元現代主義：簡介

Metamodernism: A Brief Introduction

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作者：Luke Turner

Metamodernism is a term that has gained traction in recent years as a means of articulating developments in contemporary culture, which, it is argued (and our generation appears to intuitively recognise) has seen a move beyond the postmodern mode of the late 20th century. In the wake of the myriad crises of the past two decades—of climate change, financial meltdown, and the escalation of global conflicts—we have witnessed the emergence of a palpable collective desire for change, for something beyond the prematurely proclaimed “End of History.”

元現代主義（Metamodernism ）作為一個描述當代文化的術語在近幾年得到了廣泛關注，有人把它理解為（我們這代人似乎可以直觀地感知到）這是一種超越了20世紀末後現代模式的運動。在發生了無數次危機的最近二十年內——氣候變化、金融危機，以及全球爭端的升級——我們目擊了一種明顯的對改革的群體性渴望出現，它超越了過早被提出而且尚不成熟的「歷史終結論」。

Ours is a generation raised in the ‘80s and ‘90s, on a diet of The Simpsons and South Park, for whom postmodern irony and cynicism is a default setting, something ingrained in us. However, despite, or rather because of this, a yearning for meaning—for sincere and constructive progression and expression—has come to shape today’s dominant cultural mode.

我們這代在上世紀八、九十年代成長起來的人，把《辛普森一家》和《南方公園》作為養料，這其中譏諷和玩世不恭的後現代基調深植于我們心中。然而，儘管如此，或者更準確來講，正因為如此，一種對意義——對真誠而富有建設性的進步與表達——的渴望，塑造了當下的主流文化模式。

Whereas postmodernism was characterised by deconstruction, irony, pastiche, relativism, nihilism, and the rejection of grand narratives (to caricature it somewhat), the discourse surrounding metamodernism engages with the resurgence of sincerity, hope, romanticism, affect, and the potential for grand narratives and universal truths, whilst not forfeiting all that we’ve learnt from postmodernism.

當後現代主義被解構，反諷，拼貼，相對主義，虛無主義和拒絕宏大敘事（或者戲仿它）等特點所塑造時，元現代主義的論述則伴隨著真誠、希望、浪漫主義、共情的復興，以及進一步發展宏大敘事和普遍真理的潛力，同時又不喪失掉我們從後現代中學習到的一切。

Thus, rather than simply signalling a return to naïve modernist ideological positions, metamodernism considers that our era is characterised by an oscillation between aspects of both modernism and postmodernism. We see this manifest as a kind of informed naivety, a pragmatic idealism, a moderate fanaticism, oscillating between sincerity and irony, deconstruction and construction, apathy and affect, attempting to attain some sort of transcendent position, as if such a thing were within our grasp. The metamodern generation understands that we can be both ironic and sincere in the same moment; that one does not necessarily diminish the other.

因此，元現代主義並非簡單地發出要回歸樸素的現代主義意識形態立場的信號，它認為我們時代的特徵是在現代主義和後現代主義兩者之間的搖擺。我們認為它表現為一種練達的幼稚，務實的理想主義，溫和的狂熱主義；在諷刺與真誠，解構與建構，冷漠與同情之間搖擺，試圖獲得一種一切盡在把握的超脫立場。元现代主义一代知道，我們可以在同一時刻做到既諷刺又真誠，二者並不一定會抵消對方。

The use of the prefix meta here derives from Plato’s metaxis, describing an oscillation and simultaneity between and beyond diametrically opposed poles. This usage was first proposed by Dutch cultural theorists Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker in their 2010 essay, Notes on Metamodernism, spawning a research project and website of the same name, as well as numerous symposia and exhibitions, to which a diverse array of academics, writers and artists from across the globe have since added their voices.

Metamodernism 的前綴 meta 源自柏拉圖的「兼際」（metaxis），它描述了一種同時在對立的兩極之間以及之外的波動。這種用法最初由德國文化理論家 Timotheus Vermeulen 和 Robin van den Akker 在2010年的論文《Notes on Metamodernism》中提出，與此同時出現了同名的研究項目和網站，以及大量的研討會和展覽。在此之後，來自全球的學者、作家和藝術家紛紛對此發表了自己的見解。

As Vermeulen and van den Akker put it, metamodernism’s oscillation should not be thought of as a balance; “rather, it is a pendulum swinging between 2, 3, 5, 10, innumerable poles. Each time the metamodern enthusiasm swings toward fanaticism, gravity pulls it back toward irony; the moment its irony sways toward apathy, gravity pulls it back toward enthusiasm.”

