Contemporary Media Issues

Postmodern Media Aesthetics

Postmodern Media Aesthetics

Lyotard, Baudrillard, and Jameson argued that recent
social-economic changes produced particular
'structures of feeling' or a 'cultural logic'.
Typical assertions include claims that, mostly thanks to
television, and MTV in particular, we now live in a 'threeminute culture' (the length of most people's attention
spans, it is said, shaped by advertising and zapping).
Debord suggested that we are part of a 'society of the
spectacle - a social relationship between people that is
mediated by images. Baudrillard concluded we are
involved in an overvisual ecstasy of communication
due to our reliance on television, films and the Internet to
replace real connections with each other.

Postmodern Media Aesthetics

This has implications for any realist form of media, since
our sense of reality is now said to be dominated by
popular media images;
Cultural forms can no longer 'hold up the mirror to
reality (Strinati), since reality itself is saturated by
advertising, film, video games, and television images.
The capacity of digital imaging makes 'truth claims' or
the reliability of all images tricky think about the use of
Photoshop in magazine and advertising images

Postmodern Media Aesthetics

Advertising no longer tries seriously to convince us of its
products' real quality but just shows us a cool joke about
the product

Postmodern Media Aesthetics

Postmodernism suggests that weve run out of things to say.
Lyotard wrote of the 'death of the metanarratives' or the
death of the Enlightenment project' (now often called
'modernity').
Very broadly, this refers to movements in political thought and
other ideas from the eighteenth century onwards which
proclaimed the importance of reason, and the knowability of
the world through it.
The next step was to argue that, if the world could be known,
it could be changed even for the better
Postmodernism, however, describes these grand narratives
- Marxism, feminism, belief in scientific progress etc - as
nothing more than stories about history, naively structured
with happy endings.
Instead postmodernism offers micro-narratives which do not
necessarily add up, but which may be woven together, in a
jumble of forms and styles.

Postmodern Media Aesthetics

Remember that postmodernism is only a theory and you must
be able to see all sides of these tricky ideas. For example
There is some truth in the perception that large claims to
political truth are often narratively shaped, such as Marxism's
claim that working people acting together will eventually bring
about socialism.
But however conscious we are of narratives in science and
politics, it seems we cannot easily do without them and the
meaning they give to experience.
Just to confuse things, what else is postmodern theory but
another such story or grand narrative?
Isnt it just a very cynical one, pretending to not be a
metanarrative at all?

Postmodern Media Aesthetics

Do you believe the story of postmodernism?
How closely does it correspond to your
experiences?
What this presentation does is show you some
of the key aesthetic indicators of postmodern
media.
This will help you decide if the text you are
analysing contains elements of the postmodern.
Later we will look at the theory behind these
stylistic concerns but until then

Postmodern Media Aesthetics

This will help you spot the structures of
feeling to see the cultural logic that
gives rise to Postmodern Media forms.
It will allow you to spot spectacle and
micronarratives that we weave together
to make a coherent theory of
postmodernism.
First up

1. Hybridity
Definition - something heterogeneous from more than
one source - in origin or composition.
Examples include the mixing and sampling of different
kinds and levels - of music, of material in television
adverts, in films and TV Drama or comedy etc.
Hybrid forms are said to level hierarchies of taste - all
distinctions between high culture and popular culture,
have gone, or become blurred.
Postmodern texts 'raid the image bank' which is so richly
available through digital technologies, recycle some old
movies and shows on television, the Internet.
Music, film and TV all provide excellent examples of
these processes.

2. Bricolage
Similar to hybridity - bricolage is a French word
meaning 'jumble.
This is used to refer to the process of adaptation
or improvisation where aspects of one style are
given quite different meanings when mixed with
stylistic features from another.
For Dick Hebdige in Subculture the Meaning of
Style (1979) - youth subcultural groups such as
punks, with their bondage gear and use of
swastikas were eclectic as they took clothes
associated with different class positions or work
functions and converted them into fashion
statements 'empty' of their original meanings.

