Lecture 8 - Post Modernism

Thursday 26^th January

Lecture 8: Jean Baudrillard and Postmodernism

In this lecture we are looking at Baudrillard s particular take on postmodernism. Baudrillard's position emerges out of a Marxist critique of capitalism

Baudrillard wrote 'The System of Objects*. 'The Mirror of Production' and 'Simulacra and Simulation'.

Baudrillard claims that simulacra have no pre-existing relationship with reality- An image can be identified as simulacra.

Examples of films which reflect ideas about simulacra are The Matrix and Blade Runner In The Matrix, reality has been reduced to a blank white space full of constructions. This gives us an idea of what Baudrillard was talking about - we are constantly bombarded by simulacra.

Baudrillard critiqued the rise of promotion and advertising, which have become part of our everyday lives.

Marx investigates how we become alienated and cannot interact directly with the world. Man has gone from making products to making commodities. Each commodity can be weighed against another because they are quantitative rather than qualitative.

Once we start trading one thing for another our relationship with the world becomes indirect.

Labour is a commodity which we must sell to live. Labour has to be exchanged for money. We have to sell ourselves in order to survive.

Objects are not valued in terms of usefulness but in terms of trade value.

One might approach a product in a supermarket thinking not only that it might be good to eat but also thinking of it in relation to its price and against all the other products.

In 1911 Taylor came up with the idea of assembly line production

Henry Ford's production line factories for making cars are a famous precursor to mass production. You don't make the car yourself; you share the production with other people. The workers are given sufficient income and leisure time to then consume the products that they're making.

In the post war period there was an increased power for production and the demand needed to match this. Every advert is saying to us buy more things'.

John Berger writes about advertising in chapter 7 of Ways of Seeing'. This is an easy book to digest.

A car has to communicate that it represents a certain type of person. The car is described as having human characteristics. The product then confirms our status as having these types of characteristics. The car is presented to us as a kind of artwork. It suggests social standing.

A Miller beer advert juxtaposes the beer (in a champagne type glass) with the type of meal that you might have seen in a fancy restaurant at the time. It associates itself with this lifestyle

In the 'Mad Men' clip, the interviewer in the focus group makes an effort to familiarise herself with the group, even going as far as to lie about not having a name badge.

The architecture of the focus group is interesting; the room in which the interviewees sit is made to feel very comfortable so that they will open up, whilst on the other side of the one way glass the/re being observed and their answers are scrutinised.

Advertisers find ways to convince consumers that a certain product will make them happy. Demand needs to be kept consistent - people need to be convinced to keep buying the same things.

Baudrillard s essay Consumer Society' talks about store front displays and interior layout. Through exposure to advertising were all made to desire in the same way.

Saussure examined the status of the sign. Words are only meaningful as part of as wider language. There's no particular reason for any word to mean something, other than the fact that we've all agreed that something means what it means*

Saussure refers to langue as the system of agreement of understanding and 'parole' as the individual speech acts within this system

Berger describes advertising as a system and a language.

Baudrillard says that continual exposure to adverts constructs a system for consumer desire.

Baudrillard discusses Disney World as a simulacrum. Some of the environments in Disney World are shaped by our idea of American history rather than the reality of American history.

Baudrillard talked about the twin towers, saying that they didn't appear to have any relationship to their surroundings except with each other. The terrorist attacks which destroyed the towers showed how media coverage can shape history / create simulacra. Baudrillard notes that the blowing up of the towers mirrored scenes from dramatic Hollywood films such as Die Hard.

Spin doctoring now shapes politics.

Baudrillards vision of hyperreal society shapes what he thinks of a postmodernism. We are in a post history because through the simulacrum of society, material progress has come to an end.

Note the product placement and postmodern artwork in the scene where we are introduced to Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. Patrick Bateman is some kind of mask. Every aspect of his life is made up of the products that he consumes. Out of these products he has built up an identity for himself.

Media culture controls culture, social space and even political decision making.