So Long, Farewell...

This is it...the end of Postmodernism.

Thank you all for your energy, curiosity and hard work over the last twelve weeks. At the beginning of the semester we promised that the ideas, texts and theory raised in Postmodernism would extend well beyond the course itself. We hope you enjoy spotting Jameson and Baudrillard, Pynchon and Vonnegut, Haraway and Hutcheon for across all forms of media for years to come...

Oh, and if you're wondering where to from here, jump on supersearch, go the JSTOR archive and have a look at Robert J. Antonio, “After Postmodernism: Reactionary Tribalism,” The American Journal of Sociology, 106.1 (Jul., 2000), pp. 40-87.

PoPoMo

A couple of post-postmodernism reading suggestions:

For those interested in the figure of the cyborg, Anthony Vidler's 'Homes for Cyborgs' in 'Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely' connects Haraway's manifesto and its project of boundary transgression with our earlier consideration in the course around the materiality and experience of postmodern spaces and architectures.

For a controversial episode in the life of postmodernism, have a look at the Sokal Affair. Physicist Alan Sokal, submitted a paper entitled 'Transgressing the Boundaries -- Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity', to the journal 'Social Text' (link below) which he revealed to be hoax in a simultaneously published article in the journal 'Lingua Franca' (link below). He argued that this experiement--writing a parody of a cultural studies/postmodern paper through a pastiche of absurd pseudo-scientific jargon and liberal ideology--exposed the lack of academic rigour and nonsense central to postmodern theory.

His Lingua Franca paper, "A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies," begins by stating:

"For some years I've been troubled by an apparent decline in the standards of intellectual rigor in certain precincts of the American academic humanities. But I'm a mere physicist: if I find myself unable to make head or tail of jouissance and différance, perhaps that just reflects my own inadequacy.

So, to test the prevailing intellectual standards, I decided to try a modest (though admittedly uncontrolled) experiment: Would a leading North American journal of cultural studies -- whose editorial collective includes such luminaries as Fredric Jameson and Andrew Ross -- publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions?"

While widely received as a succeccful hoax that undermined the credibility of PoMo, I wonder, is there an irony operating here, that allows us to read this whole affair as distincly postmodern? A simulacra that helps install and diffuse indeterminacy within the global media event?

Could you speak exclusively in quotations?

We joke about speaking in quotation marks, of texts being tissues of quotations, of our subjectivities being constituted through pastiche and ironic appropriation. But imagine spending all day every day speaking only in quotations...as art.

Danielle Freakley will be performing at the Emerging Writers' Festival this weekend. This article (quoted in full from http://www.theprogram.net.au) explains the scope of this postmodern extravaganza...

The Quote Generator by Danielle Freakley [Image courtesy of teh artist & Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces]

The Quote Generator :: Danielle Freakley
VIC | On Until 21.10.2007

Could you spend a year and a half assimilating stolen quotes into each and every social conversation you have?

That's exactly how Melbourne based artist Danielle Freakley intends to spend the foreseeable future. On October 23rd Danielle launched her three-year, three-phased performance project: Quote Generator. Armed with the goal of challenging myths of authorship, originality and ownership over language, Danielle will spend the next year and a half in the thick of phase one.

Phase One of the Quote Generator project will involve the artist speaking strictly in referenced quotation in everyday life. Whether she be buying groceries, going to the movies, eating at a restaurant with friends, or undertaking any of the countless activities one engages on a daily basis, Danielle will structure all of her conversations using popular quotations.

Wondering how she'll be able to pull it off? Well, it won't be easy. Danielle will read the quotes aloud in her ordinary, unaffected speaking voice. Then the reference of the quote will be whispered after the quote is spoken. The quotes used must respond to a specific context and she will be unaided apart from a contraption known as the quote harness. Essentially the quote harness is a jacket that contains foldout pockets with printed booklets of quotes, systematised in order of conversation.

You can keep track of Danielle's progress at: www.gertrude.org.au

Posthumanism

Are we Posthuman?

