Post-Modernism

Postmodernism can be relevant to the arts, philosophy, literature and sociology, and refers to (although this is under much debate) the 20th and early 21st century, however the term post modernism  was actually 1st used in the 1870's.

"Reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding of it" - This to me indicates that post-modernism is the practise of questioning the general opinions and ideologies of society. It contains many aspects of surrealism and the abstract.

I feel that the idea of post-modernism is to challenge the norm, and from this theories such as feminism have risen. My interpretation of  post-modernism compared to modernism is that the period of modernism was about unity and change of culture, where as I feel post-modernism is about being different and standing out from the crowd.

I feel that post-modernism includes elements of 'shock culture', which is an attempt to challenge mainstream media globalisation. For example playwrites such as Henrik Ibsen encorporated feminist subplots within his plays, of which A Dolls House 1879 is an obvious reference. Although Ibsen is credited as a 'Modernist' playwrite, I feel that his ways of sneaking in many 'ism's' into the plots of his plays were very before his time and gave a more post-modernist twist. 

Modernism

The rise of modernism began in the period between the late 19th century to the beginning of the second world war. Modernism also refers to a cultural shift which saw the more traditional forms of art and culture sidelined for more up to date views and changes.

Some examples of key players within this period include Pablo Picasso, the modernist painter who's works are famous for their strange nature, and creative flare

Modernism was all about rejecting the traditional, for example, portraits of people before this period were very realist and almost exact copies... Here I give you an example of a portrait by Picasso from 1910 which incorporates  a 'modernist'  stance

Portrait of Daniel-Henry Khanwieler
1910

Taking this as an example we can see the way that particularly within art (although modernism was not exclusive to art, it affected architecture and religion too) during this period, the traditions were changed and new ways of producing art came into fashion. However within our society now we would call this piece of work 'surrealist', due to the abstract nature of the painting. This I feel is a key point of modernism, it was about welcoming the surreal and abstract and breaking away from tradition, questioning what was the general opinion of society and building upon this within the arts.
Modernism is relevant to screen cultures, as it paves the way for the surrealist and post-modernist views that are so popular in our culture today

The Emergance of the Modern World : Maps

During this lecture we have covered the earth, the sun, maps and geology.
One of the main points that stuck in my mind after the lecture was the information we were given about the history of maps.

Definition- the depictions of regions or a space using symbols

Perhaps one of the most interesting things I thought that we learnt was the Ptolemanic Spectrum, and the way that humans had placed themselves into the middle, almost as if we were the 'Centre of the Universe' (obviously we now know that there is no such thing)

The history of maps surprisingly intrigued me, and I can kind of see why Ivan felt it appropriate to teach us this; It has shown us briefly that the history of human communication didn't just start with the invention of the telephone in 1976, it was long before that. It is also relevant within the development of the interactive media world. History in pictures.....

Konya - dated 6,200 BC

Mappa Mundi 1300





1154





Current Map of the world 2004

Heres where modern technology comes in ...

Satellite image of earth

Satellite image of a town

Satnav Map

From the images I have gathered, we can clearly see that from the 'Oldest Map in the World' the human development with regards to communication has come a very long way, and this I feel is the point of the lecture.

Realism

Realism is the opposite of abstract, the action of representing something by trying to duplicate it exactly. After missing the weeks lecture on Realism, I have been researching the subject to try and educate myself. What I have found is that in today society we strive to reach this notion of 'Realism'. For example, I have found from conversations with my younger brothers and cousins that they now get more excited about the new 'real looking graphics' included within a game, rather than the actual game itself. Focusing on the idea of gaming, the technological quest for realism has come far in the last 20 year, for example;

Duck Hunt 1984



Pokemon 1994



Donkey Kong 1999

Billy Hatcher 2003

Call of Duty 2 2005



Fifa 11 2010


As you've probably realised, yes most of these images are arbitrary representations, but notice how these 'cartoon' images have died out within the graphics of the gaming world. Everyone can remember the hysteria of the release of most of the C.O.D series. And then just this year Fifa 11 practically sold out all over the country. I have found that the main reason for this is due to the fact that the graphics of video games are becoming much more advanced, iconic representations are being used to reach what we call 'realism'

"The Technologies that bought us all the best carnage in life" (Cobbett,R, 2009)

Marshall McLuhan

"In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message"

Interesting Man.. A bit mental though

Following on from this lecture, I have been trying to use McLuhan's theories and have created another tetrad;

Extends - Ears, Speech
Obseleces - Gramaphone, Telegrams, Newspapers
Retrieves - Collective Belonging
Reverses - Abuse of Information, e.g. Hitler, Propaganda

Iconic and Arbitrary

Having studied semiotics for 4 years during Media A levels AND GCSE, I was really really not looking forward to this lecture! But actually I learnt quite a lot (just shows you can't always assume things). I was particularly interested by 'Iconic and Arbitrary' signifiers. I decided to show my friend (who also studied media at a level) some iconic and arbitrary images and she just didnt get it! From this I feel the idea that an 'iconic' signifier isn't necessarily a more realistic signifier for everyone, for example, in different cultures different signifiers mean different things. Therefore, surely depending on cultural aspects of your life, you will gain a different signified from different images you are shown? This jogged my memory a bit and I remembered something I had been shown a couple of years ago regarding the way that film posters are designed differently for other countries. I can't remember the exact film that it was, however it had a cartoon (arbitrary) image of a woman dressed in little clothing, but in the Indian version of the poster the woman was covered up with another picture. This all comes down to culture, because even though the picture was an arbitrary one, what was signified to an eastern audience, was a different message or value, than it was to a western audience

I've been trying to find some interesting pictures that are relevent to my essay topic... took me a while but heres what i've found...


Arbitrary image, e.g a cartoon drawing, painting



Iconic image, such as a photograph, or even better a moving image

By encorporating this semiotic related theory into society we start to understand a lot more about semiotics and how the notion of the 'sign' is extremely important in the analysis of media texts, and also everyday life.
Some interesting further reading on this I have found is "semiotics for begginners" (Chandler,D,2007)

Binary Opposition

Just thought of some more examples;
Adult - Child
Honesty- Lies
Heaven - Earth ?