I'm lowkey pretty sad that we didn't get a video lecture this week, but we'll manage.

This week was pretty interesting, as the reading and video delved into aspects of what represents and goes into a progressing-into-Modernity Latin America's relationship with the world by means of culture and economy.

Dawson defined modernity's ethos in 4 volumes: innovation, emancipation, secularization, and universalism. I really liked this definition of modernity, as I've had trouble finding my own definitions of what defines it from a sociopolitical perspective.

Mexico's quest for modernity is interesting, referring to Dawson's conversation, Mexico's elite searched for the aesthetic qualities of modernity in European nations and cities. The video describes that Mexico wanted the "look and feel" of modern cities without the "ethos and philosophy" pertaining to modernity. A question that popped in my head immediately when this sentence popped up in text on screen was "is the aesthetic qualities of a period in time predicated on the philosophies and ideas of a period? Or are they able to exist solely on their own, without the influence of these philosophies?" I would suppose that in the circumstances of a timeframe, ideas and philosophy essentially permeate and influence each other and different forms of media (ie. clothing and architecture) to create an aesthetic quality that is informed of the times of which they take place in. An aesthetic is the product of cultural ideas and media forming to create a unified perspective. So it would be odd that the search for the "look and feel" would come without the need for looking what worked toward it.

Comments

  1. I think cultures can all be romanticized, although they probably should not. So to answer your question, when girls wear their hair up in a pin-up style and pair it with red lipstick or men wear suspenders...are we not just taking aesthetics from another time without their philosophies? I think Europe was looked at as this perfect place and romanticized when really, people in the lower class had very little rights and opportunities. In my opinion the look and feel of things are often what drive us, because they often trigger emotional responses, so not a lot of thought or 'philosophy' has to be attached

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