Simulacra/crum

Simulacra and Simulation is an idea by Jean Baudrillard that discusses the interaction between reality, symbols and society.

The defination is most known for its discussion of images, signs, and how they relate to the present day. Baudrillard claims that the modern day wrold and society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that we live in a simulation of reality rather than reality itself.

Baudrillard believes that the signs of culture and media create a perceived reality; leading to society to become so reliant on simulacra that it has lost contact with the real world on which the simulacra are based.

Television, film, print and the Internet, are said to be responsible for blurring the line between goods that are needed and goods for which a need is created by commercial images.

The Matrix makes many connections to Simulacra and Simulation. Simulacra and Simulation is the book in which Neo hides his illicit software. Morpheus also refers to the real world outside of the Matrix as the "desert of the real".

Bricolage

“Bricolage” is a French word that means putting something together out of available scraps of ideas etc to make a new piece of media art. It is related to pastiche..

' In his work, "Postmodernism and Consumer Society," Jameson writes that pastiche is "the imitation of a peculiar or unique style, the wearing of a stylistic mask, speech in a dead language" (16). He continues by describing those who work with bricolage:

"The writers and artists of the present day will no longer be able to invent new styles and worlds - they've already been invented; only a limited number of combinations are possible; the unique ones have been thought of already. ... This means that contemporary or postmodern art is going to be about art itself in a new kind of way; even more, it means that one of its essential messages will involve the necessary failure of art and the aesthetic, the failure of the new, the imprisonment in the past" (18). '

Examples of bricolage are
Music often takes the form of sound collage, as well as sampling, DJs do this alot, mixing new and old songs, from all types of genres.


Film Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill relies heavily on styles, genres and codes from a variety of sources. He uses elements from Hong Kong kung-fu films, grindhouse style fight scenes and comic book set-ups.


Another film example is The Matrix by the Wachowski brothers, it visualually incorporates lots of different influences and styles into a new film. They draw on genres, stories and visuals such as the fantasy world of Alice in Wonderland, Japanese cyberpunk manga from Ghost in the Shell, action comic books, and kung-fu movies. Much of the discourse within the film refers to ,and combines, the ideas of Jacques Lacan, Jean Baudrillard, as well as lots of religious influences too.

Meme

A meme is an idea or creative item that is passed on virally from person to person to the point where lots of people know about it and are talking about. It's a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner similar to the biological transmission of genes when going through evolution. It can be explained in evolutionary principles when explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. For example memes develop through natural selection, similar to that of biolgical evolution. They go through variation, mutation and competition, through plenty of different people or texts.

Examples of memes include melodies, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothing fashion and most of all internet memes. Internet memes are often catchphrases or concepts that spread quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an inside joke.

The Coen Brothers

Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen, known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers, who write and direct their films jointly. The pair have written and directed numerous successful films, ranging comedies (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy) to thrillers (Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men), to postmodern movies where the genres blur together (Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading, and A Serious Man).

Combining eccentricity, humor, irony, and often brutal violence, the films of the Coen brothers are still a style of filmmaking that pays tribute to classic American movie genres, especially film noir, while sustaining a postmodern feel. An example of one of their postmodern films is Barton Fink:



- This film is seen as postmodern because it crosses genres, fragments the characters' experiences, and doesn't have straightforward narrative.

-It's described as a "postmodern pastiche" which closely examines how past eras have represented themselves. It's an ironic reexamination of history as it is both a critique of the Hollywood system then and now, but also a reworking of the myth of the leftist artist in the 1930s.

It contains a mix of history and pure fiction. A similar methodology is adopted for 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' which offers a precise recreation of 1930s deep-south America but frames the narrative using Homer's The Odyssey. The mixture of historical detail with fiction narrative is incredibly postmodern as it's playing with conventions.

Hyperreality

Hyperreality is an inability to distinguish between what is real and what is not. I can often be described as enhanced reality. For example in the film Genova, the use of a hand held camera, increases the afeect that it is a real recording of a real family. The gritty story line and believable characters makes the film seem real enough, but the camera eccentuates this to a new level.

