The Avant-Garde

"White on white" by Kazimir Malevich

"Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp

Wednesday, I was sitting in a lecture by a young architect from Los Angeles who works primarily on installations. The lecture was titled "The spaces between a mouse and a hammer" and presented some remarkably forward thinking projects. I was excited by the work but also by a new idea, that I am joining the avant-garde. After all, I have spent all semester designing buildings that don't look or function like buildings and can appreciate the artistic and philosophical advances made by Malevich and Duchamp in the above pieces. What else do you need?

Anyways, my mind began to wander and I began to unpack what that meant. What does it mean to be part of the avant-garde? How can one elevate oneself to such a position within society?

Well, if you must know, there are two ways to get in. One option is to pay outrageous sums of money for an ivy-league education in design. The other option is be naturally intuitive, intelligent, and creative. Fortunately, in either case the results are the same: low paying jobs and general lack of appreciation.

Now, if you make it that far you will probably notice that other people your age are actually getting paid and the logical question to ask is: "What concession is there to being in the avant-garde? What do we get out of all this?" The answer: a false sense of superiority.

Luckily, you and all your friends from design school get to enjoy this together (at the same time shielding you from any outside critics) and while you might have to roll up that avant-garde scarf to use as a pillow at night, it might just be worth it. Gallery openings, installation art, New York or Los Angeles, who cares if you don't have money to pay rent or buy groceries, you are part of the avant-garde and doesn't it just feeeeel good to be a starving artist?

No? Wow you are even more prepared for position than you thought. That is right, you just entered into the realm of "tortured creative soul." You are a captain of the front guard. Your life may be a living hell but at least you are not living like the rest of those zombies in America, oblivious to their own enslavement and the true nature of the world. (Notice we are back to the false sense of superiority)