Talking Metamodernism with Tim Vermeulen

WHAT IS METAMODERN? CONVERSATIONS is an offshoot of the ongoing research project, WHAT IS METAMODERN? (https://whatismetamodern.com).


Timotheus Vermeulen, with his colleague Robin van den Akker, wrote the 2010 essay "Notes on Metamodernism" that effectively kick-started contemporary discourse on the post-millennial aesthetic sensibility characterized – in Tim and Robin's words – by an oscillation "between a modern enthusiasm and a postmodern irony, between hope and melancholy, between naïveté and knowingness, empathy and apathy, unity and plurality, totality and fragmentation, purity and ambiguity."


In this discussion with Tim, we share perspectives on the major causative factors in the metamodern turn, and on which qualities might be found at the “heart” of metamodernism. We cover topics ranging from the playful and innovative architecture of Bjarke Ingels to “dark metamodernism” and the gothic/quirky music of Billie Eilish, with many stops in between.


Topics:

6:10 "How shall/will we live together?" & metamodern architect Bjarke Ingels
13:34 Metamodern eclecticism
14:20 Community (American TV show 2009-2016)
15:08 Artists David Thorpe and Rob Voerman
17:03 Pastiche: “constructive”(metamodern) vs. “dissociative” (postmodern)
22:28 Shopping mall as portent of contemporary western “living in-between” condition and vague awareness of “something else”
36:53 Perspectives on major causative factors in the metamodern turn:
Greg – artist/audience exhaustion with postmodern sensibility
Linda – influence of Asian philosophies/religions and their western appropriations;
Tim – triad: political/financial crises; new media/social media; proclivities of a new generation
51:13 Are there regional or local metamodernisms? Are there socio-economic metamodernisms?
55:25 Nuancing Billie Eilish’s “quirky”
1:01:00 “Dark metamodernism” / Mr. Corman (American TV show 2021)
1:04:49 Is oscillation the “heart” of metamodernism?
1:09:04 Tim’s works in progress


Links:

Notes on Metamodernism website:
https://www.metamodernism.com/

Tim's author website:
https://www.timotheusvermeulen.com/

Bo Burnham article by Tom Drayton
  / bo-burnhams-inside-as-a-metamodern-respons...  

Coco Rosie article by Linda Ceriello
https://whatismetamodern.com/music/co...

Quirky Billie Eilish song "Party Favor"
   • Billie Eilish - party favor (Official...