Philosophy/4. Philosophy by culture

PhD (Oxford, UK) Komleva A.V.

International University of Fundamental studies, Member of the Union of theatrical figures of the Russian Federation, theater critic, art critic, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Experience of cognition of the aesthetics of British designer, couturier of the end of XX – beginning of XXI century Alexander McQueen. Performance No. 1. Mystery of germanite

Keywords: costume, mystery, concept, image, style, aesthetics, existential, perceptual hermeneutics

The objective of this article is the study of the creative heritage of British fashion designer Alexander McQueen the late XX – early XXI century. An attempt was made to study the artistic aesthetic of his work in the conceptual discourse of the symbolic vsion of the basic ontological concepts of ‘life’ – ‘death’ – ‘the struggle’. Special attention is paid to the Genesis of his artistic and stylistic images. In relation to the artist-fashion designer Alexander McQueen is the author of the article introduces the scientific term ‘perceptual hermeneutics’.

The history of the model of the costume has a lot of designing techniques. It is conditionally possible to allocate two directions – approximate methods and engineering. In approximate methods is crappy method, computational, geometric, and anthropocentric. In engineering techniques are used techniques of triangulation, clipping planes, structural bands, the geodesic line. In the engineering method remains the most widely used method of geodetic lines. He began to use when scanning the figures. Cut the last method was adopted by the British artist-designer, couturier Alexander McQueen, and most clearly and fully proved itself in later collections, in particular, Plato’s Atlantis’ (2009). But it should be noted that McQueen throughout his career used a combined method of cut – can cut at the same time as fitting on a live model, could design on the computer, modifying the image by means of tattoos, used three-dimensional paper model.

1. The Mystery concept A. McQueen

One ancient philosopher said: ‘He who does not know the ordinary things – the animal. One whose knowledge is limited only by the human conditions of existence, is a human among animals. But the one who knows all, what can be achieved through the power of the mind, – the God among people’ [6, p. 17]. A man’s status in the natural world is determined, therefore by the quality of his thinking. He whose mind is enslaved to bestial instincts is philosophically not superior to animal; one whose mental faculties facing human affairs is a man; and one whose intelligence rises to the consideration of the divine realities is already a demigod, since the substance it is in contact with the splendor to which he summed up his mind.

Researchers of creativity of McQueen agree that he ‘just wanted to show people that beauty glows from within. Him on the right forearm was a tattoo, a quote from ‘Midsummer night’s Dream’ (germanity consider this work a mystery, worthy of the pen of Paracelsus) by William Shakespeare: ‘Love looks not with the eyes and soul’. Couturier has always treated work as a problem much more important than inventing clothes – for him it was a way to say something important’ [3, p. 59].

In the beginning of his career, in the late 80’s – early 90-ies of XX century, Alexander McQueen went to work in the theatre Atelier ‘Bermans & Nathans’, where he mastered six methods of tailoring: soft on the patterns of the XVI century up to extremely refined, which later became his trademark. After years of work in the technique of traditional British tailoring, the designer, Koji Tatsuno, 21-year-old McQueen has arrived in Milan, becoming the assistant of Romeo Gigli. On his return to London he received a master’s degree in fashion design at the Central College of art and design named after St. Martin (1992). Already in his diploma graduation collection ‘Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims’ (1992) he used a method of live illustration of the event – the costumes were put natural hair. Novelty? Perhaps. He combined incompatible – disgust and horror.

With years cut was flawless and perfect. Thus continually enriched color palette. Able to mix and connect the unconnected form. Firmly adhered to classical rules – no more than two basic colors. This art he learned from working on ‘Givenchy’ and producing ten collections a year.

A source of endless inspiration for fashion magazines, trips to exotic places, shows, hollywood films, paintings, poems, music... it gave preference to Michael Nyman, Philip Glass. He kept his nose to the wind. Starting with punk, he continued in the style of ethnogothics and infernal images. His conceptual shows wasn’t talking about fashion, and about his socially significant pressure points. Otherness in the shower could be seen through the semantics of possible worlds otherworld. McQueen is constantly circulating in incompatible philosophical spheres. Based on the conceptual balance of the metaphysics, metaphors, hysterical force of the senses, holistically comprehended all the structures of the ‘I-being’. In his demonstrations ‘For-itself’ McQueen constantly refers to the ‘For-another’, – the true existence of ‘I’ is possible only as ‘being-with-John’ or ‘being-with-Isabella’ [13, p. 331], i. e. ‘being, in his essence contains the existence of another’.

