Avant-garde

play by Samuel Beckett that premiered on 5 January 1953, holds the essence of absurdist theatre and what its playwrights seek to express- the inescapable meaningless and futility of life. The origins of absurdist theatre are commonly linked to the avant-garde experimentations of the 19th century, but there has been speculation that there were traces of absurdist theatre in works of Old Comedy in Greek theatre, especially the element of tragicomedy- that is, the blend of both tragedy and comedy.…

In ‘Music and the Silent Film’ by Patrick Miller the writer comments that from the earliest days of the cinema, commercial films were accompanied by music. From the fairground nickelodeons where player pianos churned out popular favourites to the glittering movie palaces where large orchestras accompanied the images on the silver screen, film music flourished. Music for the movies not only heightened the emotional response to a picture, but also served the practical purpose of drowning out the…

The Front de Libération du Québec, better known as the FLQ, is one of the most important movements that have existed in Canada. Their motif was for Quebec to gain independence, to do this, they orchestrated several bombings and robberies in the 1960s, eventually leading up to the October Crisis in the late months of 1970. The kidnapping of James Cross and Pierre Laporte lead to the enactment of the War Measures Act. The ways the War Measures Act affected Canadians was drastic, though Pierre…

Ranch Hills High School is nestled into a bucolic, chaparral hillside, surrounded by rolling hills of shrubs and thorny bushes, typical of Southern California's wild, native landscape. The school is built on 72 acres of land once considered unusable due to the nature of the rural surroundings and impracticality of building on several steep slopes, according to Alice Kim of Architecture Week (2000). After collaboration between the City of Pomona and the Pomona Unified School District, two years…

In regards to the medical field, 21st century modern medicine is so progressive that it resembles oddities outlined in 20th century works of science fiction. Some of the more avant-garde procedures of today are in the genetic field. One example is, gene therapy, a “a treatment that involves altering the genes inside your body 's cells to stop disease” (“Tests and Procedures: Gene Therapy.”). Another example, and highly debated,…

American artist, Andy Warhol, once said, “they always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” Many see that one must take action before they get anywhere. Artist feel the need to express themselves in various ways in order to prove that rather than looking at the value of the work itself, society should focus on taking matters into their own hands for the betterment of the nation. Artist of the early 1900’s constructs themselves into society so that a change can…

20th century Korean American artist, Nam June Paik, is considered the ‘Father of Video Art’ , who viewed video a malleable art form as he altered the electronic image to produce avant-garde connections between art and technology. Paik was influential in defining this new form of expression, particularly notable in his work Electronic Superhighway; which draws on Jean Baudrillard’s 1983 statement “today we no longer participate in the…

Le Corbusier: Unité d'habitation, Marseilles As the number of people living in cities increased, the number of apartments had to increase as well. During the 1920s, the avant-garde ideal type of housing was the high-rise building. In France after World War II, the need for housing was especially urgent, and in the postwar period the housing complex type was accepted by the government and public, and the introduction of large-scale multi-family buildings started with Le Corbusier's Unité…

Gover, C. Jane, The Positive Image: Women Photographers in Turn of the Century America. New York: State University of New York Press, 1988 In the opening chapter ‘There Will Be a New Era,’ Gover outlines the relationship between women and photography from its early pioneer days to the end of the nineteenth century, stating the importance of Eastman’s advertisements in attracting women to the medium by depicting them as fully independent despite the restrictions they still faced. Gover begins…

life” were by handling with modern consumption and mass media to create ‘reality’, where artists worked with different forms from Action-spectacles, Happenings, décollages, Assemblage, and wrappings. The Nouveaux Réalistes simply rehearsed the avant-garde forms in an institutional context that the Dadaists set out to…