Chris Jordan, "Circuit Boards" 2004
www.chrisjordan.com/

Women Now Empowered By Everything A Woman Does

In Anticipation of Post/Feminism

Before we get down to the serious study of post/feminism and the work of Kathy Acker, here's an opportunity to take sides on a burning issue of the day.

No, we're not asking you to sign the petition to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to Free Paris Hilton.

Later this week the avant garde of Australian television, Channel 10, is screening the final episode of Pussy Cat Dolls Present: The Search for a New Doll. The latest in a series of American reality television programs to search for the stars, the show has generated no small measure of controversy.



The question is: do you agree with the founder of this "new Burlesque" pop sensation, that the reality TV show is or at least can be "inspiring to women"? Or are the opinions aired in Saturday's Age closer to your own?

Postcolonialism, Shame and Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie: Multi-award winning writer of postcolonial historiographic metafiction, celebrated humanist, voice of a subcontinental diaspora, Islamaphobe?


Have your say on the writer, the novel, or the myriad of ideas raised by this week's guest lecturer Dougal McNeill.

Post-Politics

Are you political? What does it mean to be political any more?

And can we even separate the political sphere from other areas of life?

Has image politics replaced other forms of political engagement?

"Oz in 30 Seconds" is an initiative by the action group GetUp!, calling for people to "create, rate and air television ads that promote a better, fairer, more progressive Australia." The 30-second political adverts you create will be aired on prime time television.

But what will they look like?

Will they be earnest attempts to express political views? Or ironic, parodic works of humour like The Chaser?

So many questions.

Second Essay Questions now Available from LMS

Don't forget you can tailor essay questions to meet your beautiful-and-unique-snowflake needs, proclivities, tastes, curiosities and interests...just make sure you get new questions approved by your tutor before you begin writing.

Happy researching!

Irony, Excess and Natural Born Killers

In considering televisual culture, and the question of whether television is an inherently postmodern medium, it is worth returning to Marshall McLuhan's pioneering media ecology work in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964) and The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967).




If you want the postmodern version, have a listen to the 1967 LP of The Medium is the Massage made by Columbia records:

http://www.ubu.com/sound/mcluhan.html

Postmodernism, Consumerism, White Noise

3 soundbytes to get you going on this week's mammoth intellectual undertaking (sorry, joyous, life-affirming romp through a dazzling but easily digestible and fat-free array of ideas that will enhance your overall university experience, boost your self-esteem, and effortlessly equip you with the analytic and transferable skills to tackle any number of future employment situations).

1. Should we read White Noise as prophesy or period-piece?

2.What does this say about individual identity in postmodern consumer culture?

3. Do you dreamlarge?

Baudrillard and the Matrix

We hope your break was rewarding and relaxing, and before we get onto our next topic of White Noise and Consumerism, this is a space for you to post any thoughts, questions or comments you may have regarding Baudrillard and The Matrix.

If you're interested in Baudrillard, you might want to read up on Guy Debord, an important predecessor. Debord's most famous text was The Society of the Spectacle, which begins:

"In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation."

That's back in 1967. Not hard to see the influence on Baudrillard's later theories of simulation.

And now for the news.

Michael Jackson is in discussions about creating a 50-foot robotic replica of himself to roam the Las Vegas desert, according to reports.

The pop legend is currently understood to be living in the city, as he considers making a comeback after 2004's turbulent child sex case.

It has now been claimed that his plans include an elaborate show in Vegas, which would feature the giant Jacko striding around the desert, firing laser beams.

If built, the metal monster would apparently be visible to aircraft as they come in to land in the casino capital.

It is the centre-piece of an elaborate Jackson-inspired show in Vegas, according to Andre Van Pier, the robot's designer.

Luckman Van Pier, his partner at the company behind the proposal, claims blueprints have been drawn-up for the show and seen by the star.

"Michael's looked at the sketches and likes them", he told the New York Daily News.

On the subject of the robot, he continued: "It would be in the desert sands. Laser beams would shoot out of it so it would be the first thing people flying in would see."