Some people become more engaged with the hyperreal world than with the real world. More and more people in today’s culture are thought to exist in a state of hyperreality. For example the virtual world of Second Life had become something that many poeple take incredibly seriously, many spending more time on there than living their own lifes. For example some people may believe that they can be rock stars or celebrities just by acting as if they are on second life, or a profile that they have set up. Aswell as this there are media images, the Internet and computer games that are taking people out of the real world more often and for longer periods of time than ever before.

Hyperreality is thought to be a consequence of the age that we live in, which links it nicely to postmoderism as this is a new age where things are being presented differently, and are getting more and more advanced. An excuse for many media texts using intertexuality or pastiche could be due to the fact in this age some theorist's say that all our stoeries have been told. Creating a cyle of things just being told over and over again. Therefore to make these things new and exciting, postmodern elements are introduced.

An example of hyperreality can be when somebody takes someone else's version of reality on board as his or her own. Some people may watch a soap opera and develop a view of interpersonal relationships that is determined by the writers of the soap.
Relationships in soaps are a heightened form of reality that some people relate to as being real, therefore they begin judging relationships by this hightened reality.

Other examples of hyperrealities are Theme parks such as Disney Land were people can get lost in for as long as they like (or till realistic things such as work and money intefere). These fairytale lands have been made in to real locations, tunring it inot something thing that no longer exists just in out heads. This makes it harder to distinguish or understand whether it's real or not.



I think this picture is a good example of Hyperreality as it shows an illusion of a picture on a canvas that looks so similar to what is outside the window that it is difficult to distinguish what is real and what's not

Michael Winterbottom

Michael Winterbottom is a filmmaker who has directed sixteen films in the past thirteen years. Many of his films are incredibly postmodern, for example the film A Cock and Bull Story:



Just watching the trailer for this film you can see how post modern it is..
-Talking to the camera (self referntial) breaking the 4th wall and acknowledging the audience.

-Parody and pastiche of other Victorian dramas and actors.

-Playing with all the conventions of the genre 'You want realism, i'm a grown man in a womb!' This is also self referential as they are refering to the aims of their production on screen.

-You get too see the camera set ect, making it hyperreal as you are not sure what is part of the film and what is not. Along with this they talk about how they are going to edit the film, maing you believe you are really there.

-It's Nihilistic in a sense that it doesn't stick to any rule that film making should have, at times it seems a bit of a shamble.

-It draws apon many different genres and styles, for example it's a comedy as well as a victorian drama. It also has a documentary feel to it as well as they directly talk the camera as if they are having an interview. It also follows the prgress of the film, something many documentaries do. All these things make it quite an eclectic film to watch.

-There are reference to other texts, for example a shot of Steven Fry on the TV making it seem even more hyper real. This sort of intertexuality, using a very famous person is incredibly affective.

-Aesthetics include the contrast of Victorian to mordern day costumes.

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is the cultral and social conditions which have replaced earlier forms of modern 20th century life. Many media texts that are said to be postmodern in style often mix irony, parody and pastiche across conventional genres. It will often refer to itself, is transparent in its constuction and blurs the boundaries between reality and representation. It's an approach to culture which sees all texts as being intertexual and meaning is mediated, rather than representative of a state of original reality.

A way to remember the coventions of postmodernism is the anagram of PAINPIPES:
Play-plays with the genre conventions etc. Also a sense of play, makes it quite funny, they do not take themselves seriously.
Aesthetics- They way it looks. Could look different or similar to another production as if it is mimicing it.
Intertexuality-referencing other texts or media forms to enable meaning to be made.
Nihilistic- total rejection of established laws and institutions.
Parody-A text which doesn't simply imitate the style of another, but instead mocks or shifts the original texts conventions in some way.
Irony- Presenting something to mean something very different from what they appear on the surface to mean. This is used homourously.
Pastiche- Directly imitating a style of another text.
Eclectism- Drawing apon multiple style or genres. Often contrasting.
Self-referential- Refers to themself.

Along with these Postmodernism often uses Hyper-reality, this characterizes the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy.It makes things seem more than real.