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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?