plays a crucial role in shaping postmodernity, facilitating the imagination of new societal forms through the intensities of aesthetic experience. Susan Sontag, in "Against Interpretation," articulates that art’s function has transformed, now modifying consciousness and organizing new modes of sensibility. Art extends the regions of individual senses, embedding new modes of vivacity in our experience.

What is this social phenomenology that can express new experiences and support identity reconstruction beyond fragmentation? It includes spatial and memorial reconstruction through artworks exploiting cartography, maps, and postcolonial micro-narratives. Process-art, Land Art, Environmental Art, and Body Art exemplify this phenomenological expansion. For instance, minimalist sculpture and postmodern architecture emphasize the relationship between the object and its surrounding space, engaging the spectator in a reciprocal process of perception and awareness.

Transversally, social phenomenology functions as a social and political ecology, revealing fragmentation and enabling spectators to situate themselves within a complex environment. Foucault’s notion of the ontological link between self and world is key, as artists like Deleuze suggest installing oneself in the world’s becomings to reveal a common sensitive substance with the spectator. This journey with the artist facilitates self-discovery within a multitude.

Artists like Jackson Pollock and Jean-Michel Basquiat exemplify this approach. Pollock’s molecular painting immerses the spectator in the atomic world, while Basquiat’s pluralistic, hybrid aesthetics resonate with the urban, multicultural, and globalized experience. This connection between art and social life, as Sontag notes, reflects a deeper homology with society’s subconscious, capturing and resonating social fluxes.

Charles Jencks’ pataphysical gardens, mirroring cosmological and quantum physics, highlight the importance of energetics in contemporary art. Rather than dissipating energy, participatory art spaces enable a form of aesthetic energetics, vitalizing exhibition environments and fostering democratic, interactive experiences. This shift from transcendence to immanence, representation to presentation, and material fetishism to the immateriality of fluxes, underscores art’s role as a democratic tool for self-creation.

In conclusion, the evolution from modern to postmodern aesthetics reflects a move away from prescriptive politics towards cultural realms of emancipation. Art should facilitate self-construction within the individual's reality, presenting fluid identities and phenomenological tools for personal and societal navigation. This moment of creation captures the essence of modernity within the postmodern perspective, emphasizing art’s role in shaping both subject and world.