Postmodernism

Metacommunication

Metacommunication

• Communicating about communication.

Metacommunication

• Communicating about communication.

• Leveraging the receiver’s body of knowledge to build up more complex communication.

Metacommunication

Metacommunication

Gregory Bateson’s

Theory of Metacommunication

• When dogs nip at each other one of them can easily mistake the nip for the bite that it denotes and start fighting.

Gregory Bateson’s

Theory of Metacommunication

• When dogs nip at each other one of them can easily mistake the nip for the bite that it denotes and start fighting.

• It mistakes the label for what it labels.

Gregory Bateson’s

Theory of Metacommunication

• “The playful nip denotes the bite,

Gregory Bateson’s

Theory of Metacommunication

• “The playful nip denotes the bite, but it does not denote what would be denoted by the bite.”

Gregory Bateson’s

Theory of Metacommunication

Gregory Bateson’s

Theory of Metacommunication

Trolling

Woman Kills Virtual Husband

Pastiche

• Reflexive imitation of a previous style in media.

• Metacommunication (you are aware it is an imitation of another source)

• Not usually critical

• Transcodes form rather than content– But unlike usual transcoding it doesn’t attempt

to erase or replace the original

Pastiche

Parody

4chan.org

Postmodernism Essay

Postmodernism Essay• Assume you are writing to educated colleagues

that don’t need summary explanations of past theory.

Postmodernism Essay• Assume you are writing to educated colleagues

that don’t need summary explanations of past theory.

• Just cite theorists and quickly get to your new ideas.

Postmodernism Essay• Assume you are writing to educated colleagues

that don’t need summary explanations of past theory.

• Just cite theorists and quickly get to your new ideas.

• Original Theory– Baudrillard is the model

Postmodernism Essay• Assume you are writing to educated colleagues

that don’t need summary explanations of past theory.

• Just cite theorists and quickly get to your new ideas.

• Original Theory– Baudrillard is the model

• Advance a new systematic way of looking at either all new media, or a subset of new media.

Postmodernism Essay• Assume you are writing to educated colleagues

that don’t need summary explanations of past theory.

• Just cite theorists and quickly get to your new ideas.

• Original Theory– Baudrillard is the model

• Advance a new systematic way of looking at either all new media, or a subset of new media.

• You can frame your research by past theory– For example, citing that Baudrillard’s simulacra model is

an adequate foundation, but needs major modification

Your Primary Objective:

is not to prove your understanding of

postmodern theory.

Your Primary Objective:

is to propose a new

contemporary theory.

What is a Theory?• A theory is a logically self-consistent

framework for describing the behavior of a related set of social (or natural) phenomena.

• It originates from or is supported by rigorous observations or by experimental evidence.

coin cool new Terms• ‘Technoculture’

• ‘Cognitive Surplus’

• ‘Cyberdrama’

• ‘Flash Mob’

• ‘Griefing’

• ‘Frames’– ‘Gestell’ (Heidegger)– ‘Frame Analysis’ (Goffman)

pastiche cool Old Terms

• ‘Frottage’

• ‘Impressionism’– What could ‘digital impressionism’ mean?

• ‘Avant-garde’

• ‘Cut-up method’

• ‘Military-Industrial Complex’– Military-Entertainment Complex– Military-Corporate Complex

Use Emblems for Analysis

Frederic Jameson inPostmodernism: Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism

use new Emblems

use new Emblems

use OLD Emblems

Claes Oldenburg (1960s work)

construct cool new Frameworks• ‘Remediation’, ‘Permanent Crisis of Aura’

construct cool new Frameworks• ‘Remediation’, ‘Permanent Crisis of Aura’

• ‘Post-Postmodernism’

• ‘Post-Reality’

• ‘Participatory Simulacra’

• ‘Meta-Aura’

• ‘Meta-Art’

• ‘Meta-Simulation’

• ‘Simulation-Propaganda Model’

refer to Art

What is ‘Art’?• Media that stirs emotions? • Non-linguistic communication? • A political tool? • Nothing

– Art can’t exist because it can’t differentiate itself.

• Everything– Whatever anyone says ‘art’ is.

• Socially determined– ‘Art’, like all words/ideas are defined by groups

What is ‘Art’?• Media that stirs emotions? (Romantic, Classic)• Non-linguistic communication? (Modern)• A political tool? (Modern/Avant-garde)• Nothing (Modern/Postmodern)

– Art can’t exist because it can’t differentiate itself.

• Everything (Modern/Postmodern)– Whatever anyone says ‘art’ is.

• Socially determined (Postmodern)– ‘Art’, like all words/ideas are defined by groups