Postmodernism

There are many factors associated with postmodernism. These include, Simulacra and simulation, visual cultures, reflexivity, pastiche, parody, and also postmodernism in pop culture. These factors make up the many differences associated with postmodernism in all different ways. Postmodernism has many different views on the world, all of which make up a more complex ideology of the world today versus what was seen to be modern in previous times. Postmodernism is a difficult concept to grasp when looking at it through politics, philosophies and also world movements but in art it is something more of a system of "borrowing" from what was once modern and creating a mix of more different styles borrowed from previous styles to create a jaded and sophisticated experience rather that the norm.
When we compare the difference between postmodernism and modernity this can be very complex as well. Modernity was the very beginning, starting in the early eighteenth century when things were just starting to be created and looked at as modern. Urban centers and industrial societies increased with mechanization and automation and brought about the anxiety and fear of change into the public's eye. The beginning of modern times, also modernity, created the fear but also the beginning of today's ever changing era. As things went into the nineteenth and twentieth century, lets not forget the twenty-first, things became more of a replication of the era of modernity. Things became bigger and better and brought about the notion of postmodernism. Now, there is no fear of change, only drastic levels of change or constant change, to make things bigger, better and even non realistic to the eye such as images, codes, and advertising.
Postmodernism and modernity intersect because one superseded the other. Without modernity we wouldn't have come to postmodernism. During the time of modernity when the period of industrialization, social, economical and political times just began, turned into the flow of Internet and new digital technologies that brought about postmodernism and also the expansion of change in the world. Postmodernism came after the height of modernity so there for they intersect with each other. The concept of postmodernism is tied together with styles in art, literature, architecture, and also popular culture which also engages in reflexivity, bricolage, pastiche, and all mixes of styles. These terms were coined when postmodernism came about.
Simulacra and also simulation were terms that became famously used by the French theorist Jean Baudrillard. The term means that we have taken parts in the world and also media, and turn them into things that are not real to life but a replication of it. I have experienced this when I went on a trip to Disney World. In Disney, they have a park called Epcot which is very famous for their restaurants they have transformed into different countries around the world. Now, even though you are in Florida, you can still go to Italy for dinner where they have an excellent replicated restaurant of what Italy looks like. They have famous wines, homemade pasta, and Italian paintings. This made up place would be considered simulacra because it is really not Italy, but it is replicated for us to enjoy what Italy would be like.
reflexivity was both in modernity and also postmodernism. In modernity this was the practice of making viewers aware of the means of production, in plays and movies, to see different characteristic of what we were actually seeing. Reflexivity in the postmodern era put more into films, art, and even photographs to catch the attention of the viewer by adding jokes and many differences in visual texts creating irony in media. Media producers offer techniques of disillusionment to the viewers by creating different forms of intellectual play and visions for viewers to enjoy. This also happens with images and how they are created by adding different text or added forms of pleasure to the image. This has become very popular in visual culture. Reflexivity touches many bases in our text and is associated also with active looking.

Commodity Fetishism

Commodity Fetishism is the process by which mass produced goods are emptied of the meaning of their production which means how the item is produced, where it was made and who actually produced it. Then the product is filled with new meaning and ways that turn the product into a fetish object. For instance, the label. Some one who loves Tommy Hilfiger or coach is more than likely buying it because of its label, value, and also because of what people may portray by seeing the person wearing it. Today, people do this often. It doesn't matter who made it or where the product came from but the fact that everyone can see the label has turned into a fetish for most of the society around us in the United States. The importance of the look and label are far more important to our self image than the actual quality itself. The idea of being looked at because I have a coach purse is a fetish I believe would only strike ones idea of me having money or popularity. I will however say that I do not base my clothing or lifestyle on the label. I have bought many items from guess clothing that I find very overpriced and fall apart after a few washings. The clothing may look great, show off a great label, but also forms tiny holes in the material after washing even on gentle cycle. But in today's society we are highly likely to go for the things that we believe because the label or brand is popular, it is of good quality. Commodity fetishism is the number one reason for mass production in the world today due to the needs and wants of individuals. Advertising and marketing have a way of gearing this in the minds of people by making new and improved products and advertising them as appealing, sexy, and empowering thus bringing about the high demand for specific items.
The relationship of consumers and branding has changed in the past couple decades because the production and advertising market has become larger and more advanced. Before it advanced into larger advertisements things such as oats and soap etc were bought and sold out of bins and purchased by consumers by weight. Today, branding has become huge. Labels, signs, icons have become popular along with advertising to sell things for a specific company. Today the branding messages associated with the product is what sells the actual product itself. It isn't always about what we are buys but what the ad is telling us to buy that makes it more appealing to the human eye. With branding, they are selling a product based on the meaning they are portraying into ones mind. We are not buying that soap by bulk but seeing commercials and advertisements for dove soap with moisturizing cream to help beautify and silken the skin. Brands encompass all of the symbolic elements of a company's goods and services (p. 289). Packaging, print, color, etc is also very important when selling products today, this can be very appealing and eye catching.
Metacommunication is when the ad actually speaks to the viewer about the actual process of viewing the ad. The ad gives a message about what is actually being sold by incorporating the awareness in it for the individual to see. For instance, the green campaigns today speak to us by letting us know that the products are eco-friendly and safe. This is another example of metacommunication or making us aware that what we are buying is great but also safe. This is a great example of how advertisers use this strategy.

