Postmodernism IMKE Intro

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 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 realityRelativism 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culture Simulation has become more and more realistic Actual meaning replaced by a virtual meaning Reality has been replaced by simulation There is no more fiction Models [simulation, VR...]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 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”, ”tech dream gone wrong”

More postmodern theorists

Post-PostmodernismPost-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.