Postmodernism (1)
Image Society &
Postmodernism
Andy Warhol. Toy Paintings: Four Monkeys. 1983.
From Structuralism to
Postmodernism & Poststructuralism
-- 後結構主義(Poststructuralism)︰theories which
challenge the stable structure of language
(binaries) and traditional value systems; sees
their meanings as slippery, multiple and
contingent (因時而定的).
--後現代主義(Postmodernism)︰cultures which
challenge language and the other types of
“Truth,” foundation and tradition. (Poststructuralism
as one example.)
--後現代狀況(Postmodernity)︰The socio-economic and
intellectual conditions which make
Image society &
postmodernism possible.
M Butterfly
Why starts with “image society”
--a continuation of semiotics; from different
language forms to society’s “languages”
-- one major pm phenomenon: implosion (內爆),
not explosion or expansion, of floating
signifiers or “simulacra,” which are
dissociated from their signified.
 Loss of meanings; possibilities of selfreflexivity.
-- Our class’s uses of images (videos, pictures,
ppt files, etc.) Are we bombarded by images
or are we still active learners?
Outline
1. Image, image everywhere.
A. Causes
B. Effects
1. Conformity and stereotypes;
2. Loss of meaning/feelings/history;
3. Self-reflexivity in the use of signs
2. Examples
A. mixtures of images: Music Videos & MTV
channel
B. spectacles: Living Mall (京華城)
Different Kinds of Images
Increasing domination of pictures in books,
newspapers, multimedia books, E-Text, letterwriting, & classrooms  influence our reading
habits.
Rapid and wider transmission of images through
electronic means (computer, TV.)
Penetration of ads and commercials in every corner
of public spheres such as the streets, buses,
buildings, subway and highway.
Growing need of producing and using images of the
Other and of self (of a commodity or a person).
Causes 1: mechanical/electronic
reproduction
Mechanical and electronic reproduction of image
(photograph, photocopying machine, computer, etc.)
Walter Benjamin:
-- Art used to be kept in sacred or private spaces, to
be viewed by a selective few. This made it
possess an aura (光環) as if it were sacred.
-- Aura has declined in this age of mechanical
reproduction, because Art is no longer unique; it is
more easily available to the general public.
-- Autonomy denied: Artistic autonomy is either ahistorical or counter-revolutionary.
Examples of reproduction:
“Creation of Adam”
“Creation of Adam” in
the Sistine Chapel in Vatican (source)
Examples of reproduction
Barbara Kruger’s
political revision of
“Creation of Adam”
Untitled 1982
The words are imposed
on the original image to
intercept its
representation of power
(of Man’s).
Causes 2: development of image
Baudrillard: the successive phases of the image:
1. it is the reflection of a profound reality; --e.g. of
God’s
2. it masks and denatures a profound reality; --e.g.
industrial revolution or early capitalism.
3. it masks the ‘absence’ of a profound reality; -e.g. the death of God or truth
4. it has no relation to any reality whatsoever: it is
its own pure simulacrum.
 Hyperreality – the only real is that which can be
reproduced.
Causes 3: development of
capitalism
Jameson:
cultural logic of postmodernism:
Overall commodification: Capital
commodifies everything.
On the one hand, art is commercialized; on
the other, consumption can be
aestheticized, too.
Effects 1: Conformity and
stereotypes;
Capitalism commodifies everything and
emphasize its symbolic value or value as
an image. every mass-produced images
Conformity: The consumers identify with
the images they buy with the commodities
and thus are massified by them (become a
mass).
 Self: flattened and collaged identity
 Other: stereotypes
Effects 2: Loss of
meaning/feelings/history;
loss of meaning – floating signifiers;
loss of feelings – no sense of involvement;
loss of history – history presented with
stereotypes.
Effects 3: Self-reflexivity in the
use of signs
The destabilization of traditional meaning
structures also means freedom to create new
meanings:
-- in art – metafiction (e.g. M. Butterfly)
-- in popular culture – mix and re-mix; parody and
pastiche
-- in consumption – choice and combination of
style; choice of leisure activities and routes to
travel.
Music video’s self-reflexive uses
of video images
“Money for Nothing” (1985)
“Losing my Religion” (Out Of Time 1991)
“If” (Janet 1993)
“Atom Bomb” (1996)
MTV’s and Channel V’s commercials – in
1999.
