I Don't Think Postmodernism Gives a Damn What I Think

"Does postmodern art pose interesting questions that demand your response, or does it just ask you to smirk knowingly if you're part of the crowd that is 'in' on the joke?"

Honest, I don't think most Postmodern art is for a viewer, I think its made for the maker. This is similar to the problem of Authority; does the Author have the full meaning locked away or does the reader get some say in it? Well, does the postmodern artist have the meaning and does he or she (or the art itself) give a shit what the viewer (or reader) thinks about it. 

It took me a while to grasp what this whole concept was, and I'm not sure I really get it (even after the third time reading this section) because I'm not sure we're even really answering a question. The question "what is postmodernism?" is kind of like the question "Can I ask you a question?" The person you're talking to can either respond or just wait for you to ask the question, but the out come is the same-a question gets asked. (Unless of course they say "No," in which case we all avoid this terribly confusing dissection of Postmodernism.) If postmodern art is really art about art, then the artist is actually a viewer, too, and the art is more of a response to something else than an original creation. If PM art is about the process, not the finished result, then can any answers be derived from questions on an unfinished, incomplete piece? So, yes, I guess is my answer, postmodern art does pose many questions, but do they demand answers, no, because I think they are rhetorical and they would "smirk" at you if you tried. 

"Is postmodernism, in other words, a reactionary or progressive phenomenon?" 

Well, now they are structuring this question as if it was a restatement of the question before it, but I think it is a new and entirely different question. I think all art is in some way a "reaction" to the world or people or actions or events around the artist. But I also think this postmodern stuff is also "progressive" in that it is about the progress of the art, or the movement from not art into art that makes it "postmodern." If I understood the article right, postmodern tv like Seinfeld is a "sitcom about sitcoms" and it is about turning a show where nothing happens into satire, which I have always held as an art form. Seinfeld is not literally art, but the thought process behind making a show about shows about nothing is what makes it art.