Post-modernism

I enjoyed attending this lecture for the same reasons as the modernism lecture in that it gives insight into not only the art and design world but has information on social and political influences that are surrounding the movement. Aside from this I find the subject itself fascinating because of how hard it is to define within itself but it just kind of has things attached to it. The movement originated in the late 20th century and is a departure from modernism in terms of art, architecture and philosophy. The movement as a whole is considered a revival of historical elements and techniques.

The lecture also spoke about Jean Baudrillard, who has a very high level of influence when it comes to post modernism and its ideas. I think it was also mentioned in the lecture that he has written essays on the subject. In order to understand more about post-modernism its quite important to read his work and try to understand the theories he writes about. Out of all of his work, he has two main points that are important from an artistic perspective. Firstly he was written extensively about the world around us and how our ability to perceive it changes as we are influenced by the media. He has come to the conclusion that we almost live in a hyper reality, where the amount of entertainment and materials we consume such as film, television and video games have altered our perception of reality and changed the way we communicate. The other fundamental idea he has is that we give ourselves up to communication, and we are under the power of this form of mass media that was mentioned previously; film, television, video games. He also thinks we are doing this subconsciously and can't control it because of the amount of it we encounter in our daily lives.

Following on from this, Jean Baudrillard states that we connect with celebrities and fictional characters on a deep level, giving them more prestige and acclaim then they should have or that they deserve. Finally, he said that we get nervous when we are away from our phones or the internet for too long. "We have entered an era where third-order simulacra dominate our lives where the image has lost any connection to the real thing".