I believe value can be classified as two types based on the cognitive level, deep structure and surface structure. As Mario Gandelsonas described in his essay Linguistics of Architecture, “The deep structure is made up of syntactic integers which are a set of irreducible formal oppositions which become manifest in an actual environment (surface structure) via a set of transformational rules and operations.” Is value universal?  I believe only the deep structure generated values are universal. For example, aesthetics related with the golden section, the mathematic connection between human bodies and nature, emotions comes from the pure aesthetics of rhythms, shape and color. The universal value described by Greenberg for Modernist abstract expressionism could be analogous to the work of the dream as explained by Freud. These value systems exclude any social and culture context and only emphasized the biological common features of passive viewers. In another word, “Any notion which is linked to the idea of “man” as an ecological or communicative animal must be considered as ideological. ” (Mario. 1973)

Is value culture and context specific as well? I would say some values are. Different from the ideological deep structures, values in surface structures are more associated to the social, political and culture context. Contemporary art theories and values from the surface structure have particular purposes, such as the ordering and interpolating artwork or the development of aesthetic codes to explain various art experiments. The values of contemporary art emphasis the historical, life experience and engagement with the active viewers, -to emphasis the social and cultural elements rather than the biological elements-to emphasis the textual meaning rather than the pure visual esthetics, -which certainly cannot be universal.  It is the notion of culture as private, which functions in a way to “exclude” other cultures. For instance, the mainstream “classic” western culture excluded oriental culture. Although some values such as Buddhism Zen were interpreted in the western art, but its original value were deconstructed and reassembled with an enigmatic expression. In this case, the universal Zen (deep structure) transformed and adapted to context and culture based value (surface structure).

If Post-modernism could be defined as a counterforce to the Modernism and avant-guard since 1940s, my value system is trying to find a balance between the vernacular, timely based value (surface structure) and the universal value (deep structure). For example, in architecture design, the rational is the moral and aesthetic basis of modern architecture. The relationship between form and function, enforcing purity and orthodoxy should be universal values for architectural practice in postmodern age as well. For artists, there is nothing wrong to take the stylistic ideas and values of Modernism to a extreme in order to secure their social recognition and market value. In another word, modernist theory never completely died after 1940s and the modernist value became “universal / timeless” in certain situations. In the same time, post-modernism has morphed into something more ambiguous than an umbrella movement. As described by Charles Jencks as “New Paradigm”. For me, integrating these new postmodern theories and context-based values into universal value could help an artist / architect to communicate across the classes and professional divides in a more effective and hybrid languages. The integration of these values can push the envelope of art into a new level.

The next question is how do I know when an artwork is finished? The artwork -for me it is architecture- is never a personal work of particular author. It is an open-end art which should never been called finished.  The construction is only the start of a building’s life cycle.  Its space and form are keeping morphing and interacting with the users. Its functionality continually adapts the economical and social change. This artwork will never reach a still status we can claim “finished”.  For me, the design phase is finished when I completely translate my design concept to engineers with the construction documentations. However, we have to realize the new values could be added to the existing building by others overtime. I will discuss this more in another paper about Richard Haas’ mural.