Modernism vs Postmodernism

Modernism:

Modernism is what happened to art and philosophy in the early 20th century.  It was a reaction to technology and science, against the cultural norms that had come before. The Intentional movement in the arts, culture, philosophy, and politics that uses various strategies to subvert what is seen as dominant in modernism or modernity.

Modernist thought had its origins in the Enlightenment period. This era was a celebration of the liberating potentials of the social sciences, the materialistic gains of capitalism, new forms of rational thought, due process safeguards, abstract rights applicable to all, and the individual it was a time of great optimism (Milovanovic, 1992a, 1994a; Dews, 1987; Sarup, 1989; Lyotard, 1984; Baker, 1993). Postmodernists are fundamentally opposed to modernist thought. Sensitized by the insights of some of the classic thinkers, ranging from Marx, to Weber, to Durkheim, Freud, and the critical thought of the Frankfurt School, postmodernist thought emerged with a new intensity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. "Let us wage a war on totality" states one of its key exponents (Lyotard, 1984: 82). Most of the key concepts of modernist thought were critically examined and found to be wanting. In fact, the notion of the individual free, self-determining, reflective, and the center of activity was seen as an ideological construction, nowhere more apparent than in the notion of the juridic subject, the so-called reasonable man in law. Rather than the notion of the individual, the centered subject, the postmodernists were to advocate the notion of the decentered subject.

It's most clear in art, which introduced non-realistic forms of painting like impressionism.  Art draws attention to itself as medium or artifice. Art should not tell stories because that is the job of literature. The camera was doing the job of capturing an image, so painters began to experiment with ways that they could capture subjective senses and express emotion.  That same sensibility translated into other fields: poetry, art, psychology, music, and so on, freed from the structures that had become rigid in the 19th century.

Modernism: order, normality, transcendence, functionalism.

Reason will lead to universal truths all cultures will embrace.

Modernist thought. Great weight is placed on the dominance of the "me," that part of the self that dresses itself up with the persona demanded by the situation, struts upon the stage, and plays its part with various degrees of success to various audiences. A person is relegated to role-taking.

Postmodernism:

Postmodernism is simply "what came after modernism".  It can be thought of as modernism taken to its logical conclusion, from an Old Master's "this is what there is to see" to Picasso's modernist "this is the way I see it" to Jackson Pollock's postmodern "here's a blotch, see whatever the hell you want to see, now get me another drink or go the hell away".  It's the reaction of people reacting to modernism, once it had been around for a few decades to become something to be reacted to.

Postmodernity is associated with an awareness of societal and cultural transitions after World War II and the rise of mass-mediated consumerist popular culture in the 1960s-1970s. In culture and the arts, interpreters of this era describe the kinds of cultural hybrids that emerge from mixing (or rendering inoperative) the categories of "high" and "low" cultures, and hybrids in cultural forms that have developed in regions where local identities seek definition against, or in dialog with, Western "hegemonic" cultures (the mixing of "official" cultures and those defined as "other" in modernist ideologies). Postmodern views of history and national identity typically cancel a commitment to modern "master narratives" or "metanarratives" like progress and goal-directed history, and disrupt myths of national and ethnic identities as "natural" foundations of "unity."

A painting or book or literally anything can be thought of as meaning different things to different people, possibly without limit.  This had a nihilistic effect on culture and art, and that nihilism is what people most commonly associate with "postmodernism" today.  Postmodernity as a phase of knowing and practice, abandoning the assumptions, prejudices, and constraints of modernism to embrace the contradictions, irony, and profusion of pop and mass culture. "High" and "low" culture/art categories made useless and irrelevant, art from outsider and non-Western cultures embraced, consumer society turned inside out. The grand linear narrative of art history and Western cultural history is exposed as ideological and constructed for class interests.

Postmodernism: irony, constant change, orderly disorder, diversity, intertextuality, tolerance for the incommensurable, no permanent stable order is possible or even desirable.

Postmodernist Thought. Although still emerging, and which initially found its basis in its critique of modernism, has found grounding in the insights of chaos theory, Godel's theorem, catastrophe theory, quantum mechanics, emerging cosmological insights, topology theory, and Lacanian thought to name a few. Postmodernists begin their analysis with privileging disorder rather than order. Chaos theory is increasingly becoming a key element in postmodern analysis.

I associate "postmodernism" most closely with its philosophical expressions, trying to puzzle out the nature of "meaning" and discovering that in many ways meaning is more arbitrary than had previously been thought.

Contrary to many modernist critics, postmodernism is not fatalistic, cynical, and nonvisionary; rather, what the new paradigm offers is a more intense critique of what is, and transformative visions of what could be.

