Postmodernism, Indie Media, and Pop Culture

I had never heard of Jia Zhang-ke’s, The World (Shijie) or “World Park” and when I read about it for the first time I was fascinated. My fascination, however, was followed closely by a strong dose of reality after reading about existing travel restrictions on Chinese citizens. With my interest piqued, I looked into these restrictions and learned from www.china.org/english that these restrictions are intended to curb the spread of SARS. Although a tangent, facts like these drive home the fact that we are privileged to have, among many other things, the freedom to travel freely. Baudrillard posits that people like the Chinese who have only simulated representations of real social territories are experiencing ‘all the signs of the real’ without the fluctuation and permutation of the real thing. The postmodern world that we live in, as it transforms, shrinks, and redisplays the world as we know it, is changing the definition of reality before our eyes. The Eiffel Tower, the pyramids of Egypt, and Lower Manhattan constitute reality for those curious Chinese unable to travel and accomplishes at least part of the same thing an American tourist pays dearly to see. World Park is similar to Second Life in that it provides people with the opportunity to visit and 'experience' places, like the the Sistine Chapel for instance.

When Americans travel to Rome, the Coliseum or the Vatican are things to check off their lists. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a tourist thing. Zhang-ke steps back from postmodernism, pointing out the peculiarity of World Park and in his film, he portrays the strain a detached reality/virtual reality has on an individual forced to settle into it. Baudrillard claims that TVs and computers have defined Western Culture. The implications of such a claim ties, or relegates rather, our entire culture to a simulated reality. What we see is virtual and digital copies—abstractions of reality. The book points out the ease in which we move and interact in our virtual worlds, whether Second Life, Twitter, etc. This semester has been especially strange for me, a Super Mario Brothers/Contra for NES kind of guy, in that it was extremely unnatural for me to dive into the world of Second Life. I’m pretty old school when it comes to computer gaming, but for me Second Life hasn’t clicked. I think the main reason for this sentiment is the lack of emotional, sensory interaction with the world—in other words, I haven’t invested enough time or energy for it to become a virtual reality or a simulated “world” for me.

I really like Dave Harvey’s take on postmodernism as a “phase of time-space compression that has a disorienting and disruptive impact… (312).” The world is getting smaller and smaller. In Second Life for instance, the avatars are controlled by individuals around the globe, bringing together different ideas, cultures, and perspectives into the compressed reality of Second Life.

The transition between modernism and post-modernism is hardly a smooth one. Both are interwoven and overlapped together. If self-consciousness is a key feature of Modernism, then Post-modernism is an amplification of this, coupled with an increased global-consciousness.

Shrek (2001) like many other animated films, shamelessly parodies pop-culture and brings together previous images, concepts, and presentations under one composite animated reality. The Matrix, America’s addiction to Starbucks, or the TV show COPS are stereotyped, compressed, and inserted in the movie, all the while presuming that its viewers will identify with one, if not all of the references. This is another example of how our culture is constantly compressing reality into bite size pieces. The internet gives us endless information at our fingertips. We are the information generation as some people would suggest and Post-Modernism is therefore a direct reflection of our keen ability to communicate with others, inform ourselves, and project our ideas to the world (webcams, skype, etc...) while sitting on Bowman Field taking in the sun.

Three Discussion Questions:

1. What are some remnants of Modernity in the Post Modern Era

2. Is 'compressed' reality enough to sustain a culture?

3. Does every simulated world, whether Second Life or World Park, need to be looked at from two perspectives--our perspective and the perspective of the people working to maintain it?