The dialectic of his work is constantly faced with the impossibility of being ‘here and now’, it was a crisis ‘then and forever’. One of his collections ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Howe, Salem 1692’ (2007) was dedicated to his ancestors. More precisely great-grandmother, which was sued during the trial of the Salem witches. Otherness. He constantly fled. Forward and to side, then vertically down. ‘My collections always autobiographical work I cast out their demons’ [3].

More than ever, like art installations, demonstrations did not cease to shock, mystify, amaze your border aesthetics: ‘For me, what I do is an artistic statement that finds me through the door, explained McQueen. – Fashion is just a means’ [3, p. 63]. His shows reminded representations of the ancient mystery of the secret knowledge. Circles, characters, game colors, plastic choreography coupled with the infernal makeup and accessories complement the image of the game occult forces. Through the mysteries of the people, by the thought of the ancient, turned to the gods devoted. This place is the ‘second birth’, ‘womb of the Mysteries’, and wisdom lives in the same way that God lives in the hearts of people.

Our cultural memory is arranged in two ways: it sets out the rules (patterns) and rules violations (events). The first abstract as norms, the latter specific and have human names. That is the difference between the mandate of the law and the lines of the Chronicles. The exclusivity that gives the right to personal inclusion in the memory of the collective, may be different quantitatively and qualitatively. In quantitative terms it can be extremely accurate standards, which in itself is nothing exceptional in a given society is not. Can we identify the creativity of McQueen as specified in the framework of the three laws of Hegel? The first law of unity and struggle of opposites was made by McQueen in full. He was constantly in struggle with itself, identical with itself. The second law of transition of quantity into quality, or the law of action also was proven couturier. From year to year he improved his skills and reached the heights of a quality product reflected in the cut, the style, the coloring. The third law of negation of negation – is also about him. Each new collection he’d scrap the old, and open/new collection.

He said: ‘I oscillate between life and death, happiness and sadness, good and evil’ [3, p. 43], McQueen showed a tendency to explore their ethical dualism through fashion. The collection of ‘Dante’, with its transitions from transparent joy to frenzied despair, showed his philosophical paradigm about the existence of two irreducible to each other started: spiritual and material substances [1]. Cultural phenomenon, expressing the fundamental intention of the European (British) interpretive tradition stretching back to Plato’s philosophy, whose concepts are present in any early culture elements miphologia-cosmological dualism take shape conceptual doctrines and receive the axiological content: the world of ideas as a sphere of perfection of the absolute, on the one hand, and the world was created similarities in their imperfection. Connecting two worlds ‘ladder of love and beauty’ (Plato) radically limits the sharpness of the dualism of the earthly and heavenly worlds, applicious her almost all spheres of human existence through the duality of sin and virtue, and the paradigm of duality of meaning (the sacred and the earth) of any phenomenon.

In the twentieth century the archetype of human nature have been adjusted. Enlightenment Western man is educated in the aspect of ‘correctly understood personal interest’, coinciding with the General interest. Not coincidentally the age of the Enlightenment was the century of ‘rational egoism’. If the person XVII – XVIII centuries imagine yourself standing in the face of reasonable and, therefore, anthropomorphic arranged the universe, that modern people increasingly detects not subjection him and the things of the world. The world cannot be entirely reduced to the constructs of the mind; things have their own language, the meaning of which the end is reasonable not comprehensible. Real can no longer be relied upon as rational.

At any time after the event happened, there is always something that at least can be experienced in the experience and by what this event can be known. Empirical approach in the process of creating a new collection is always present in the works of McQueen. ‘I like to imagine myself as a plastic surgeon with a knife cut through... we are trying to draw attention to how strongly our commitment to excellence’ [3].

Skills for McQueen has always been more than just making clothes, it expressed its intention, conveyed his message. He always stressed, when asked, the psychological significance of their work [3, p. 25]. Inspired by the Hegelian idea of the Other as a condition and facilitator of his own individuality, McQueen sought shall be established in the plane of the a priori knowledge of where the Other is Different, however, is abstract, being real. McQueen offers a phenomenological description at the level of actual need, given us in sensation, in everyday life experiences. Since there is freedom, transcending (and thus the sector unpredictability), ‘I find myself in danger in the world’. The relations ‘I – Other’, the conflict of two freedoms, and ‘scandal of plurality of consciousnesses". And drama, and at the same time the possibility of existential unity in the relations between consciousnesses is affected with the problem of mutual recognition.

