POST MODERNISM

AFTER THE MODERN ERA

POSTMODERNISM
Is 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 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
Architects and their grew bored forms
with the restrictive rules of
modernism which dictated that
form follow function and allowed
for no decoration.
There is postmodern food . .

A blending of
cultures
A HYBRID
FORM!!!
Postmodern fashion
Fashion 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 characteristics
Postmodern 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 TV
THE
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 HYBRIDITY
 Popular 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 Industry
In 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.
  Both are artistic movements in culture,
new ways of viewing culture;
Mo v PoMo
 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.