(reference)

And here's a video for Japanese pop singer Yuki as directed by artist Nagi Noda - interesting for the way it plays with an aesthetic similar to the "bullet time" of The Matrix, but reversed: instead of technology allowing an impossible perspective, it creates all effects in-camera, with no digital post-production. The director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the upcoming Science of Sleep) is very much at the leading edge of this style of filmmaking, too.

But is this an attempt to recover the 'real', in opposition to the excessive artifice of contemporary filmmaking technology? It's quite different to the Dogme movement, however, which attempts to do away with all unnecessary elements in the making of a film - lighting, soundtrack, script etc. Can one kind of film be more 'real' than another, or would Baudrillard argue that this is the wrong question to ask?

The Crying of Lot 49 and the Problem of Interpretation

This week we're looking at postmodernism's challenge to the notion of interpretation - that is, who decides the "meaning" of a text? The author? The reader? And is there meaning "in" texts at all?

Thomas Pynchon's novel seems to explicitly address these questions, offering a central character whose increasingly frustrating attempts to determine the truth about her world mirror the reader's.

Post your thoughts or questions regarding the novel here. You might even find some answers.

And while you're at it, you could do worse than looking up the online reader's guide which is in the process of being created. Importantly, it's a wiki, which means it's created by readers and is as much an interpretation as anything else. Don't take it as a definitive explanation of what the novel is "about". At the very least, though, it does offer intriguing hints, links and ponderings. It's far from complete, though (if completion were ever possible for this sort of project).

And for some fun, why not take a quiz to find out what sort of postmodernist you are.

Postmodernism, History and Slaughterhouse 5

This week's topic is destined to one for the history students and literature buffs out there.

We've seen in the last few weeks that Jameson thinks one of the key features of postmodernism is a crisis in history: because it cannot come to grips with history, postmodern art and literature is condemned to recycle images of the past through pastiche and nostalgia. This week, Canadian literary theorist Linda Hutcheon takes a much more optimistic view about the capacity of postmodern writers to engage critically with the past by questioning the ways in which we access and represent it.

So, who has the stronger argument?

And what do you think of the first novel on the course: Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5?

Postmodern Space(s)

What does it mean to describe a space, or a building, as postmodern?

What's your experience of postmodern spaces?

In addition to any questions or comments you have related to this week's reading, this is a chance to wax lyrical about your favourite postmodern spaces...

First Essay Questions Now Available

Essay questions, advice on essay writing and guidelines for essay submission can all be downloaded from the postmodernism LMS site
(login your unimelb email username and password)

Hints, tips, questions and comments to follow.

Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism

Jameson. Questions? Comments? Observations in anticipation of tutorials?

Don't be shy!

Is Wikipedia enough?

Looking beyond Wikipedia - and yes, there is a world beyond it! - here are some excellent online resources that will help you get a handle on the basics of postmodernism:

Written in dot-points and table form, this succinct intro from the University of Georgetown has been included in many a postmodernism reader.

From Purdue University, a lengthier and more historically-focused introduction.

The University of Colorado lists resources according to theorist.

Postmodern Culture is one of the most respected journals published in the field.
Another worth checking out is Kritikos.

Last but not least, if you're feeling shaky about the distinction between sign and signified, signifier and signification, then Daniel Chandler's Semiotics for Beginners is for you.

Enjoy!

Welcome to Postmodernism 106-036

This is the first post for the new Postmodernism 106-036 blog. Visit regularly to find new links to relevant web links, references, entertaining material and additions to official course content. It is intended as a supplement to your reader, lectures and classroom-based learning - NOT a replacement. While the material here can aid your enjoyment and understanding of the course, it's all strictly additional stuff, not primary texts.

We have decided to set up the blog as a way of adding to your experience of the course. Much of what you'll find here will be inspired by tutorial discussions and ideas that, while not central to a week's topic, might nonetheless offer fun ways of thinking about the course from different angles.

You will also be able to comment on posts, if you feel like adding to the discussion.

Let's begin.