POSTMODERNISM

How we moved from traditional solid structures to the shifting, uncertain markers of the new world?

If so how do we understand it? Ideas around the concept of POSTMODERNISM may help us to navigate . . .

Over the next couple of weeks as we run up to Xmas we will look at this topic. We will look at a couple of films and we will answer a couple of exam questions and then . . . it’s over!

Definitions of Key terms

  1. Pastiche
  2. Parody
  3. Bricolage  
  4. Intertextuality
  5. Referential
  6. Surface and style over substance and content
  7. Lack of a Metanarrative
  8. Hyperreality
  9. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) 
  10. Consumerist Society
  11. Fragmentary Identities
  12. Alienation
  13. Implosion
  14. cultural appropriation
  15. Reflexivity
  16. Individualism

How can we understand The Love Box in your Living Room?

  1. What is it?
  2. What meaning does it hold for each of us?

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/14/our-whole-show-is-complete-bollocks-paul-whitehouse-and-harry-enfield-on-their-bbc-mockumentary

Postmodernism can be understood as a philosophy that is characterised by concepts such as RE-IMAGINING, PASTICHE, PARODY, COPY, BRICOLAGE. It’s an approach towards understanding, knowledge, life, being, art, technology, culture, sociology, philosophy, politics and history that is REFERENTIAL – in that it often refers to and often copies other things in order to understand itself.

In other words, new expressions of identity and being – often found in popular culture and/or modern technology, are actually new iterations (versions) of previous expressions of popular culture. It is therefore possible to understand postmodernism as a complicated and fragmentary set of inter-relationships, a practice of re-imagining, pastiche, bricolage and self-referentiality, which may be understood alongside another key expression / concept: intersectionality that has been discussed in this post.

Parody v Pastiche 🤔

pastiche is a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist

parody is a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony

So is The Love Box in your Living Room a parody or a pastiche?

Find 3 examples that as evidence to support your position.

If we agree that The Love Box in your Living Room it is a REITERATION of the documentary work by Adam Curtis then it works as both a parody and a pastiche. In this sense, postmodernism works in terms of gestures, signs, re-imagining of work that is already recognised. However, the key question is whether this is just play? Or whether it is indicative of something else? Some more seismic and significant shifts in society?

Intertextuality: surface signs, gestures & play

BRICOLAGE is a useful term to apply to postmodernist texts as it

‘involves the rearrangment and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’

(Barker & Jane, 2016:237)

Similarly, INTERTEXTUALITY is another useful term to use, as it suggests signs only have meaning in reference to other signs and that meaning is therefore a complex process of decoding/encoding with individuals both taking and creating meaning in the process of reading texts. In other words . . .

. . . the concept that the meaning of a text does not reside in the text, but is produced by the reader in relation not only to the text in question, but also the complex network of texts invoked in the reading process.

See this source for link to Kristeva and post-structuralism

Postmodernism can therefore be understood (more than other creative movements) as deliberate, intended, self-conscious play (about play?), signs about signs, notes to notes? Often, this may be frivolous, trite, casual, surface, throw-away. It may even be ironic, joking, or literally, ‘just playing’. However, it is always a deliberate copy (of the old). Therefore, the old has been re-worked into something new, which clearly entails a recognition (a nod and a wink) to what it was and where it came from.

radio broadcast

As a group we intended to create a broadcast that would overall inform, educate and entertain in regards to the BBC – correlating to the BBCS ethos. We will address the BBC’s history and identifying how it has both positively and negatively affected people in Britain. We intend to discuss our thoughts and opinions on the BBC as a media platform including its radio, websites e.g. BBC Bitesize and its television (Live and iPlayer). Furthermore, evidence will be provided to support our judgements such as statistics on audiences and information around presenters. As a group we wish to address the current BBC and the future BBC including information on the government’s plans to improve it e.g. removal of TV license tax in order to attract more/maintain views.

Moreover, we will include two songs to begin and end our broadcast which will be ‘The Chain – Fleetwood Mac’ and ‘Waterloo – ABBA’. These songs we chose due to them being songs we like and we have freedom to express ourselves in the radio broadcast.

