Shift In Interest And Emotional Coding

At the turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries,the Industrial Revolution and the ensuing economic development revolutionized the social environment of the time.Capitalism,with characteristics such as fast-pace,high-volume,materialistic and instant gratification,rapidly became embedded in all aspects of social life,including art.Industrial and technological developments led to medium innovation,bringing attributes of the machine,such as mechanic,automatism and mass replication,into artistic production,changing the traditional ways of art production and appreciation.At the same time,the new urban environment and its stimulating experiences,which cannot be understood on a priori basis,have created a disconnect between knowledge and perception,thus the mass perception has been given machine-like properties in the context of capitalist society,gradually speeding up,dismantling and reorganizing,and under the proliferation of external cues,the multiple stimulation of the senses by new mediums and the rapid iteration of all surroundings.The threshold of satisfaction is raised and gradually shifted to the pursuit of pure pleasure.The transformation of medium and perception during this period is the embodiment of modernity,the new experience of social life given by capitalist production,the fleetingness,the materialization and the commodification of desire and illusion,which constitute the modern urban space and thus lead to the rise of modernism.Impressionist painting,with its depiction of the social environment of its time,can be seen as evidence of the birth of modernity,followed by the rise of photography and film,which completely changed the status of art mediums in social life.About a century later,when Western art critics and historians turned their attention to this changing period,many perceived that the various factors brought about by capitalist production---including the formation of urban structures,changes in lifestyles,the rise of the entertainment industry,and the creation of new industries and professions by industrialization and commodification---had a significant impact on the development of medium and mass perception.Their art writings on the new mediums’ embodiment of modernism and its relationship with perception has changed the paradigm of art research and writing,and formed new theoretical models for the study of art history from the aspect of perception.Different art styles have different periods of stability,and each period of stability produces its own unique mode of viewing and perception.If we look at the development of art in terms of perceptual change,the beginning of modernism should serve as an important turning point in the history of art and society.The current rapidly changing social environment as the result of the propagation of the Internet,can be seen as a similar moment of significant transformation.The further occupation of capitalism in social lives,the widespread use of smart phones and other digital devices,and the growth of pop culture and entertainment have produced new perception problems.Thus,the study of academic theories addressing the perceptual transformation at the dawn of modernism,are of great reference for the new studies in the current field of art.