The Sex Pistols

(circa 1976)

2. Bricolage
A more recent, feminised example would
be the combination of Doc Martens and
summer dresses worn by the young girls
in Ghost World and the central figure of
Amelie (both 2001).

1. Hybridity
Hybridity and bricolage can take various
forms across most media.
Im going to use a couple of examples to
show you how to apply these two similar,
yet distinct, terms accurately.
First hip-hop

HANG ON!

Track 4
Encore

Samples John Holts

I Will

Its another clear

example of
hybridity yet
somehow it all
seems a bit of a
jumble

And heres
Encore
Hmmm.
Lets see - heres
Numb

Jay-Z (2004)
The Black Album
Jay-Z later releases a
version using the lyrics
from Encore but the
melody from Linkin Parks
Numb?

A clear example of
hybridity.
A song that borrows from
an earlier source.

But whats this

Its almost like the attributes of

the rap song Encore, itself a
hybrid of the earlier reggae
song I Will has itself been
given a quite different meaning
when mixed with the stylistic
features of the emo-rock of
Linkin Parks Numb.
Its not a case of
bricolage is
it?

Where the eclectic nature of the hybridity

taking music associated with different
ethnicities and functions (blacks/whites
dancing/crying in your bedroom) and
converted them into a musical statement
'empty' of its original meanings?

MIAs Paper Planes

(2007) is a hip-hop
choon that
samples
Straight to Hell (1982)
by The Clash

As a result it was
seen by Danny
Boyle and used
on

It also samples the

dreadful Wreckx-nEffects sleazy
West Coast rap
Rumpshaker (1992)

Slumdog Millionaire (2009)

It became a
huge hit in
The States

The single was unsuccessful

on its initial release but
being featured in the
trailer for Pineapple
Express (2008)

SO WHERE DOES HYBRIDITY

BECOME BRICOLAGE?
Hybridity is all about where
something comes from.
Paper Planes is a hip-hop song
that is a hybrid of punkreggae and West coast rap.
Bricolage is about what use
you put something to.
MIA is a Londoner from an Asian background who records a hip-hop song in New
York with and American producer with kids from Brixton singing the chorus
thats a hybrid record right there.
But the song is also associated with the film Slumdog Millionaire itself a hybrid
of Hollywood style narrative and Bollywood style aesthetics throw in the further
jumble of a hip-hop tune on the soundtrack playing over a montage of scenes
and youve got bricolage

But the song is also associated with the film Slumdog Millionaire itself a hybrid
of Hollywood style narrative and Bollywood style aesthetics throw in the further
jumble of a hip-hop tune on the soundtrack playing over a montage of scenes
and youve got bricolage
Where the eclectic nature of the hybridity - taking music (and films)
associated with different ethnicities (white British punk/black American
rap/Anglo-Indian singer) and genres (British social realism/Bollywood style
hyperrealism) and converted them into a musical/visual statement 'empty' of
their original meanings in the case of the film the song becomes suggestive
of a montage sequence at the heart of the narrative

The Beatles (1968)

The White Album
Jay-Z (2004)
The Black Album
Danger Mouse (2005)
The Grey Album

Danger Mouse (2005)

The Grey Album

So is the Grey Album

Hybrid?
Bricolage?
Parody?
Pastiche?
Intertextual?

3. Simulation
Based on the work of Jean Baudrillard - the blurring of
real and simulated, especially in film and reality TV or
celebrity magazines is a familiar feature of postmodern
texts.
Simulation or hyperreality refers to not only the
increasing use of CGI in films like The Lord of the Rings
films (2001-2004) and Avatar (2009), but also in the use
of documentary style in fiction such as Michael
Winterbottoms In This World (2002) or in the narrative
enigmas of science fiction such as The Matrix (1999) or
Blade Runner (1982) - 'Is it human or artificial?

4. Intertextuality
From referencing the structure of the slasher
horror film in Scream (1996) to the Italian
American gangsters watching The Godfather
films in The Sopranos television series (2001),
intertextuality is now a familiar postmodern
flourish across most moving image media.
Jameson also specifies pastiche and parody as
belonging to a similar idea.
This self-reflexive awareness of itself as a text is
also termed hyperconsciousness.

