in 1964 he coined the phrase 'the medium is the message'
by this he means the way any message is communicated is more important than the message itself.
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Roseau's 6 contradictions in postmodernism theory
1. its anti -theoretical position is essentially a theoretical stance.
2. postmodernism stresses the irrational instruments of reason are freely employed to advance to its perspective.
3. the postmodernists prescription to focus on the marginal itself an evaluative emphasis of precisely of the sorts that it attacks.
4. its stresses intertextuality but often treats texts in isolation.
5. By rejecting modern criteria for assessing theory, then cannot argue that there is no valid criteria for judgement.
6. they also criticise the inconsistency of modernism but refuse to be held to norms of consistency itself.
2. postmodernism stresses the irrational instruments of reason are freely employed to advance to its perspective.
3. the postmodernists prescription to focus on the marginal itself an evaluative emphasis of precisely of the sorts that it attacks.
4. its stresses intertextuality but often treats texts in isolation.
5. By rejecting modern criteria for assessing theory, then cannot argue that there is no valid criteria for judgement.
6. they also criticise the inconsistency of modernism but refuse to be held to norms of consistency itself.
Examples of hyperreality
- films in which characters and settings are either digitally enhanced or created entirely from CGI e.g. the film 300 was filmed entirely in front of a blue screen.
- a well manicured garden (nature as hyperreal)
- professional sports athletes as super, invincible versions of human beings.
- Many fake places around the world, e.g. disney land, Las vegas.
- TV and film in general, especially reality TV, due to its creation of a world of fantasy and its dependence that the viewer will engage with these fantasy worlds, the current trend is to glamorise the mundane using histrionics.
- A retail store that looks completely stocked and perfect due to facing, creating a world of endless identical products.
- A high end sex doll used as a simulacrum of an unattainable partner.
- A newly made building or item designed to look old, or to recreate or reproduce an older artefact, by simulating the feeling of age or ageing.
- a well manicured garden (nature as hyperreal)
- professional sports athletes as super, invincible versions of human beings.
- Many fake places around the world, e.g. disney land, Las vegas.
- TV and film in general, especially reality TV, due to its creation of a world of fantasy and its dependence that the viewer will engage with these fantasy worlds, the current trend is to glamorise the mundane using histrionics.
- A retail store that looks completely stocked and perfect due to facing, creating a world of endless identical products.
- A high end sex doll used as a simulacrum of an unattainable partner.
- A newly made building or item designed to look old, or to recreate or reproduce an older artefact, by simulating the feeling of age or ageing.
Baudrillard - theorist
Developed the ideas of McLuhan to the point where it is possible to deny that the message under the medium has any substance at all. Therefore the audience comes to perceive through the media a world that appears real but is not.
In some ways this reflects what Rene Magritte painted in 1928, in his work called the 'treachery of images' (quite clearly a painting of a pipe) the caption of the painting is 'This is not a pipe' (in french), our eyes tell us it is a pipe because we are used to decoding images, colour and perspective, but it is not a pipe as it cannot be smoked.
Baudrillard and simulacra
- copies of historical events and landmarks
- fantasyland at disneyland - copies various disney films and books e.g peter pan.
- Umberto Eco said that "we enjoy a perfect imitation, we also enjoy the conviction that imitation has reached its peak and afterwards reality will always be inferior to it"
Disneyland and simulacra and simulation
- both Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard refer to disneyland as an exemplar of hyperreality. Eco believes that disneyland with its setting such as mainstreet and full sized houses has been made to look "absolutely realistic" "taking visitors imaginations to a fantastic past"
- this false reality creates an illusion and makes it more desirable for people to buy this reality, the fake animals like alligators and hippos are all available to people in disneyland for everyone to see. The "fake nature" of disneyland satisfies our imagination and daydream fantasies in real life, therefore they seem more admirable and attractive.
- In his work simulacra and simulation, baudrillard argues that the 'imaginary world" of disneyland magnetises people inside and has been presented as "imaginary" to make people believe that all its surrounding are real. But he believes that the los angeles area is not real, therefore making this hyperreal.
Baudrilard and hypereality
-Hyperreality is an exaggeration of something that existed into something that is so perfect its a fantasy e.g. disneyland.
- he believed that the media reality is the reality today, e.g. we all want an xmas tree, but everyone wants the perfect ones they see on the adverts
- you see photoshopped women in magazines, so that you have a fantasy women that is very far removed from what real women are like.
