MARILYN MONROE

Andy Warhol (1962)

Introducing…Introducing…

POSTMODERNISMPOSTMODERNISM

POSTMODERNISMPOSTMODERNISM

POSTMODERNISMPOSTMODERNISM

POSTMODERNISMPOSTMODERNISMEverything is beautiful. Pop is everything.

–Andy Warhol

ModernityModernity PostmodernityPostmodernityThe universal subject (alienation of the modern subject)

Multiculturalism (voice of“the other”)

Industrialization / Machine Age; Bourgeois Age (power based in Capitalism)

Deindustrialization; Multinational corporatism

Urbanization Suburbanization

Nationalism; colonialism / imperialism

Globalism; decolonization

Age of Literacy Image culture / Society of the spectacle

Tenets of Postmodernism1)Extreme self-

reflexivity: objectification of structure;

artist/author reflects upon own processes of creation

• pomos more so than mods • more playful, irreverant • Examples: The Scream

series of movies has characters debating the generic rules behind the horror film.

Frank Gehry, Nationale-Nederlanden Building

2) irony and parody sense of playfulness

Tenets of Postmodernism

DROWNING GIRLRoy Lichtenstein (1963)

Tenets of Postmodernism3) A breakdown between high

and low cultural forms. Modernism: focus upon “high” artPomo: embraces both “high” and “low” arts (like comic books) Pomos often employ pop and mass-produced objects in more immediately understandable ways, even if their goals are still often complex (eg. Andy Warhol's commentary on mass production and on the commercial aspects of "high" art through the exact reproduction of a set of Cambell's Soup cans ).

200 Campbell’s Soup CansAndy Warhol (1962)

Tenets of Postmodernism4) Nostalgia:

- Postmodernists and postmodern culture tend to be especially fascinated with styles and fashions from the past. - Often use completely out of their original context, and in juxtaposition (pastiche). - Examples: recycled TV shows of the past that are then given new life on the big screen (Scooby-Doo, Charlie's Angels, and so on). - May be a symptom of our loss of a connection with the past….

Tenets of Postmodernism

5) - Gravitation towards visual forms, as in the "cartoons" of Roy Lichtenstein or Art Spiegelman's Maus.- A general breakdown in narrative linearity and temporality. Many point to the style of MTV videos as a good example. - Simulacrum: something that replaces reality with its representation leads us to the loss of all connection to reality or history. fascination with reality television. the line separating reality and representation has broken down (Wag the Dog, Dark City, the Matrix, the Truman Show, etc.).

Visuality (visuals, pictures) vs. Visuality (visuals, pictures) vs. temporality (linear time) temporality (linear time)

RENÉ MAGRITTERENÉ MAGRITTE

““The Treachery of Images” (1929)The Treachery of Images” (1929)(HYPER)REALITY(HYPER)REALITY

““The transformation of The transformation of reality into images…”reality into images…”

––Frederic JamesonFrederic Jameson

Illusions of individualityIllusions of individuality

Sense of fragmentation Sense of fragmentation and decentered self;  and decentered self;  multiple, conflicting multiple, conflicting identities.identities.

Hyper-reality, image saturation, Hyper-reality, image saturation, simulacra seem more powerful simulacra seem more powerful than the "real"; than the "real"; images and texts images and texts with no prior "original".with no prior "original".    "As seen on TV" and "as seen on "As seen on TV" and "as seen on MTV" are more powerful than MTV" are more powerful than unmediated experience.unmediated experience.

Questions of truth and subjectivity first proposed in Modernism, gave rise to the belief in multiple truths and multiple subjectivities in Postmodernism.

It’s Pomo… You know, Post-modern… Weird for the sake of weird.

(Episode “Homer the Moe”)

Tenets of Postmodernism

7) Disorientation:

Pomo works attempt to disorient the subject in time and space.

alternating narrators (Faulkner)

fragmented chronology (Vonnegut)

Dr. Who

Tenets of Postmodernism

6) Late capitalism: a general sense that the world has been so taken over by the values of capitalist acquisition that alternatives no longer exist. Predominance of paranoia narratives in pop culture (Bladerunner, X-Files, the Matrix, Minority Report). Aided by advancements in technology, especially surveillance technology the sense that we are always being watched.

Tenets of Postmodernism8) Secondary Orality: reliance of a largely functionally illiterate society upon oral media sources for information (TV, radio, film, etc.)

reversal: literacy rates had been rising steadily from the introduction of print through the modern period, but postmodern society has seen a drastic reversal in this trend -- pomo culture still relies on print to create these media outlets (hence the term secondary orality); however, increasingly only a professional, well-educated class has access to full print- and computer-literacy. An ever larger percentage of the population merely ingests orally the media that is being produced (passive response).