My Opinion:

I think I align more with postmodernism because I think orderly disorder and the concept of irony and interpreting something that way you see it, everything has a slightly different meaning to fit that of the individual. I disagree, however, that reason and science are Ideologies in the Marxist sense; myths created by man, as I think this is a slightly absurd viewpoint to obtain. Although I do agree that truth may exist independent of human consciousness but there is no objective means of nailing it down, unlike postmodernism who believe we can find the truth using reason, I don’t think it is that simple, and I like how postmodernism challenges the rigid view of modernism and creates a more abstract view of the world, art, literature etc. The idea that postmodernism is always trying to discover the meaning behind something, is what I feel we do and we critique what exists.

Muse - Knights of Cydonia Video

Post-modernism and Film

Three senses of postmodernism:

As a “cultural dominant” defining a distinct historical era.

A philosophical concept marking the end of the ideals of the Enlightenment.

An art historical concept defining a style of expression.

In the post modern world, media texts challenge idea of truth and reality, removing the illusion that stories, texts or images can ever actually or neutrally reproduce reality or truth. so we get the idea that there are always competing versions of the truth and reality, and postmodern texts will be involved in this idea. A film may find itself postmodern by conforming to some of these conventions, intertextuality, self-referentiality, parody, pastiche, and a recourse to various past forms, genres, and styles are the most commonly identified characteristics of postmodern cinema. These features may be found in a film's form, story, technical vocabulary, casting, mise-en-scène , or some combination of these.

Postmodernism as a style is described as a renewed appreciation for popular culture that often remixes other art works and pop culture in order to create something new. Camp and irony often arrive hand-in-hand with the postmodern style.

Postmodern films may play like a collage of tropes and stereotypes, and may mix different forms of media (such as animated sequences) and could integrate an element of melodrama played as camp.

In approaching the concept, it is best to look at how the term has been used and how it differs from the "modern," and which features of recent and current filmmaking, film theory, and film reception might be identified as postmodern. Postmodernism may be thought of as an attitude which rejects teleology and historical destiny, and discredits faith in. In art, specifically film, this postmodern attitude has been described as having precipitated (negatively or positively, respectively) either the exhaustion or the playfulness that produces intertextuality, self-referentiality, pastiche, a nostalgia for a mélange of past forms, and the blurring of boundaries between "high" and "low" culture.

Post-modernism and Film Examples

Inception
Donnie Darko
The Matrix Trilogy
Blade Runner
Chappie
Avatar
Drstrict 9
American Psycho
A Clockwork Orange
Kill Bill 
Memento
Total Recall
The Truman Show
Mad Max
Scream 
Her
(500) Days of Summer

Genre - My Video

Goodwin's theory is going to relate to my music video because part of his concept explores that heavy rock will have a horror genre, my choice of song which is quite sad and dramatic will have a sad and dramatic genre/narrative for the video. Moreover, the music and visuals relation is something I am planning on doing, with written lyrics mimicking the literal meaning of the words (an exact example is on the lyric ‘setting fire to our insides for fun’ I will have the words written on a piece of paper that I will then set on fire). On the contrary, Goodwin states how voyeurism of the female body is a selling point, however, I actually plan to not completely adhere to this idea as the main character will be dressed very average and normal, nothing overtly sexy or obviously trying to cover up. This is because I do not want to support the over sexualisation of females as well as the fact it is simply not something I want to be of focus in my video.

Schatz’s theory is a very specific idea of how there is a cycle within genre. My video will not be a parody as it is touching on a tragedy and mocking that would be inappropriate and I don’t want to do a parody, as it would be unrelated to the genre of the song. Stage 2 which is the classical stage, will be something I defiantly stick too as it is following the idea that media texts adhere to patterns and trends and the conventions of a drama/indie style would be well established. I will use this as a why of understanding the genre and what I should typically include in my video to signal to the audience what genre it is. Additionally, I will hopefully challenge some of the conventional elements that are seen in music videos, whilst still conforming to certain aspects.

The genre of my music video is hopefully going to reflect the style of the song. As I am using the song ‘Youth’ by Daughter which is quite a dramatic and emotional song, I hope to mirror the same tone with my music video. The genre will most likely conform to the hegemonic patterns or a drama as it will have a big, despondent moment that will shape the narrative of the video. Therefore, people can expect the video to be quite emotional as the genre and the style of the song suggests that. Genre is tremendously important as it will influence the text or general idea, such as the age group, the marketing and everything that follows.

