POST MODERNISM

AFTER THE MODERN ERA

POSTMODERNISMIs the fashionable term used to describe CONTEMPORARY culture, or the very recent CULTURE which we live amongst. We are inhabiting a POSTMODERN WORLD.

The term is a lose one , hard to define because of vagueness about the MODERN era, there is no definite start or point of change when society suddenly became postmodern,

The term gradually ‘crept in during the 1980s! Articles and books on postmodernism started to be published from the early 1980s.

ITS NOT JUST ABOUT MEDIA

It started with postmodern architecture

Architects and their grew bored with the restrictive rules of modernism which dictated that form follow function and allowed for no decoration.

Philip Johnston’s tower has a classical greek pediment shape on the top taken from furniture design

They started to make reference to older styles of architecture and develop playful forms

There is postmodern food . .

A blending of culturesA HYBRID FORM!!!

Postmodern fashionFashion can also be inspired by other cultures and by the past

If the feisty antics of Grace Jones or the controversial designs displayed by Vivienne Westwood at the beginning of her career mean anything to you, then you will agree that a Postmodernism exhibition has been a long time coming. The V&A has put together its first in-depth assessment of the 1970s - 1990s, entitled Postmodernism: Style and Subversion at the V&A from 24 September 2011 to 15 January 2012.

Postmodern fashion The V&A has put together its first in-depth assessment of the 1970s - 1990s,

entitled Postmodernism: Style and Subversion. To help identify the key areas of the era, the curators have devised three parts to the exhibition, in chronological order. The first will look at architecture - where the genre first emerged, the second at club culture - this enormous section encompasses all of fashion, design, art and music; and lastly, what most people affiliate with postmodernism: money, excess and boom. After Modernism, the world made a remarkable change from all that was simplistic and plain to something more expressive. Being bold and being 'seen' to experiment with shapes and humour rapidly spread and became a new wave. The exhibition provides a great window into a time when confidence and wit was everything and even goes on to highlight forgotten developments like hip-hop pioneers Grandmaster Flash, along with the lights, track and extravagance of Las Vegas.

Some would argue that we haven't really moved on from the Postmodernism of the last 30 years - we only have to look at artists like Lady Gaga to realise that we cannot claim a definitive departure from similar performers of the 80s. The current vintage revival - whereby any period is up for grabs - has also positioned us in a spot of constant review and attachment to major shifts of the past - thus making it difficult to make a distinction between then and now.

But whether or not we've all been there, done that - and possibly still living a Postmodern existence, the exhibition brings home the radical ideas that moved us into a world of colour, freedom and good fun.

Postmodern DANCE, ART , even MAGIC !

Mathew Bourne’s interpretation of Swan lake cast males in the 2 main parts and the corps de ballet, presenting a representation of a gay relationship.Exploring gender has become a post-modern feature.

SO WHAT IS IT?Postmodernism is a concept that emerged as an area of 

academic study around mid 1980s. It is  a wide variety of concepts which includes architecture, music, literature, fashion, technology, film etc.

In 1980s the political climate  in changed. During this period, Postmodernism involves a radical re-estimate of modern assumptions about culture, identity ,history and language.

It attacks the meaning of classifications like black or white, straight or gay, male or female etc.

Postmodernism started with architecture. It focused on ideal perfection, harmony of form and function and return of ornaments, The functional and formalized shapes of modernist movements are replaced by aesthetic, playfulness, unusual surfaces, or kitsch style.

Key characteristicsPostmodern style is often characterized by eclecticism, digression, collage, pastiche, and irony.

Postmodern theorists see postmodern art as a conflation or reversal of well-established modernist systems, such as the roles of

artist versus audience, seriousness versus play, or high culture versus kitsch

NOW what about Media? Post Modern Media presumes that the audience is media

literate and familiar with a wide range of media references and needs a high level of stimulation. Media started to make

INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES to other media texts to entertain and amuse the audience and involve them through their familiarity.

ON TVTHE SIMPSONS DOES IT ALL THE TIME . .

