Baudrillard & Postmodernist

The ‘good old days’

• Before postmodernism – life was once predictable, things were well
structured- mapped for us
• We knew who we were – a clear identity
• We had firm beliefs about the nature of things
Jean Baudrillard – Postmodernist
• ‘we are constantly surrounded by an ecstasy of communication and
that communication is sickening.’
• We are now just customers who desires are created by the media
• We pursue the images attached to the products
• ‘simulacra’ – make believe goods which bear no relationship to the
real world
• We live in a hyper-realities in which appearances are everything's
• Putting (false) ideas into our heads of ‘what we are’ before we even
know ourselves.
Post-Modernists
• They see society as characterised by diversity, choice and freedom
• Globalisation has ensured that we are able to be more diverse and
have more choice.
• Dominic Strinati – media saturation- constantly being bombarded with
media influences everyday and adverts from a young age.
• People have multiple identities ( home, with friends, work) which is
good because it gives you a break sometimes but you don’t have a
base line to connect to.
Photoshop
• There are 4 stages of simulacra:
• Faithful – original picture
• Perversion – the object/person is touched up and changed a bit
• Pretence – the image is different to what it was before
• Pure – the finished version
Key features of post-modernism
• Consumerism is all
• Transformation of the self (‘pick ‘n’ mix’)
• Uncertainty
• Fragmentation of social life
• Incessant choice
• Globalisation
• The impact of technology on social life
Post-modernism illustrated- ‘Disneyland’
• Disneyland is a simulacra. It is a simulated reality
• It is artificial – yet ‘real’
• It is a place that exists and is accepted because our imagination
makes it so.
• The fine line between reality and fantasy is ‘greyer’
• The power of the symbol over substance.
Music videos and post-modernism
• Jessie J – Who’s Laughing Now
The singer is shown playing multiple
stereotypical characters as well as herself.
The demonstrates hyper consciences as it
reminds the viewer that what they are
watching isn’t real. The video also Intertextual mean girls
incorporates Broardrillard’s idea of hyper- reference
reality, because the video continuously cuts
from Jessie as a young girl to now, they are so
similar that this depicts postmodernism as
there is no distinction between them.
• Young thug – Wyclef Jean. Thug didn’t show up for the shooting of
the video, so the producers made a comical video. The videos budget
was $100,000 and all the extras were there so they were in the video.
It was saying how nothings worth it and everything's really pointless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9L3j-lVLwk