Advertising, Consumer Cultures and Desire

What is a consumer society? If we think about it in definition, we would say that a consumer is someone who consumes something or purchases something and society is the world around us as we know it, people, places, things, etc. If we think about a consumer society and the rise of modernity we are actually talking about the rise of mass production in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The historical emergence of capitalism has become a huge demand for new and better products and these products change all the time providing us with the same product but a better image. In a consumer society, which we live in today, the individual is confronted and surrounded with a vast assortment of goods to chose from. For instance, take the automobile, everyday this invention changes. We make bigger, better, faster, and now even hybrids. This is an example of the vast changes that occur and make it very appealing to society to the point that we thing we need to change and go for the better. There is such a rise of modernity because we strive as a society to make everything more modern and to keep up with the times. In a consumer society, there is a constant demand for new products. Today, there is also the rise of demand for online goods and services to provide us with what we need, the ease of ordering and having it delivered vs going out and actually shopping for it. Everyday things change, get better, and show us examples of consumer society.
Capitalism is related to commodity culture because a commodity is something that represent us or complements our identities personally. With the rise of capitalism and particular companies whether privately or individually owned, can make things to suit ones needs and desires. For instance, advertising is made to speak to an individual by possibly advertising their brand and how the consumer sees it. By doing so, this can attract different people with individual needs and desires.
Visual pleasure is related to flaneur because visual pleasure was associated with the early nineteenth century shopping arcades and the now department stores which were built for visual pleasure to put goods and packaging on display for consumers to see and enjoy while strolling along malls or arcades (in Paris) as well as cities. The flaneur is known as a figure that moves through the city in an anonymous fashion who's sole purpose for doing so is looking. the flaneur is someone who goes out to browse or also to fulfill their visual pleasure by looking at big windows, bright packages, and sparkling goods. Other things that catch the eye for visual pleasure is enormous staircases, luxurious goods on large displays and elaborate decor. Mobility was also associated with the concept of modernity because window shopping and browsing in a modern society became very popular. The concept of strolling or walking through these shopping centers emerged as a key aspect in modern lifestyle.
When talking about presumption of relevance we are speaking mainly in advertising. Advertisements make people generally see things that they begin to think are relevant to what the advertisement is really talking about. We presume this as true. If an advertisement shows us a before and after photo of someone standing next to a bottle of the latest diet pill on the market, we automatically presume the relevance between the person and the diet pill is true because the advertisement is telling us so. Because advertising has such an impact on society today, most people may not find this image as absurd because the message that the advertisement is giving makes sense in our own minds.
In this statement, "Advertising asks us not to consume products but to consume signs in the semiotic meaning of the term" and what this actually is saying to us is to take the signs and the words conveyed in the advertisement and produce meaning and a like to which the product is encoded. The idea in advertisement is to sell the actual sign and not the product. The sign, or even brand, is the major selling point of the actual object that is on the market. The signs, objects, and words are what is supposed to suck us into the world of the consumer. Have you ever gone somewhere, perhaps a place where they are selling something and having a person advertise the product while demonstrating what the product can do, a good example, sham Wow can hold up to 12 times its weight in liquids and as you watch them soak it up you hear a person next to you say "I'm sold!" this is exactly what this statement means. The fact that words can be enough to simply pull us in without even thinking twice about the actual product itself!