The age group will be about teenagers and up as the video will incorporate concepts that many younger people will struggle to understand. Understanding what genre my video will be will be beneficial for both myself and the audience, as it will allow me to advertise my video accordingly (which I make posters etc), moreover, the audience will know what to expect from my music video. In terms of sub-genre, my idea will not stray too far from the typical conventions of a drama, unlike some genres that will have additional styles like slasher is a subgenre or horror, mine is very unlikely to venture too far from what would be expected.

Christopher Booker’s seven plots theory within genre is going to play a part in every text. I believe my idea will incorporate a few different plots from Booker’s theory, as there will defiantly be an element of tragedy one of the two characters featured in my video will die, leading the main character comply to the rebirth or voyage and return plot as the tragedy will make the main character spiral down and then the video will be of the character coming to terms with the tragedy and going on a journey to ‘find herself’ in a sense.

There are two approaches that a concept can take in terms of genre. It can either be descriptive of functional, I think my video will take a more functional approach because it will repeat patterns within dramas and ask questions that has been asked before which would be focused around the characters emotions and situation. Furthermore, the functional approach looks at what is being represented and how this will affect the audience. The way my video will be shot will hopefully allow the emotion of the main character to be portrayed as she is going to be wearing a mask, which would pose a problem to convey emotion as you cannot see her face.

Therefore, I am going to use other elements like colour, flashbacks/memories, and location, props, editing etc to portray the emotion of the character without revealing her face.

The issues touched upon in the video, are not new or evolutionary, typically as time goes on genres will evolve with the time, such as what scared people 100 years ago will be different today. However, they aim to explore current topics faced by society that have always been there. Additionally, the video will reflect on problems or issues of society and people, which may give the audience a sense of fulfillment or familiarity, which is comforting and enjoyable. However, I do believe that this constant state of change within genre will still play a small part in my video as naturally things will evolve with time and that will have inevitable and slightly unconsciously affected how I choose to make my video.  

Genre

Genre is a means of categorising different texts and being able to place them in a particular group based on codes and conventions as well as producer/audience relationships.

ANDREW GOODWIN

Found that music genres have their own music video style and iconography. Goodwin recognised that most artists have a trend of repeating certain actions within their music videos in order to establish this as their ‘trademark’ action and therefore making their songs recognizable due to it reoccurring often. He explains how music videos will generally stick to typical conventions within the genre of the song. More often than not, videos will display stereotypical characteristics that would be associated with the style. For example, heavy rock will include some sort of stage performance which could then intertextuality represent a type of film genre. So heavy rock may have horror film references or style. These intertextual references to film is quite common. However it is not just films, video can reference other music video, games, artists etc.

Goodwin also identified that the female body is often made to appeal as sexual especially in the very generic pop style. It could also be male, as it is the general gestures made by the people such as props or looking in the camera etc. This voyeurism is also seen as a selling point within media.

There is a clear relationship between music and visuals. e.g. either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting. The images within the video will reflect the lyrics of the song.

The artist’s record label will also play a big part in the music video and style. It is very common to see lots of close ups of the artist who will have an occurring motif that runs throughout their work, such as lady gaga who have many adventurous videos and looks. Andrew Goodwin identified 5 key aspects of music videos that we (the audience) should look out for which are:

Thought beats – seeing the sound.                    Narrative and performance.

The star image.     Relation of visuals to a song.    Technical aspects of music videos.

THOMAS SCHATZ

Suggested that genres will have a certain cycle, in the sense that there are a number of stages that are more than likely predictable.

STAGE 1 – INNOVATIVE – This is when genres will experiment with the typical conventions within that style. There may be merging of two existing genres which challenges the audience and put forward some originality.

STAGE 2 – CLASSICAL – The conventions within the genre are well established and the genre tends to be more specific and stable. At this point, genre texts are likely to generate pleasure through the reinforcement of predictable elements and the repetition of popular structures.

STAGE 3 – PARODY – A genre will play on the familiar conventions by drawing attention to specific features and the things the audience will recognise as familiar across that style. They are generally comedic and poke fun at certain aspects of which is fun for the audience as they can acknowledge what is being made fun of.

STAGE 4 – DECONSTRUCTION - Genre texts begin to challenge their generic elements by reformulating the conventions breaking, ignoring or altering the shared understanding of genre. The audience gains pleasure through the genre text’s ability to recognise and to subvert its forms and meanings. This process may redirect the genre back to the beginning of the cycle again.

How Audiences Use Genre

Certain genres can be deemed appropriate or inappropriate for specific age groups, hence why music videos/films can be rated, as certain genres will contain stereotypes of content that is only acceptable for certain ages. Genres will generally follow patterns of conventions of their genre allowing people to form an expectation of what could be featured in the film, video etc. People may identify with a specific genre, eg heavy metal fans may conform to a more punk sub-group.

