Post-Futurism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Post-Futurism (alternatively Postfuturism) is a term coined by Vivian Sobchack in her book Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film to describe certain science fiction films of the late 1970s and early 1980s, a genre of science fiction, an artistic movement, and an architectural movement. In the past the term has been used as a synonym for Postmodernism. Post-Futurism has however, evolved past postmodernism and should no longer be affiliated with that term.
In science fiction, Post-Futurism refers to a group of "Futurist" hard science fiction writers who were known as futurists, and to "Post-Futurist" writers who have subsequently challenged the authority of these writers in the genre. The author Jeff Noon uses the term to describe a new style of novel which incorporates mixed media and overlapping storylines.
In art, the term is used by a small collective of artists and academics to describe a project of computer based art, poetry and writing. The term is also claimed by the Central European art collective NSK (best known for the music of Laibach). In this sense, it refers to art which emphasises collectivity and de-emphasises traditional authorship of art.
In all of the above cases, the link to the Italian Futurist movement is unclear at best.
A third, philosophical definition of Post-Futurism exists. This is the belief that the concept of human beings as separate entities is socially constructed, that we exist as a "tenuous web" of interconnected ideas, given form and meaning by those who perceive us. While futurism attempted to portray a humanity made machine-like and hard, Postfuturist humans are permeable, interconnected with the objects they use and with other people. Futurists claimed that the purpose of humankind was to travel faster, while Postfuturists believe that the purpose of humankind is to expand the meaning of being human.
In art
Another revival in the San Francisco area, perhaps best described as Post-Futurist, centers around the band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, who took their name from a (possibly fictitious) Futurist press organization (described by founder John Kane as "the fastest museum alive") dating back to 1916. SGM's lyrics and (very in-depth) liner notes routinely quote and reference Marinetti and The Futurist Manifesto, and juxtapose them with opposing views such as those presented in Industrial Society and Its Future (also known as the Unabomber Manifesto, attributed to Theodore Kaczynski).