Realism

Realism in art takes many forms. Realism is an important aspect of our senses, what we feel they mean in our minds as citizens in a world in which images proliferate as forms of both communication and expression. Realism refers to a set of conventions or representations that have historical meaning or values about people, objects and aslo events in the world througout centuries and eras. Realsitic art has one goal and that is to reproduce reality as it is. Approaches to and appreciation of realism in art have political meaning because what constitutes realism in historical, geographical, or national context can become a political issue. What we can question is what we actually see and feel from art and visual culture when pointing to certain politics of a given social context. Does it actually have political true meaning and if so what do we feel from it?

Realism is exactly what it means, realness or representing something that is real. Cubism is an abstract art style in the form of objects that are less realistic, usually shapes that are shifted around to create a style of what we are looking at in a more abstract setting. With abstract art, reproduction can occur and we can understand and make out images that we can also hold in our thoughts and memories. With coventions of representation of art and image making in both realism and cubism, they each shape and reproduce contemporary ways of seeing and give a rise to and reproduce worldviews.

Avant-garde is a term that represents particular movements in art history or artistic experimentations that depict major changes associated with modernism. An example of this is in 1932 the representational style of painting was embraced as a state policy bringing about geometric abstraction and objective abstraction for icons modernizing society and showing us what was forthcoming in the world and picturing reality.
Michael Focault used the term episteme to describe how a given era organizes knowledge to represent truth. This is a dominant mode of acquiring and organizing knowledge in a given period of history. The work of signs is a way of undersnatding a worldview of an era, for example, if we take a classical period and modern period in time, it puts things in order of organization and representation of what we view. Each period of time, according to Focault, has a different episteme.

Binary Oppositions

To touch on binary oppositions we would consider the examples such as man/woman, black/white, masculine/feminine, culture/nature, and so forth. These are considered categories of difference and are used to produced organized meaning especially in photographs among all other things in the world. The words reflect the opposite of the other one. For instance, if we take masculine we generally know what the opposite of it is....feminine. Binary oppositions are are reductive ways of viewing the complexity of difference.
Binary oppositions are also opposite in the way of "normal" and "abnormal" in so many words. The category of the norm is actually always set up in opposition to that which is deemed abnormal in some way hence the other one. The first category is considered unmarked or the norm while the other considered marked or other. To picture this in our mind, something that is unmarked would be something normal, not different or something that stands out, if something is marked, it clearly stands out or is different.
One thing we must be able to do when thinking of binary opposition is to understand the difference in the terms. When we see a photograph for example, or advertisements, we take the image in and try to make sense of its surroundings. In contemporary advertising both norms and otherness is highly evident. Thus taking the difference between Western and Eastern cultures and the terms Occidental and Oriental. Orientalism is the tendencies of the westerners who have fetishized, mythologized, and feared the cultures, lands, and people of Asia and the middle east. It is the way we have seen things through which we have been exposed to that secret world but not knowing unless we have been there.
In the painting The Bath, by Jean-Leon Gerome, binary opposition is very prominent. The difference in race, culture, position and so on is a good example of the term. The fact that fetish and exotic both show in this painting as well as the normal and abnormal we generally can make out the difference. There is a lot more that goes along with binary oppositions and how we see them. Photographs, paintings and advertisements usually are done with some kind of binary oppositions we can point out although we may never get it and may only just be focusing on what the advertisement or picture has to offer.