See what I mean?

Would Salvador Dali approve?

What FILM examples of INTERTEXTUALITY can you think of ?

Shrek is one of my favourites, it makes textual reference to the Matrix bullet time effects and pokes fun at rival production company Disney’s Snow White.

Po-Mo Horror! In the horror movie Scream, when the characters reference other horror movies, it is postmodern. “Pomo” tends to be self-referential and ironic.

Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge, a contemporary musical references many popular songs in the soundtrack.

Another feature is HYBRIDITYPopular genres are combined to increase the

entertainment value of films, some have got it all!Sci-Fi narrative. (parody also of the Western)Epic Action sequences and SFX.Romance too.

AVATAR

• The films of Quentin Tarantino are often postmodern, In Inglourious Basterds there are verious postmodern elements which is typical of Quentin Tarantino’work as an auteur.

• Firstly, the music; in a war film you would expect to find old fashioned music from the era it is set or modern music conducted to sound old. however, in I.B tarantino uses modern music. for example, in one scene he plays a David Bowey song. The song works for the scene of Shosanna doing her hair and makeup, yet clearly wasnt released in that time era.(BREAKS THE VERISIMILITUDE)

• Also, the way Tarantino uses music from spaghetti westerns is is odd as you wouldn’t expect cowboy music in a war film because it is completely mixing two genres, yet in the woods scene it does work.Furthermore, the way the film starts with 'once upon a time' and is split into chapters is post modern. In a war film you would maybe expect it to be split up into dates/years, yet not chapters with that opening line, this implies it is a fairy tale and all made up. which in the most it is, yet the idea is that you believe this happened during WW2.

The Music IndustryIn music for example, “pomo” popular music contains similar characteristics to postmodern art—• eclecticism in musical form and musical genre,

• combining characteristics from different genres,

• employs jump-cut sectionalization (such as blocks). For example . . .

The Scissor Sisters ‘Comfortably numb’ contains blocks of the original ’Comfortably numb’ by Pink Floyd from1979

Currently Alyssa Reid has released ‘ Alone’Which contains blocks of the original ‘Alone’ by Heart again from the 1970s

Marylin:Madonna:Lady GaGa The way in which Artists are presented can

use postmodern ideas, Marylin Monroe’s style being an influence on contemporary artists Madonna, Gwen Stefania and La GaGa.

Lady Gaga’s referencing of Madonna’s style in her track, lead to a feud, if you believe the press n gossip mags.

AUDIENCES The advent of a highly MEDIA LITERATE audience has

made post modern media possible Since the 80s audiences have become more and more

MEDIA SATURATED or bombarded by the media on a daily basis.

Audiences are familiar with many texts, both current and from the past, making

INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES

entertaining and engaging for them. Audiences are also more and more

demanding, HYBRID GENRES

satisfy their more complex and varied demand for entertainment.

Mo v PoMo Both are artistic movements in culture,

new ways of viewing culture;

MODERNISM is characterized by the shift from

agricultural to industrial society. Modernist view of culture: was rooted in the idea that "traditional" forms of art, literature, social organization and daily life had become outdated, and that it was therefore essential to sweep them aside and reinvent culture. Modernism encouraged the idea of re-examination of every aspect of existence, and replacing it with new, and therefore better, ways of reaching the same end. Stylistically it advocated industrial rather than decorative forms and an absence of decoration.

POST MODERNISM is cultural movement that came after modernism, also it follows our shift from being a industrial society to that of an information society, through globalization of capital. Markers of the postmodern culture include opposing hierarchy, diversifying and recycling culture, questioning scientific reasoning, and embracing paradox. Postmodernism is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding modernism.

So . . . .what is Post Modernism? Produce a presentation of not more than 3 slides to

summarise what Postmoden media is. If you can, use examples which you have noticed yourself.

On the 3rd slide . . .does your own work have any postmodern features?

A discussion of POSTMODERN

FEATURES in your own text

would fit comfortably into your

Q1b exam answer for

Genre, Language

or Audience.