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This insightful course delves into the complexities of postmodernism, its historical context, and its relationship with contemporary media. It examines key theories from influential thinkers like Baudrillard and Foucault, addressing themes such as hyperreality, simulation, and the nature of truth in society. By analyzing the cultural and philosophical implications of postmodernism, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the ongoing discourse around realism and the effects of mass communication. Engage with the transition from modernism and explore what comes next in our evolving cultural landscape.
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Postmodernism IMKE Intro 05.09.2006
Last time: Virtual reality What’s reality? What’s virtual?
Postmodernism Why on this course? • ...has a lot to do with (mass) media • ...has a close relation with constructivism • ...is anchored to present phenomena • Need to analyse the relation of PM to new media... understanding ongoing discussion
...modernism • Historically positioned end of 1800 - WW2 • Related to • belief in scientific progress • industrialism • mechanical techno-optimism • economical rise • ”Killed” by WW2
Nature of postmodernism • cultural • philosophical • esthetical • follows European (French!) attitude • reflects social and technologcal changes after WW2, end of 20th century
Postmodernism • Relativism w.r. truth and reality • Constructivism • Analysis of mass-media dominated society • Postmodernity ≈ social and cultural implications of postmodernism.
Walter Benjamin • era of mechanical reproduction. • art has taken on a new meaning and is changing significantly from what it once was
Jean Baudrillard Critic of postmodernism • "hyperreality" - "simulation" • Unreal nature of contemporary culture in an age of mass communication and mass consumption • Starting point: postmodern art - framing reality (to non reality)
Baudrillard: Loss of meaning • Lament the loss of reality in post-modern culture • Simulation has become more and more realistic • Actual meaning replaced by a virtual meaning • Reality has been replaced by simulation • There is no more fiction • Models [simulation, VR...] no longer constitute an imaginary domain with reference to the real • No more fiction
Roland Barthes • ”The writer's language is not expected to represent reality, but to signify it. (Mythologies, 1957)” • Semiotics
Michel Foucault "My role - and that is too emphatic a word - is to show people that they are much freer than they feel, that people accept as truth, as evidence, some themes which have been built up at a certain moment during history, and that this so-called evidence can be criticized and destroyed." - Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault (continued) • Truth ≈ instrument of (media) power • Each society creates a "regime of truth" according to its beliefs, values, and mores. • "Truth," is the construct of the political and economic forces that command the majority of the power within the societal web. • There is no truly universal truth at all; therefore, the intellectual cannot convey universal truth.
Jacques Derrida Deconstruction: • an attempt to open a text (literary, philosophical, or otherwise) to several meanings and interpretations =>multi-perspectivalness
Bruno Latour • Departed from social constructionism • truth is multilayered, unascertainable • ”realistic realism” • critic of technollogy, ”tech dream gone wrong”
Post-Postmodernism? • What will follow postmodernism? • What arguments are there against postmodernism? • Will there be a dominating pattern of thought? • How will interactive bottom-up media and new forms of participation change culture and philosophy? • Etc.