Modernity and Modernism

The development if modernity and modernism came about during different time periods. Modernity was based on an ideal of the liberal human subjects and is said to be as a self-knowing, unified, and autonomous entity with individual human rights and freedoms. (pg. 95).
It is also a term that refers to historical, cultural, political and also economic conditions related to enlightenment also known as an eighteenths century philosophical movement. This was a worldview beginning in the eighteenth century with prosperity and optimistic view of the future and all of its changes as well as the anxiety of social upheaval, technology, revolutionary change and the anxieties related to the upheaval.
Modernism on the other hand was a set of styles that merged in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth centuries. This was seen in literature, architecture, ant and in film. These changes generally were differences in times, materially making things different, exploring, and bettering the world and its technology using both equipment and structural elements. The difference between the two is significant, its is the beginning of change and anxiety of awaiting it and the actual jump into making the changes that help signify the future.
In Michael Foucault's theory of discourse was the concept of madness and the modern institutionalization of the idea of insanity. Foucault said that back in the Renaissance period of times madness was not considered a disease or an illness and the mad were not excluded from society the way the are today. They were not labeled, medicated, and tucked away but were rather integrated into the fabric of small villages. With the movement of people into urban centers and as the modern political state emerged madness became larger and also medicalized, pathologized and also seen as a polluting factor in society. Instead of allowing them to live in the norms of society they were removed and institutionalized. This was a huge change in modern times.
Foucault's theory of discourse relates to that whole change with madness and society because it did change over time. Certain concepts of the discourse of madness did not exist and were not spoken about or represented. According to Foucault in our text, madness is defined through varying discourses of medicine, law, education etc and gives us a certain kind of knowledge about it or in other words the sense of truth behind it all and the practices within institutions for dealing with these subjects that are paranoid schizophrenics, criminally insane or the psychiatric patient. Dealing with these people by giving medical treatment to those deemed insane. His discourse is related to the change in madness in modern times by the fact that these people were just people in society but because of the rise of modernism they now are labeled insane, put away, and medicated. This is a very broad array of discourses and shows that over time discourses and the values that underlie them change over time and allow us to look more critically at the discourses at work in our current and ever changing social context.

"decoder"

When we negotiate images it often means that we take what we see and interpret it in our minds both at conscious and unconscious levels. Watching a television show we sometimes become addicted to certain things we like about the characters, settings, or even realism the show portrays. When I watch television I usually go for the reality shows and I think it is because I find more interest in watching people hurt, succeed, struggle and even things that people deal with in life that I may not or wish to. I will be the first to say that I dislike television and could live without one in my home however when you get me in front of a reality show its like my eyes are glued to the t.v. because it is very interesting and we do act as decoders when it comes to television.

In our text it talks about reality television programming and the fact that it is a means for television industries to create cheap programming without having to pay the high fees of known performers and scriptwriters. The television show that I have watched for a few seasons that it was on was The Real Housewives of Orange County. The position I took as a decoder was the negotiated image because I would take the meanings of the images or lifestyles on the screen and put them into my own perspective on life even though it didn't pertain to me directly.

The fact that I can place myself in the sense of single parenting, everyday drama, and mix it up with a higher class of people was very interesting. Although everyone would love to trade their life for what we see on television we know in reality that is not going to happen. The fact that these people are millionaires, drive fancy cars, spend money like its nothing, live in mansions, and have massive amounts of plastic surgery to look like a million bucks can be quite intriguing to someone who doesn't have that.

My idea of decoding images or acting as a decoder while watching television shows probably differs from others. I can take any reality show and decode it and put myself in the realm of the everyday life of the person who is belong filmed even if I am not close to their style, culture or class.

Interpellation in advertisements

The role of interpellation in advertisements is to make the viewer aware of the image and what it means to the self. The image is supposed to draw attention of ones self to the advertisement whether or not it is made for the viewer or not. In the text, it states that images hail viewers as individuals, which means that even though people are looking at the same image it was not intended for the "just for me" crowd but reaches a wider audience.

The image, by viewer interpellation to be effective, must understand his or herself as being a member of a social group that shares codes and conventions through which the image becomes meaningful. If an image is something meaningful to me it would mean that it has a strong relationship to my personal likes and beliefs. For example, a picture of a loved one who is deceased or even a picture of an image of America would interpellate me because it is something that has meaning to me personally. An interpellation in an advertisement can also catch my attention even if i feel discusted, offended or ashamed of it, it can also draw my attention in that direction.

The relationship between taste and kitsch is the fact that both are based on ones class, cultural background, education and other aspects of identity. Taste in the text is noted of the higher class people, ones that enjoy the finer things in life such as opera, fine arts and theatre, the "real" things in life. Kitsch on the other hand is the middle class or working class taste or also said to be "tacky" things in life such as comic strips, television and cinemas. In the text, Bordieu speaks of taste or someone "having taste" we are usually using culturally specific and class based concepts.

An example of kitsch is associated with images and objects that are trite, mass produced and cheaply made or gaudy. An example that I read in the text of something that is considered kitsch is plastic reproductions of a crystal chandelier. Even though kitsch is deemed gaudy and cheap it has become more popular with a higher demand in the world today because things can be replicated and sold at a lower cost and you can make something look good or the exact same without many people knowing. A good example of kitsch, and to be honest a higher class person would definitely pick it out in a crowd, is the replicated handbags sold in NYC. I wouldn't know the difference between a fake Gucci but someone of higher class or standards that can afford a 950.00 handbag definitely would.