4. Intertextuality
Pastiche, parody and intertextuality are
terms that come from Fredric Jamesons
(1991) theories.
Jameson saw parody as the comic
intention to produce an imitation which
mocks the original that acknowledges
what it imitates.
Pastiche, however, is less about comedy
and more about plagiarism.
Pastiche is blank parody. Parody that
has lost its sense of humour.
Just copying really

5. Disjointed narrative structures

These are said to mimic the uncertainties and relativism
of postmodernity in films like Pulp Fiction (1994)
These contemporary narratives often wont guarantee
identifications with characters;
Or the 'happy ending
Or metanarratives like the Defeat of the Enemy, which
have traditionally been achieved at the end of films.
They often manage only a play with multiple, or heavily
ironic, perhaps 'unfinished' or even parodic endings - see
Memento (2000), Fight Club (1999), or Atonement
(2007).
Narratives can also be disjointed in time and space
see modern / retro films like Brazil (1985) or Blade
Runner (1982).

6. The erosion of history

This is seen in non-fiction forms such as
television news; in the deliberate blurring
of time in films such as Cock and Bull
Story (2005) or the extravagant play with
historical fact in, say, Elizabeth (1998) or
Saving Private Ryan (1998) or Pearl
Harbor (2001)
Historical facts and characters are
telescoped, merged or discarded entirely.
History can be viewed nostalgically or with
suspicion.

7. The active audience

Postmodern theories suggest that there is a decoding
process going on among audiences who no longer use
the passively media for gratification.
Postmodern audiences read texts actively because they
recognise the importance of the analysis of various clues
or signs, particularly visual signs, that shape so much of
modern media output by the audience.
At its simplest level, the audience accept or agree with
the encoded meanings sent out by a text, they accept
and refine parts of the text's meanings or they are aware
of the dominant meaning of the text but reject it for
cultural, political or personal reasons.

8. Blurring of boundaries
It's easy to spot how boundaries between 'high' and 'low'
culture have been eroded.
This idea is alluring because of the democratic
implications - there's no such thing as bad taste; you can
enjoy, consume, shop for what you like - all class
hierarchies have disappeared.
However, paradoxically, for there to be any thrill in
transgressing boundaries, like those between 'high' and
'low' forms in Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet (1997) or
Shakespeare in Love (1998), those boundaries need
still to have some meaning and indeed they do
Think of the huge industry still associated with the status
and name of Shakespeare and his continuing cultural
importance.

9. A society of spectacle
Postmodern media texts share a delight in
surface style and superficiality;
A delight in trivial rather than dominant
forms - from conversations about burgers
in Pulp Fiction (1994) to Lindsay Lohan or
Victoria Beckham appearing in Ugly Betty
(2008);
And the tone is alternative, excited and
ironic involving scepticism about serious
values.

9. A society of spectacle
Andy Medhurst (1997) points out that this approach contains
elements of camp a traditionally male homosexual personality
trait - no camp man can claim the pompous authority of many white
males, so he may as well laugh at things that are taken seriously.
He continues:
Campis a configuration of taste codes and a declaration of
effeminate interest... It revels in exaggeration, theatricality, parody
and bitchingpostmodern aesthetics can easily be confused with
camp, but while camp grows from a specific cultural identity,
postmodern discourses peddle the arrogant fiction that specific
cultural identities have ceased to exist.
On the other hand Debord sees celebrities as people who have
become role models for us to identify with to compensate for the
crumbling of directly experiencedproductive activity.
Celebrities provide us with false representations of life and
ultimately become the reality of our everyday lives.

10. Alienation
This delight in superficiality is countered
by a different postmodern approach that
involves an atmosphere of decay and
alienation.
Structures of feeling' that find echoes in
the music of Radiohead or Aphex Twin ,
the films Blade Runner and Fight Club,
the music videos and advertising of Chris
Cunningham.