How Producers Use Genre

Market their texts according to the genre that it fits into as people take pleasure from that type of text. It allows them to cut costs my conforming to standardise production. Follow or challenge genre texts to make to finished product more interesting.

Genre could be referred to as a contract between audience and producer as both parties can be clear on what to expect.

Steave Neal and Tom Ryall

Genre was a 3 part relationship between the text, audience and producer and that these 3 elements are linked, often referred to as Ryall’s Triangle.

Genre ... “Proposes a tripartite process of systems of orientations, expectations and conventions that exist between industry, text and subject (audience)” Steve Neale “The master image for genre criticism is the triangle composed of artist/film/audience. Genre may be defined as patterns/forms/styles/structures which transcend individual films and which supervise both their construction by the filmmaker, and their reading by an audience” Tom Ryall

Subgenres / Hybridgenres

Subgenre – develop in response to a text that challenges the genre and can cross the traditional features of a genre. They are genres within a genre that can make something more diverse, eg slasher is a subgenre of horror.

Hybridgenre – the aim is to frame a plot in a new, fresh way to keep people interested. They are essentially a mash-up of genres, such as romantic horror.

Christopher Booker’s Seven Plots:

Overcoming The Monster – Hero sets out to destroy great, threatening evil.

Rags To Riches – Hero is suppressed, they slowly rise into mature figure with riches, kingdom, the perfect mate.

The Quest – Hero learns of something great that he desperately wants to find, and sets out to find it, often with companions.

Voyage And Return – Hero heads off into a magic land with crazy rules, ultimately triumphs over the madness and returns home far more mature than when he set out.

Comedy – Hero and Heroine are destined to get together, but a dark force is preventing them from doing so; the story conspires to make the dark force repent, and suddenly the Hero and Heroine are free to get together. This is part of a cascade of effects that shows everyone for who they really are, and allows two or more other relationships to correctly form.

Tragedy – The flip side of the Overcoming the Monster plot. Our protagonist character is the Villain, but we get to watch him slowly spiral down into darkness before he’s finally defeated, freeing the land from his evil influence.

Rebirth – As with the Tragedy plot, but our protagonist manages to realize his error before it’s too late, and does a Heel Face Turn to avoid inevitable defeat.

Genre is tremendously important when creating something, as it will influence the text itself as well as the marketing style, the age group and everything that follows. Categorising things through many paradigms helps the audience understand it more.

Descriptive Approach

Comparing the aspects that make up something is the easiest was to categorise what style it should belong to. This approach relies heavily on the use of genre paradigms, or readily identifiable elements such as costume, location, character archetypes, shot transitions, or plot content. However, incorporating the concept of subgenres/hybrids means one video can be categorised and belong to many styles at once. The more stereotypical and obvious something has been created to fit a particular genre, the more predictable, but easy to classify it is.

Functional Approach

The genre is perceived as “collective expressions of contemporary life that strike a particularly resonant chord with audiences”. The repetitions of patterns in a genre are the repetitions of social questions that we need answers to, such as ‘what is the future’ (science fiction). These questions are asked throughout generations.

This approach considers the function and purpose of the genre to society and the lives of the audience, the functional approach looks at what is being represented. Genre texts have certain aspects which up hopes and promises to the audiences. They bring pleasure if they are fulfilled. They films reflect questions / anxieties / problems / dreams of society. If they are addressed they are satisfying.

Genre Evolvement

Genres will shift as time goes on, eg horror, what scared people 100 years ago is different to what scares people today. In todays society we are in the ‘postmodern horror’ stage. Moreover, certain genres become more common with the development of new technology, as well as being able to enhance and adapt genres.

Stability and Evolution

They will exist in one of two states if not at the same time.

A State Of Stability – Where films are being made that follow the same pattern.

A State Of Evolution – Where the genre is changing, more often than not as a result of audience or industry practices.

The Roland Barthes provide a distinction to help show the difference between the types of please felt from the use of familiar and unfamiliar elements.

Plaisir – Mundane, everyday pleasure i.e. the parts of the genre text that we expect

Jouissance – More challenging, intense pleasure i.e. the parts of a genre text that seem to step outside of the normal generic expectation.

Genres and Myths

Genres will evolve from technology, audience, new social concerns etc. Although, Jim Kites believes it is due to societies need for genres texts just like people have relied on myths to shape culture.

Levi-Strauss worked on the idea of myths and how they are more than just entertainment. It is essentially dealing with the values in fictional forms of a myth so society can defuse potential tension as a type of safety.

Therefore the role (or function) of a genre text it to help societies make sense of their worlds. They teach us the same universal values that we get from myths – what to be afraid of, how it is acceptable to behave, the importance of being ‘good’, the need to find partnership etc.