Image Icon and Ideology

The reading again was very interesting. From the discussion on Images and Ideology to what Icons mean and pictures describing them. In the text it states, practices of looking are intimately tied to ideology, which is in my own words what we see and what we imagine the photo is about. The world portrays many images based on culture, race, gender, government, eras, etc, you name it! This is how most of the image icons we see can have many meanings about the world and whats happening around us.

A couple interesting things in the text, the fact that O.J. Simpsons photo of his mugshot on the cover of time magazine and how they darkened the image to portray evil, deviance and guilt. Looking at this image that is exactly what we see. Meanings of Images with the example of company logos, in the text, nike, the swoosh equalls nike but the connotative meaning is the swoosh means quality, coolness. The fact that many pictures are icionic signs, the 2 painitngs of Madonna and child from two different outlooks and centuries.

An image icon is connected to ideology because an image can bring out the ideologies or set of values or beliefs that an individual believes tied to culture, religion, politics, fashion, etc. We all make assumptions on what we see based on the world around us.

The image icon I chose on my blog doesn't have much significant meaning, I chose it because there wasn't much to choose from on here.

This image icon when we look at it is a symbol of a person waiving their hand on what everyone would seemingly know as a poloroid photo. If we look at this image not knowing what it was used for on the blog, what would we think? We see a person waiving, and a poloroid picture, we would assume that this would be a place to either view, add or store pictures. This image is a very easy one to figure out. In out text we see an image icon of Marilyn Monroe who was seen to be a famous pop icon image of the 1950;s and 1960's. Based on what was portrayed in the world as popular, fashion, and the ideal model of beauty and glamour in that time period. Her image icon portrays that exactly. When we take a look at the image of Madonna on the Blonde Ambition Tour in London, we see that exact same image.

Now if I sneak this image icon into my blog, then this would mean to me, innocence, happiness, and love. It shows the image of a little girl (my daughter) dressed up and looking happy. If someone saw this image they may think, well, It is the 21st century because of the car, maybe the car seat, and even style. It looks like the child is happy to be going somewhere, the smile on her face shows happiness, the way she is dressed looks like it is somewhere important she is going. To me, its an image of a cheery, happy child on her way to her very first dance recital! because ideology plays a huge roll with image icons, we all have different thoughts and visions of what we think an actually picture is truly saying.

The Myth of Photographic Truth

The reading was very interesting. The beginning story about the photograph by Weegee (Arthur Felig), The First Murder, is a very good example of the practices of looking. Capturing in a moment, the facial expressions of what these people seen and feel while experiencing a murder. The photo captures many emotions and can tell a story with just a title. Also, the picture of Emmett Till in his casket bearing the signs of his brutal murder tell a much more graphic picture than what we ready about the actual story.
The definition of representation referring to the use of both languages and images to create meaning about the world around us shows that looking at something and hearing it go together hand in hand.
The myth of photographic truth basically represents the question is the photograph really real? Is it a picture of what is really happening in that very moment or something that is set up? In the photo by Cindy Sherman do we ask ourselves when we first see the picture we would think is the woman really dead or alive? Is this photograph set up to make us think that she’s dead or is she alive? How do we really know? Even though a photograph is taken at a time when something was possibly true doesn’t mean that when we view it, it still is. There is a lot that a photographer can do to alter an image, make it unrealistic, take something out of a background or add it.
Theorist Roland Barthes uses the term myth in many different ways. He says that the photograph, unlike a drawing, offers a difference between what is here now, the image, and what was there then meaning the referent, or object, thing or place. He also talks about the truth-value of photography and what it does for the courtroom for instance does a photo used for evidence hold any weight really in the courtroom? How do we know if the evidence is really real?
Barthes also stated that photographs are also objects in which we invest deep emotional content. We take an emotion to what we see. Photographs are past moments stopped in time. Photographs can either be objective or truthful records of events. Barthes also said that there is no such thing as a purely denotative image, that connotative meanings are particularly useful in examining notions of photographic truth.

Power of pictures

I must say, I believe that the power of pictures is stronger than words. Words are plain, when we read them, we can visualize, but when we actually see a picture of what is being portrayed in our mind, that is stronger than any word you could read! A picture can make us feel more than a word can, when we see it, we can usually feel it too!