 Gradual loss of meanings?
1. Dire Straits
-- took their name from their early financial status
-- "Money for Nothing“- chanting that pop stars get
their "money for nothing, and their chicks for
free"
-- “But rather than causing a stir in the music
industry or unleashing a backlash by the video
community, MTV embraced the song as their new
anthem. The video, which featured sophisticated
(for the time) 3-D computer animation, went into
heavy rotation, and the band became
international superstars. The message of the
song, meanwhile, was evidently lost on everyone.”
2. “Losing My Religion”: video as metonymic
expressions of the lyrics
1. Lyrics: struggle by oneself
to communicate;
“That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh No, I've said too much
I haven't said enough”
2. Video: a collage of
singing, “spotlight
scene,” and “Icarus
scene”
“Losing My Religion”:
“Everything is just a dream.”
parodying the Icarus myth
“If” by Janet Jackson
Video: desiring and
rejecting the male dancer
Lyrics:
“Oh the things I'd do to you
I'd make you call out my name
I'd ask who it belongs to
If I was your woman
The things I'd do to you
But I'm not
So I can't
Then I won't
But
If I was your girl”
“If”: Orientalism & desiring the
images on the screen;
Multiple choices of
virtual sex: single,
double, trio, two
couples.
Janet Jackson still the
central object of desire
Atom Bomb by Fluke
Fluke, a UK electronic band
Atom Bomb, a computer
game (the Sony
Playstation game
Wipeout 2097) sound
track that brought to
life a Japanese Manga
styled cartoon
character in the shape
and form of Arial
Tetsuo, aka Rachel
Stewart. (sources: info,
image.
Atom Bomb : pastiche of images
and identity
Lyrics:
Baby got a Nobel Prize
Given for the perfect crime
Baby got an alibi
Baby got eight more lives
Baby got the purple hair
Baby got a secret lair
Baby got an army there
I aint never seen this baby
get scared.
MTV’s and Channel V’s
commercials – in 1999
-- The commercials are like the music videos
themselves with fast-changing images, only the
the commercials are shorter and even faster in
pace.
-- self-reflexive collage of recognizable images,
such as Munch’s Scream.
-- self-reflexive showing of frames of TV set and
the multiple space in TV.
-- not completely without a sense of history: e.g. 阿
妹看MTV.
Example 2: the Living Mall
Mall: a spectacular and self-enclosed space
which either hide or naturalize its
commercial reality by capturing the
shoppers’ attention with its multitude of
signs.
the Living Mall
京華城
natural
Capital as the Center of
cultures, celebrities and talents
 Supported by its spectacular
design
The Society of the Spectacle
by Guy Debord, 1967
The spectacle presents itself simultaneously as all
of society, as part of society, and as instrument of
unification. As a part of society it is specifically the
sector which concentrates all gazing and all
consciousness. Due to the very fact that this
sector is separate, it is the common ground of the
deceived gaze and of false consciousness, . . .
4. The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a
social relation among people, mediated by
images. (source)  We live out the spectacle
according to someone else’s design, like actors
following a script.
The mall: “commodification of
everyday life”
to make it work: 1) retail mix – to attract the
desired mix of consumers; 2) “seductive” –to
keep the shoppers there.  maze-like structure,
special design (of hallway and food court).
3) “ a surfeit of signs, each of which, . .. , serves
to actively hide or mask the mall’s function,
which is to make money. Or if it doesn't hide
that function, then it certainly naturalizes it, such
that the ‘commodification of reality’ becomes
simply “God-given” (Mitchell 134-35)
京華城: a self-enclosed & spectacular world
1. Appearance; 2. Entering by “ascending”
2. Allegories re-written
--showing its story of construction
-- street names for each floor
-- “a space ship”?  soccer
京華城: a self-enclosed & spectacular world
3. The basement eating court-- like a theatre
京華城: a self-enclosed & spectacular world
(4): Circular structure supports the shoppers’ inward
and mutual gazes
京華城: space of the spectacle =
commercial space
京華城: space of the spectacle =
maze-like routes of
ascension
京華城: space of the spectacle =
commercial space
京華城: space of the spectacle =
commercial space
Interchangeable signs
Despite their colorfulness, the commodities
as signs are similar to each other, if not
the same in some cases.
References
Mitchell, Don. Cultural Geography: A Critical
Introduction. Massachusetts: Blackwell,
2000.