- in the postmodern world, media texts make visible and challenge ideas of truth and reality removing the illusion that films, music videos, or any media text can ever accurately or neutrally reproduce reality or truth
- there are competing versions of truth and postmodern films explore this.
In some ways this reflects what Rene Magritte painted in 1928, in his work called the 'treachery of images' (quite clearly a painting of a pipe) the caption of the painting is 'This is not a pipe' (in french), our eyes tell us it is a pipe because we are used to decoding images, colour and perspective, but it is not a pipe as it cannot be smoked.
Baudrillard and simulacra
- copies of historical events and landmarks
- fantasyland at disneyland - copies various disney films and books e.g peter pan.
- Umberto Eco said that "we enjoy a perfect imitation, we also enjoy the conviction that imitation has reached its peak and afterwards reality will always be inferior to it"
Disneyland and simulacra and simulation
- both Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard refer to disneyland as an exemplar of hyperreality. Eco believes that disneyland with its setting such as mainstreet and full sized houses has been made to look "absolutely realistic" "taking visitors imaginations to a fantastic past"
- this false reality creates an illusion and makes it more desirable for people to buy this reality, the fake animals like alligators and hippos are all available to people in disneyland for everyone to see. The "fake nature" of disneyland satisfies our imagination and daydream fantasies in real life, therefore they seem more admirable and attractive.
- In his work simulacra and simulation, baudrillard argues that the 'imaginary world" of disneyland magnetises people inside and has been presented as "imaginary" to make people believe that all its surrounding are real. But he believes that the los angeles area is not real, therefore making this hyperreal.
Baudrilard and hypereality
-Hyperreality is an exaggeration of something that existed into something that is so perfect its a fantasy e.g. disneyland.
- he believed that the media reality is the reality today, e.g. we all want an xmas tree, but everyone wants the perfect ones they see on the adverts
- you see photoshopped women in magazines, so that you have a fantasy women that is very far removed from what real women are like.
- in the postmodern world, media texts make visible and challenge ideas of truth and reality removing the illusion that films, music videos, or any media text can ever accurately or neutrally reproduce reality or truth
- there are competing versions of truth and postmodern films explore this.
Jean Francis - Lyotard
He suggests that grand narratives like religion, science, marxism and capitalism no longer have the same importance in our lives, the concept of progress and the arts, technology, medicine, and knowledge would progress to a greater good is now seen to be questionable.
He rejects what he called 'grand narratives' or universal 'meta narratives', he rejects that everything is knowable by science or that as history moves forward in time, humanity makes progress, he would reject universal 'political solutions' such as communism and capitalism, he also rejects he idea of absolute freedom.
In studying media texts it is also possible to apply this thinking to a rejection of western moralistic narratives of hollywood films where good triumphs over evil, or where violence and exploitation are suppressed for the sake of public decency.
Lyotard prefers micro narratives that can go in any direction, that reflect diversity, that are unpredictable.
Jim collins: film as a postmodern medium.
there is a new divide in hollywood today, between the eclectic or 'hybrid' film one hand, smart and knowing and a more traditional kind of film keen to endorse 'authentic' values and a solid, traditional sense of reality, as opposed to a playful sense of representations.
says that different films operate on different levels:
- says that some explore a character adventure
- some make the text very self referential and 'knowing' and in that sense the journey is the texts journey.
- the texts 'adventure' can mean different signifiers from different genres, disconnected from their typical narrative structures.
- often there is a 'knowingness' a self consciousness in deploying generic features and on that part of the spectators in interpreting them.
He says you read a film or tv programmes on 2 levels.
1. straight narrative layer
2. the post modern layer, which is filled with meaning, pastiche, parody, intertextual references, irony, humour, and knowingness.
TV as a postmodern medium
In its resistance to simplification or generalisation, tv is sometimes seen as one of the clearest embodiments of postmodernism.
Tv provides a constant turnover of images and symbols.
TV is seen as the central to the explosion of consumer culture, unlike modernists art which which was thought to be characterised by 'integrity, authenticity and originality' and therefore stood against capitalism and consumerism, Tv thrives and focuses on these ideologies.
Jim collins said that about TV: "TV is frequently referred to as one of the main kinds postmodern culture"
Tv provides a constant turnover of images and symbols.
TV is seen as the central to the explosion of consumer culture, unlike modernists art which which was thought to be characterised by 'integrity, authenticity and originality' and therefore stood against capitalism and consumerism, Tv thrives and focuses on these ideologies.
Jim collins said that about TV: "TV is frequently referred to as one of the main kinds postmodern culture"
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