正如 Vermeulen 和 van den Akker 所點明的，元現代主義的搖擺不應該被視作某種平衡；「相反地，它是在2、3、5、10，以至於無數個極點之間擺動的擺錘。每當元現代主義的真誠轉向狂熱時，重力就會將其拉回諷刺的一端；而當它的諷刺漸趨冷漠時，重力又將其拉回到熱情中。”」

This metamodern sensibility can be discerned in, for example, the films of Spike Jonze, Miranda July, Wes Anderson, Leos Carax, and Alejandro González Iñárritu; in the music of Donald Glover, Bill Callahan, Janelle Monáe, and Future Islands; in TV shows such as Parks and Recreation, Breaking Bad, BoJack Horseman, and Last Week Tonight; in the novels of David Foster Wallace, Zadie Smith, and Roberto Bolaño; the poetry of Jasmine Dreame Wagner, Sophie Collins, and Melissa Broder’s quasi-mystical multimedia NewHive offerings. In the visual arts, we have seen a shift away from the insubstantial conceptual one-liners of the YBAs, or Jeff Koons’s vacuously overinflated ironic baubles, towards a reengagement with materiality, affect and the sublime, found in the work of artists like Olafur Eliasson, Morehshin Allahyari, and Guido van der Werve, movements such as Cybertwee and Afrofuturism, as well as my own ongoing practice with LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner.

這種元現代的敏感性可以在如下的一些例子中找到：電影領域，Spike Jonze、Miranda July、Wes Anderson、Leos Carax，以及 Alejandro González Iñárritu；音樂領域，Donald Glover、Bill Callahan、Janelle Monáe，以及 Future Islands；電視節目有《公園與遊憩》（Parks and Recreation）、《絕命毒師》（Breaking Bad）、《馬男波傑克》（BoJack Horseman）和《上周今夜秀》(Last Week Tonight)；小說家有 David Foster Wallace、Zadie Smith 和 Roberto Bolaño；詩人有 Jasmine Dreame Wagner、Sophie Collins 和 Melissa Broder。在視覺藝術領域，我們已經觀察到了從 YBA 的單一性概念，或 Jeff Koons 空洞誇張的諷刺小玩意，轉向對物質性、情感和崇高精神的重新投入，它體現在諸如 Olafur Eliasson、Morehshin Allahyari 和 Guido van der Werve 等藝術家的作品，以及 Cybertwee 、 Afrofuturism 以及我和 LaBeouf，Rönkkö 和 Turner 正在進行的實踐中。

Ours is also an age in which increasingly speculative modes of thought are thriving, with philosophies such as Speculative Realism and Object Oriented Ontology, as well as movements like Occupy, Black Lives Matter, and the rise of extremist political factions (for better or worse, as in the case of the so-called ‘alt-Right’), empowered by network culture. However, metamodernism itself is not intended as a philosophy or an art movement, since it does not define or delineate a closed system of thought, or dictate any particular set of aesthetic values or methodologies. It is not a manifesto—although, as an artist myself, I couldn’t resist the temptation to imagine it as if it were, with my 2011 Metamodernist Manifesto an exercise in simultaneously defining and embodying the metamodern spirit; at once coherent and preposterous, earnest and somewhat self-defeating, yet ultimately hopeful and optimistic.

我們也身處一個思辨性思維方式日漸流行的時代，諸如「思辨實在論」(Speculative Realism) 和「物導向本體論」（Object-oriented Ontology，OOO），它們和一系列諸如佔領XXX運動，黑人的命也是命（Black Lives Matter）的社會運動以及極端主義政治派別（有好有壞， 反面例子比如所謂的「另類右翼」（alt-Right））的興起一樣，都是由網絡文化支持的。然而，元現代主義並不旨在成為一類哲學或一場藝術運動，因為它沒有定義或描繪一個封閉的思想體系，也沒有規定任何特定的美學價值或方法論。它不是宣言——儘管作為藝術家，我無法抗拒這種幻想的誘惑，就像我在2011年的 《元現代主義宣言》 中同時定義和體現元現代精神一樣；連貫而又荒謬，真摯而又帶著些自欺欺人，但最終卻充滿希望和樂觀。

Metamodernism does not, then, propose any kind of utopian vision, although it does describe the climate in which a yearning for utopias, despite their futile nature, has come to the fore. The metamodernism discourse is thus descriptive rather than prescriptive; an inclusive means of articulating the ongoing developments associated with a structure of feeling for which the vocabulary of postmodern critique is no longer sufficient, but whose future paths have yet to be constructed.

雖然元現代主義確實描述了一種嚮往烏托邦的趨勢（儘管其有著徒勞的本質），但它並沒有提出任何一種烏托邦式的理想。 因此元現代主義的論述是描述性的而非規定性的；它嘗試用包羅萬象的方式闡述正在進行中的，與建立感知結構相關的演變，後現代主義的批評詞彙對此無能為力，但是其未來之路尚未確定。