Paradox
Pattern
Peace
Perception(chikaku)
Performance
Philosophy
Planning
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Postmodern
Prediction
Product
Production
Public opinion
Postmodern
The term postmodern originally appeared as an architectural term to indicate a style that transcended modern architecture&sbquo and drew attention through articles and books written by such architectural critics as Charles Jencks in the 1970s. It was a term for a new architectural style with the decor that had once been abandoned by modern architectural trends and a blend of various historical styles. Welcomed as an attempt to advance the rationalism and the functionalism that were so highly valued in modern architecture&sbquo it achieved great popularity. It developed into the notion that postmodernism = hyper-modernism&sbquo then&sbquo as anthropocentrism&sbquo moved towards a concept in which human beings should bring order to a world view through their own power&sbquo and became an ideology that transformed and revolutionized our lifestyles. Further&sbquo it deepened its philosophical meaning through an association with post-structuralism&sbquo and through an association with more heterogeneous elements became a transcendental and social-scientific methodology for imparting historical importance. The usage of the term has been extended to represent a movement that expresses an ideology&sbquo spreading even to the fields of fashion and industrial products&sbquo and led to concepts and creative movements that countered modern design focused on rationalism and functionalism. That is&sbquo by expressing the pleasure and playfulness that had been lost in modern design in bold forms and colors&sbquo it became a symbolic experiment of the time that appeared for novelty in design. In the field of industrial design&sbquo for example&sbquo Memphis was one of such symbolic movement that manifested creative works that rebelled against modern design. Although the members that led Memphis resisted calling to their work postmodern&sbquo I believe they were synchronic. We will have to wait for history’s verdict as to whether postmodernism as an expressive format for transcending various principles brought by modern society—formal egalitarianism and performance-based assessment—truly transcended modernism with its design&sbquo art and architecture&sbquo or whether it was a mere regression to pre-modernism.