However, experts recognized that in the field of direct cut, the designer stood on solid, fundamental positions. ‘Those who later worked with Alexander, was able to tell how fast he was able to masterfully cut. One had the feeling that there can perfectly do without you... he was very masculine, the instinctive approach to this. The forehead was covered with perspiration. It understanding of clothes, he was black and white. No gray areas, no matter what he was doing’ [3, p. 21].

Impressions designer was characterized by emotional power and unbridled energy. In his collections through the theme of romanticism, interpreted in a modern key. An integral part of the aesthetics of McQueen was a mix of contrasting elements: fragility and strength, tradition and modernity, fluidity and severity. McQueen chose the symbol of the mirror as a phenomenon of the trace from the reflection of the soul in the environment and present reality. In the context of the theatre of the performing arts the image of the mirror is deconstructing element of the system chain of event. The kernel image consists of many small, or ‘small’ images, showing an integrity of performance. The Greek philosopher Plato determined the integrity of the image as ‘that which is lacking in one part’. Integrity is something specific, which embraces all distinguished their parts, but whatever part nor perceived in her, she continues to be indivisible [11, pp. 290-291]. According to Derrida, ‘no element can function as a sign, not referring to some other element... Due to this connection, each element is constituted on the basis of a trace of other elements of the chain system of deconstruction’ [2, p. 39].

As a means for the expression of his rebellious philosophy the designer used decorative arts. His creation combines the English tradition of impeccable cut, the technique of the French haute couture Atelier and the finishing techniques of the Italian masters. ‘In the haute couture collections I have the right to Express yourself as a fashion designer in this extent I consider necessary. In pret-a-porte fall only elements of this expression’.

In interviews, the designer claimed that the clothes should evoke strong emotions, leaving the viewer indifferent. This he achieved by creating unusual images (and even individuals), borrowing techniques from the arsenal of the Hollywood make-up artists – McQueen was the first to employ for the fashion show colored contact lenses and overlays on the forehead latex.

In his shows McQueen reflect a single author’s attitude to different phenomena of reality which are structurally linked through a single common. Thus, McQueen brings to the surface the social mechanism of human existence. Through it couturier outlines the ideas (of unknown weight) the grain of thought that has not yet established itself in a living reality and not become public domain, and links them in time and in space.

Greek thinkers understood the art and technology related items. According to them, the artist possesses the ideas which, as final causes guide the design of certain things. Accentuating the materiality of the link between art and technology, we come to the idea of the specific rationality of art. If the Pythagoreans argued that the basis of everything is a mathematical regularity, since numbers are by nature the essence of early start in math, in which they saw and the beginning of all things, more than in fire, water, earth... moreover, I saw that notes and chords are in numbers, and many other things, and all reality is way numbers. They assumed that the elements of numbers must be elements of things, and the whole universe must to be harmony and number [10, p. 280].

2. The symbolism of the ‘Other’ and the Principle of subsidiarity N. Bor

In theatrical fashion shows of Alexander McQueen was the identification of the Creator with the image of ‘the Other’, previously designated the classical tradition as ‘its other’ (G.W.F. Hegel) and acquiring the status fundamental in the postmodern. ‘Other’, according to E. Levinas, ‘is meaningful for others’, and stems from the other, which is why ‘anyone who says I, is addressed to another’. The mode of relationship of the terms ‘Different’, ‘Personality’ and the principle of additionality is a specific mental process-the transition action/occurrence in the scope of the role ‘self’ (J. Kristeva) of another "I" method of explicatory matrix of consciousness. According to G. Deleuze, produces a new relation to his individual leadership. It involves the removal of the opposition ‘I – Other’ impact ‘I’ to ‘I’ by means of external fencing, ‘trends in interiorally likelihood or exclusion’, it is doubled. Double Personality by the movement ‘from one identity to another’ and uses the tools of regulation (mimicry, gesture, plastic, dance, text, music, vibration, pantomime), and the correlation of mental, psycho-physiological, psycho-emotional, biological, social needs, serving as criteria for selection of the values of behavior on stage [2, pp. 61-70].

‘Other’, at McQueen, can work according to the laws of psychological theatre in the given circumstances of the event, the event itself, which lies at the basis. The difference between 1992 and 2010 lies in the fact that McQueen has varied in style, method and way of Genesis, but the method of perception of the world remained unchanged, preserving their own dominance. His consistency has been built on the Foundation of the conceptual core of personality on those images, which have gravitated in the process of preparation and creation of mysteries.

