Maximalism
is a general term for the dominant modes of design that
arose in the middle decades of the Information
Age and lasted well into
the Nanotech
Age.
It was the eventual successor of the Modernism and
Postmodernism of the late Industrial
Age and early Information
Age.
Like them, it covered a multitude of schools and styles, was expressed
all the
various aspects of the fine and practical arts, from architecture, city
planning, landscaping, painting, graphic art, and industrial design,
and had
echoes in other fields such as literature and the performance arts. It
is not
to be confused with some similar, minor Post-Modernist schools of art,
also
called Maximalism, that arose in the early Information Age, especially
in China
and parts of the Far
East. As in the case of
true Maximalism, some aspects of
Modernism, and in particular its Minimalist aspects were rejected by
these
artists and designers sought new realms, but those early
“Maximalists” are now
seen as at most precursors of the true Maximalist schools now
recognised by art
historians. The various schools of art that are now called Maximalist
were not
merely a reaction to early first century AT minimalism, but instead
arose as a
direct result of new information and biological, and early bionano
technologies
and their influence on the art and culture of the day.
In
the
later Industrial Age, diverse fields from literature and the fine
arts to architecture and city planning had been influenced by new bulk
materials, mass production, technologies of speed, and a philosophical
impulse
to explore the physical and sensory components of art. The resulting
Modernist
schools of art laid an emphasis on clean lines, fundamental forms, and
an
exposure of underlying structures both physical and memetic. They also
imitated
some of the new rapid land and air transport technologies, sometimes
even to
the extent of “streamlining” buildings or
stationary appliances after the
fashion of high speed ground or air vehicles, or self-consciously
exposing
physical supports in a building or narrative structure in a story. This
trend
declined gradually in the early first century AT, but it did not
develop a
clear successor until the impact of new information, biological, and
early
nanotech technologies made attention to extremely fine detail possible:
sentient level AI attending to subroutines, automation, microscale and
nanoscale control of processes. Abundant free time (sometimes enforced
free
time due to unemployment), and a broadened audience due to the emerging
Known
Net also made a return to detail and intricacy in design possible, but
it was
the new technologies that made them not only possible but new,
exciting, and
modish. Like Modernism, Maximalism was seen as new and advanced, and
related to
the cutting edge of technology; Modernist forms came to be seen as
primitive
and old fashioned.
The “look” of
Maximalism hearkened back in
some ways to much older art forms such as Islamic mosaics and
calligraphy,
Celtic knot designs, Gothic European art and stonework, some Ming Era
Chinese
art, and certain elements of Southeast Asian Balinese or ancient
Central
American design, but it was entirely new in its approach. The first
elements of
the emerging new style could be seen in the “New
Mayan” and “Indiolatino”
schools that emerged in the tropical regions of the Americas in the
early First
Century AT as the biotech revolution took hold. However many art
historians
believe the essence of the new dynamism was first fully expressed by
Sanaa
Kisasa (Sheng for “new art”), a syncretic style
developed by artists,
architects and artisans in New Nairobi around the base of the East
African
beanstalk. Subsequent Biomimist, Elaborationist, and Novagothic
movements built
on the dynamism of the African and Central American schools. They
spread,
first to
the other Beanstalk cities and orbital habs and then to the older and
more
backward polities of Europe, North America, and northern Asia.
Short-lived fads
such as the Nuthouse or Fractal Gargoyle movements came and went with
startling
rapidity, while true innovation continued to grow right through to the
beginning of the Nanoswarms. Maximalism was important all through
Solsys
by
this time, and was carried to the first interstellar colonies, where it
mutated
yet again into newer forms. Likewise Maximalist-influenced designs
developed
independently in the isolated habs and colonies within Solsys during
the
Nanoswarm Era itself. Maximalism showed one last burst of exuberance in
the
early First
Federation,
before it was overtaken by a welter of competing
movements, many of which associated Maximalism with the Nanoswarm
“Dark Ages”,
and advocated a return to cleaner more “classical”
designs in art. It is true
that some of the later works of the Maximalist era tended towards
pointless
elaboration, useless accretions, and strangeness to the point of the
grotesque. That was indeed its reputation for a considerable period
following
its fall
from favour. Later eras have rediscovered the freshness and beauty of
the
original movement, and there have been numerous Maximalist-inspired
“revivals”
in parts of the Terragen sphere ever since.
The
rise, long reign, and eventual decline of Maximalism marked the
last time that Terragens could be said to follow a single overall
aesthetic,
however diverse and diffuse. The trend over the course of the
Agricultural
and Industrial ages had been towards the elimination and fusion of
regional
styles, culminating in world-wide and eventually system-wide cultures.
However
in later periods the new diversity of clades and cultures, the
separation of
various Terragen groups by interstellar distances and relativistic
travel, and
the sheer memetic inertia of the huge new populations of humanity and
post-humanity in so many diverse locations have prevented a single
memeplex
from ever again having such broad influence, even among cultures and
polities
thoroughly connected to the Known Net and the Wormhole
Network.
The
greatest works of Maximalist art are now widely replicated, but the
originals are all generally to be found in that narrow portion of the
Inner
Sphere that represented the
limit of Terragen expansion at the time of the
First Federation. Solsys
in particular is home to some splendid
examples; among the most notable of these are the Paradise
Parks
on Luna, and the ancient cathedrals of the Evangelical Orthodox
Catholic
Christians in some of the habs orbiting Saturn. Outside of Solsys, many
Etodist
settlements have fine examples
of Maximalist art, as do the early
colonial
settlements on Penglai
(where the neo-Taoist “Four Dragons” carried out
much of their work). The oldest Beneficence
habs at Ao
Lai,
and
the various structures and artworks therein, are also fine examples of
early
and middle Maximalism.
Various
movements reminiscent of Maximalism have arisen again in particular
systems, or even over broad portions of the Terragen sphere. The Abergists
are one such example. The first contacts with
To’ul’h cultures brought about a
widespread resurgence of Maximalist design when the “Nature
Echoes” movement,
based on To’ul’h
touch-carvings, swept human and
other biont cultures.
Most recently many vec cultures have taken up designs reminiscent of
Maximalism
under the influence of new information flowing from researches at Stanislaw.
In general, bioist
cultures are the most prone to designs reminiscent of
Maximalism; both direct and indirect descendants of various Maximalist
schools
(especially Biomimists) are common areas of the Zoeific
Biopolity
to
this day.
More Maximalism Images
The Vore
Abergist structures at Rana (by Anders Sandberg)
Maximal
City
