SYMBOLIC DESIGN AND KITSCH PRODUCTION IN ARCHITECTURE IN A HYPERREAL POSTMODERN CONTEXT

Year 2023, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 30 - 49, 25.03.2023

Hatice Özler Sema Kızılelma

Abstract

Kitsch can be defined as the unimaginative product of a false relationship that the image, which is detached from the place, time, and context it belongs to, establishes with a different reality. Kitsch which tries to influence a large number of people by using the common values, expectations, and tastes of the consumer society in the hyperreal and multi-identity cultural environment of the postmodern age, leads to the rapid consumption of products with high emotional intensity and simplicity. The change in the dynamics of consumer culture and the rapid consumption of selective image production by society paved the way for kitsch production in architecture.

In this study, using the document analysis method, the aesthetic, socio-cultural, economic and political dimensions of the kitsch phenomenon in architecture; It is aimed to reveal the reasons for the widespread use of kitsch in the post-modern period and its possible usage areas in architecture. In the postmodern world, the use of ready-made images and simulacra, loaded with connotations that take the pulse of the consumer, has become widespread over time in art and architecture. The main reasons for this situation are; the use of architecture as a propaganda tool, the impact of global capital on art and architecture, and the change in the tastes, needs, and preferences of the consumer. While kitsch aesthetics previously appealed to the subculture and middle class, in today's age where the continuity of consumption is considered important, now it is also among the preferences of the capital class, increasing its sphere of influence.

Keywords

Kitsch, Postmodernism, Hyperreality, Image use, Consumption Culture, Kitsch, Postmodernism, Hyperreality, Image use, Consumption Culture

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