What is the Supermodern?

This may seem like a long post, but i ask you to hang in there..........it will all make sense in the end.

As part of my 3rd year fashion design studies I am investigating the "supermodern condition" it is a concept at times even my lecturers have trouble communicating - and to be honest i think i only just comprehend it myself. In essence, the term "supermodern" is linked with the writings of Marc Auge a french anthropologist who comments on the relationship between the excess of "time, space and ego" within the urban environment of "transitional spaces" and "non places".

I hear your brains in anguish....supermodern, transitional, time, space...what the!

Let me share with you this image, picture yourself on a train or at an airport. You travel through this space having no direct "emotional or historical" connection with it. It is a transitory place, where your surroundings are filled with the faces of strangers. You are bombarded with information, "next city train departs platform one", "please mind the gap", " purchase one t-shirt get another free", "donate to charity, help a child in need". Lights flicker and dance on flat screen monitors, people move past you - smears of blending color, no one speaks. Many commuters arm themselves with electronic distractions such as ipods, mobile phones and hand held gadgets.

Welcome to the supermodern.