His work with the cloth, with the future clothes is a constant search for meanings. Intuition – this is the principle of complementarity, and expected to be included in the game. It is not preceded by the beginning, but transpired in place of the missing beginning. For example, a) when ‘external’ is added a certain fullness to the other fullness (input characters); b) when the addition, substitution, occupation of emptiness – a place complement attribute is marked in the structure of the beginning of the mystery-show.

From the point of view of the philosopher Jacques Derrida, it is necessary ‘to recognize that there is some addition in the beginning’: the beginning is always the essence of addition, offsetting even more the initial lack of completeness. Supplement as a Supplement ‘the beginning’, according to Derrida, is inherently incomplete, not in proportion to the task at hand, for it loses something in the process of occupying space and the lack of compensation. Nature additions-intuition shows McQueen is ambivalent: it is compensatory effect on the viewer in the beginning, replacing and postulating possible when the semantic game the mystery of the show as impossible, but shifted through the circuit in the game/in the image in the direction of cheat/trick the actual reality. It itself needs some ‘compensation’, as talks about the other relationships on the podium. Supplement always bordering on choice.

Indirectly for the purpose of the mysteries was influenced by personal phobias McQueen. According to the Danish religious philosopher, forerunner of existentialism Søren Kierkegaard, ‘sin may be in a variety of guises. The problem of choice arises from the problem of fear. Fear is merely the possibility of freedom in man, and removed it, if freedom reaches. Find it through faith, but there are people who have no desire to get rid of fear’ [8, p. 99-100], the fear of the unknown. ...By the method of creative thinking A. McQueen passed existential way of understanding reality and making it a reality.

3. Color aesthetics of Alexander McQueen. Colorist Alexander McQueen

Colors have a special charge in light of the decision of the score artist: yellow gives a feeling of lightness, orange gives energy, protects red, green stabilizes, restores the purple. No accident and therefore the statements of some of the artists ‘scene treats’. Or ‘today the audience was ‘light’ or ‘heavy’. Color brighter shades helps to express the semantic context created on the stage.

McQueen repeatedly turned to images of the lunar cult. In a spectacular end of the show Jeanne ‘Joan’ (autumn/winter 1998) model in tight red jumpsuit with a hood, as in a trap, fall into the devil’s fire circle. The motive of sacrifice. Here we should clarify one detail. In painting the symbol, by definition of Hegel, there is first of all a sign [4, p. 351]. In the symbol we have to distinguish two sides: first, the meaning and, secondly, the expression of this meaning. First have an idea or a subject indifferent to any of the content, and the second is the sensual existence or of any kind [9, p. 90]. McQueen, with a delicate taste in colors analysis, can synthesize the sound on the display with the color of the suit, having not just demonstration models, but having played some, closed, known only to him, image, symbol, sign. Researcher of the properties of color and light M. Surina notes that the character contains not only information about the past, but also forward – thinking about the future: in the myth – mythology – mythologize. Each color contains its own sound sense, where the sound shape of the melody affects the language form in the pronunciation of the recipient. In this case, on this show, the final red dress was associated with the initial letter of the name of the designer ‘A’ – Alexander, that is dark-red. I am – bright red [12, p. 144].

The motive is red, symbolizing the pursuit of life, its growth, development – is widely used in the solar cult. But also in the lunar cult, where it is death, murder, sacrifice.

Each new collection of McQueen and the more each new show became a real event for journalists and the general public.

From 1994 to 1996, McQueen creates a collection of nihilism, the hunger, the deadly anxiety and Hitchcock the birds. In the soul of the Maestro there was a dualism: the unity and struggle of opposites. Alexander has created a hermeneutic of the mystery, filled with images of nihilism (Jack the Ripper stalks his victims), fear of death (Birds/Falcons – a bird sacred in the mysteries of Osiris), humiliation (lunar cult).

In this implication the thinking philosopher discovers hermeneutics, code secret messages for the initiated. It revealed the perceptual reception of hermeneutics – via/by means of a different quality to the existential subject, he reveals to the recipient the essence of mystery/the formula of the soul of the object. This can be illustrated by the collection ‘Plato’s Atlantis’, where there is a confident, refined artistic style and the quintessential image of new engineering technologies for the production of clothing (called prints).

Historically, the relationship of the art world and the real world was difficult and reflected in the writings of significant philosophers and eminent. English esthetician E. Bradley ‘Oxford lectures on poetry’ in the early 20-ies of XX century has drawn a line under philosophical arguments about the relationship of reality and art, spreading them on different sides. The world of poetic images does not reflect the picture of reality, but only a local, limited their time and space – a fictional fantasy world, obeying its own laws of development.

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