Radio SOI & Review

For our radio production, we will be going through the BBC’s history and identifying how it has both positively and negatively affected people in Britain. We will also be discussing some of the key broadcasts the BBC makes, such as Doctor Who and the World Cup in Qatar. We will be referring to Todorov’s theory of a beginning middle and end with the systematic structure of our program. We will do this by separating our key topics with music closely intertwined with the BBC e.g Gorillaz, Dizzie Rascal and Arctic Monkeys (British bands) to ensure we have breaks to figure out how to talk next. There will also be references to Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions, with Jayden often being the voice of reason and attempting to gather balanced opinions from the rest of our group, and Rohan and Ben often giving strong informed responses

In evaluation, our program was not as focused on the BBC as we would have liked. Overall, this simply came down to not enough preparation being made for the show and running out of ideas to talk about. In addition, Kai and Xavier did not talk as much as the others, and if I were to do this again I would ensure we had a full plan ready and make sure everyone was involved as much as possible.

radio

As a group we intended to create a broadcast that would overall inform, educate and entertain in regards to the BBC – correlating to the BBCS ethos. We will address the BBC’s history and identifying how it has both positively and negatively affected people in Britain. We intend to discuss our thoughts and opinions on the BBC as a media platform including its radio, websites e.g. BBC Bitesize and its television (Live and iPlayer). Furthermore, evidence will be provided to support our judgements such as statistics on audiences and information around presenters. As a group we wish to address the current BBC and the future BBC including information on the government’s plans to improve it e.g. removal of TV license tax in order to attract more/maintain views. 

Moreover, we will include two songs to begin and end our broadcast which will be ‘The Chain – Fleetwood Mac’ and ‘Waterloo – ABBA’. These songs we chose due to them being songs we like and we have freedom to express ourselves in the radio broadcast.

BBC Broadcast

For our radio production, we will be going through the BBC’s history and identifying how it has both positively and negatively affected people in Britain. We will also be discussing some of the key broadcasts the BBC makes, such as Doctor Who and the World Cup in Qatar. We will be referring to Todorov’s theory of a beginning middle and end with the systematic structure of our program. We will do this by separating our key topics with music closely intertwined with the BBC like Gorillaz and Dizzie Rascal (British bands) to ensure we have breaks to figure out how to talk next. There will also be references to Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions, with Jayden often being the voice of reason and attempting to get other opinions from everyone else.

The idea of intimacy, which is in almost every broadcast and narrowcast will also be in ours. With use of an informal register and selective use of pronouns will be able to construct this same intimacy between presenter and listener. Radio is either a broadcast or a narrowcast depending on the size of the audience, for ours we expect our live audience to be 10-20 so this would be considered a narrowcast.

BBC 100 BROADCAST

For our radio production, we will be going through the BBC’s history and identifying how it has both positively and negatively affected people in Britain. We will also be discussing some of the key broadcasts the BBC makes, such as Doctor Who and the World Cup in Qatar. We will be referring to Todorov’s theory of a beginning middle and end with the systematic structure of our program. We will do this by separating our key topics with music closely intertwined with the BBC e.g Gorillaz and Dizzie Rascals (British bands) to ensure we have breaks to figure out how to talk next. There will also be references to Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions, with Jayden often being the voice of reason and attempting to gather balanced opinions from the rest of our group, and Rohan and Ben often giving strong informed responses.

In evaluation, our program was not as focused on the BBC as we would have liked. Overall, this simply came down to not enough preparation being made for the show and running out of ideas to talk about. In addition, Kai and Xavier did not talk as much as the others, and if I were to do this again I would ensure we had a full plan ready and make sure everyone was involved as much as possible.

BBC 100 Broadcast

For our radio production, we will be going through the BBC’s history and identifying how it has both positively and negatively affected people in Britain. We will also be discussing some of the key broadcasts the BBC makes, such as Doctor Who and the World Cup in Qatar. We will be referring to Todorov’s theory of a beginning middle and end with the systematic structure of our program. We will do this by separating our key topics with music closely intertwined with the BBC e.g Gorillaz and Disney Rascals (British bands) to ensure we have breaks to figure out how to talk next. There will also be references to Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions, with Jayden often being the voice of reason and attempting to gather balanced opinions from the rest of our group, and Rohan and Ben often giving strong informed responses.

In evaluation, our program was not as focused on the BBC as we would have liked. Overall, this simply came down to not enough preparation being made for the show and running out of ideas to talk about. In addition, Kai and Xavier did not talk as much as the others, and if I were to do this again I would ensure we had a full plan ready and make sure everyone was involved as much as possible.