MTD1Notes WEEK 9

Postmodernism

Doesn't exist in a vacuum - has precursors, including Modernism.

--every age has a predominant feel, paradigm, attitude toward life --the ways we think - those assumptions we take for granted - are pre-established by super structural ideologies --McLuhan's quote from someone: I don't know who first discovered water, but I know it wasn't a fish. --Where we’re at is embedded in a historical moment, w/ the past as context. Media is one expression and is intimately related to economics, social change, etc.

Enlightenment 1650 - 1750

• counter to hereditary aristocracy, text of the Bible, church hierarchy
• age of rationalism
• scientific advances (Descartes, Newton)
• individualism
• the social contract
• separation of powers
• political reforms (basis for French Revolution)

Romanticism 1750 - 1800

• reaction to Enlightenment rationalism
• strong emotion as source of aesthetic experience
• emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and terror and awe
• experience of untamed nature
• escape from modern realities such as Industrial Revolution
• achievements of heroic individualists and artists

Realism 1850 - 1900

• reaction against overly emotional romanticism
• ideology of objective reality
• paintings depicted people at work
  • Millet, the Gleaners[1]
  • Courbet, the Stone Breakers[2]
  • Charles Dickens [3]

(Civilization excerpt)

Modernism 1900 - 1950 and beyond

• first modern painting - Demoiselles d'Avignon, Picasso [4]
• Rejection of beauty in favor of expression (Fauves)[5]
• Acceptance of the permanence of the industrial age (GM)[6]
• Rejection of tradition in favor of the new (Suffragettes/ists)[7][8]
• Faith in technology (Truman - atom bomb)[9][10]
• Rationalism, humanism
• Belief in human genius, originality
• Optimism
• High Culture/Intellectual
• Truth
• Absolutes
• Industrialism
• Home, monoliths [11]
• Seriousness

PostModernism: 1950 - present

• The coming of the digital age (500 channels, nothing on)
• Self-consciousness about novelty
• Failure of/cynicism about technology
• Irrationality, post-humanism
• Mash-up. Sampling
• Cynicism
• Kitsch;pop culture/Anti-Intellectual?
• Pluralism; “many truths”
• Context
• Globalism
• Nomadism, networks
• Irony (Jon Stewart)[12]

clear eg. in architecture: Mies[13] vs Gehry[14]

postmodern cinema

• Intertextuality
• self-referentiality
• parody
  • critical analysis
• pastiche
  • co-opting without critical thought, borrowing
• recourse to various past forms, genres, and styles

(screen Mishaps of Seduction and Conquest, Jane Campion, 1984)

also Saddest Music in the World, Guy Maddin: Teasers, finale

• exaggeration
• eclecticism
• melodrama
• silent film techniques
• dislocation of space & time

Intertextuality

a work's quoting, plagiarizing, or alluding to other films or cultural artifacts EGs. of allusions to other media such as games, films, etc.

from Run Lola Run throwing phone in air references 2001 throwing bone in air [15] at 5:00 min.

The Scream [16]

painting in casino references that of Carlotta Valdez in Vertigo [17]

other examples

Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey [18] references Bergman’s 7th Seal [19]

Shrek bird explodes [20]

references (parodies) Snow White singing to animals [21]

Wayne’s world – grey poupon[22]

original commercial [23]

Wayne's world product placement [24]

Pastiche

Devo – whip it [25]

Weird al yankovic after devo [26]

pomo games

Natalie Bookchin The Intruder [27] [28]

Cory Arcangel Super Mario Clouds [29]

jodi.org Max Payne Cheats Only [30]

deconstruction [31][32]

pomo poetry [33]

cut up technique [34]

Disability as the other

Beauty = goodness

Deformity = evil

The dwarf on which Shiva dances is the demon Apasmara, which symbolises Shiva's victory over ignorance(ego). [35]

Freaks [36]

hunchback of notre dame trailer “come see the face” [37]

It's all in their heads...

Heidi (Maybe if you try...)[38] at 3 min.

Colin having a fit [39] start at 5 min.

life with disability is not worth living

million dollar baby - I’m askin [40]

Tropic Thunder protest [41]

Todd Browning's "Freaks" [42]

People with disabilities' median income is $16,000 vs. 32,000 of non-disabled Americans: [43]

Alternatives to mainstream representation of black women:

Adrian Piper, black woman, conceptual artist, "Cornered" installation part 1 [44], part 2 [45]

Kara Walker [46] [47][48]

Zeinabu Irene Davis [49] CCC library has 2 films: Mother of the river, VIDEO. 791.43 M918 V14811; A Powerful thang, VIDEO. 791.437 P887V8641

multi-racial/ethnic version (Peter Brook) of the Mahabharata [50]

visual research

Roles of designer/artist conflating [51]