Define postmodern media with examples.

1.  Define postmodern media with examples.

Post modernism strays very much from the path of conventional media, postmodern media uses the fact that 'nothing is original anymore', many would call the intertexual links to different texts as uncreative or lazy but many post modern texts make the links so obvious that it's hard to believe that it wasn't unintentional, for example Tarentino uses many themes that director Toshiya Fujita used in his film Lady Snowblood. The themes that Tarentino copied were the duel in the snow scene, the framing is nearly exactly the same. The way that Tarentino breaks up the main story with an animated sequence is also borrowed from Lady Snowblood.

Postmodern media can defined in many different ways, it could be said that the piece of media uses bricolage or simulacra, either borrowing from different texts, for example Inglorious Basterds by Quentin Tarentino uses multiple elements from different films, when we are introduced to the ‘Basterds’ we get western theme music coming into the background, also Blaxploitation elements creep into the feature as well as we hear the intro to the song Slaughter by Billy Preston when the character Hugo stigglettes is introduced. The song was originally theme music to the blaxplotation movie ‘Shaft’.

Films can have a number of postmodern elements that ‘define’ them as post modern, the french structuralist Levi Strauss states that any text was constructed from socially recognisable debris, Strauss developed the concept of bricolage, this theory states that a text e.g. a film can be constructed from various different themes from different texts, Tarentino is infamous for using 'bricolage' in many of his films, Inglorious Basterds for example borrows various themes from existing war films, this follows strauss's theory that the construction of a text uses different text in four different ways, addition,deletion, substitution and transposition. Some addition that Inglorious Basterds uses is the scene in the cinema where a German soldier shoots a man through the eye, this is a subtle reference to the film Battleship Potemkin, where in the riot a woman is shot through the eye. Interestingly Tarentino uses Deletion quite a lot in Inglorious Basterds as you expect there to be more war elements from different films, the film lacks a major battle that most war films have, for example the landing scene in Saving Private Ryan, we don't get to see how the 'Basterds' go from America to Germany, normally a war film would show a lengthy Journey to the destination, for example Saving private Ryan consists of an hour or so of traversing through france before they get to find private Ryan. Elements of substitution are used as well through swapping classical war film music, e.g. bugles and march's with Blaxplotation and David bowie. The transposition that Tarantino integrates into the film is the ending, he completely changed the end of the war, the Basterds actually killed Hitler, this is another feature of postmodern media as it has distorted space and time this is a common feature in Post modern media.

Another feature of postmodern media is Hyperreality, usually it is a feature of films but sometimes It can appear in music as well. For example the character Ziggy Stardust that David bowie created dressed in bizarre costumes and also had a strange lighting bolt face paint, he can been scene as hyperreal as he has created a character in real life instead of in a film or a music video.

Hyperreality appears many times in inglorious Basterds, I found that it mainly came across in the characters, for example Aldo Raine played by brad pitt had a extremely exaggerated accent, in some point so the film it was so bad that in a way it was good, the exaggeration can be seen as a pastiche or parody to other texts, this also being an element of a postmodern text. This parody can also be scene in another scene from Inglorious Basterds, this is the scene where it portrays Hitler in a very exaggerated rage, this is a parody of Both the person and the character portrayed in the iconic defeat of hitler, this film is Downfall.

Another defining feature of postmodern media is Fiske's theory of a semic code, he states that we can only judge experiences from past memory, for example we compare car chases in movies to car chases that we have already seen. This theory in a way is quite ironic because it forces you to understand events through media we have already seen. Quentin Tarantino is quite renown for his film style that includes very visceral violence, but when people label the gore as realistic it is quite ironic because we define realistic gore as something we have experienced in a film, normally people haven't seen the amount of violence Tarantino includes In his films and therefore judge the gore from previous films they have seen. Postmodern media try's to be different from other films in the same genre, because postmodernists like to question the ideal's that have built the society we live in today, for example when the character in Falling down questions why the burger doesn't look like the picture representation in the fast food, Baudrillard states that we cannot separate the image from the reality therefore post modern media can be defined as something that has been separated from a symbol, for example Inglorious basterd's takes Hitler a feared historical character and turns him into a raving pathetic man, therefore distorting the symbol and the reality.

I think that the IT Crowd also portrayed some postmodern qualities, for example in the episode entitled Moss and The German moss meets a cannibal, but instead of being a stereotypical ‘creepy’ German he turns out to be very nice and doesn’t get angry about Moss not wanting to be eaten, I believe this is another feature of hyperreality as well because this type of scene would have never have played out in life.

Music is also in the category of ‘postmodern media’ and quite interestingly post modern music portrays similarities with post modern films, for example Media Theorist Jonathan Kramer says that post modern music isn’t a historical period or surface style, ‘it’s an attitude’. Kramer defines postmodern music to have 16 specific characteristics, for example it challenges barriers between high and low styles, for example the Electric light orchestra, a mixture of Rock ‘low style’ and a full orchestra, High style. The blurring of genre’s or the inclusion of more than one genre in an artist, for example Manu chao‘s song Mr bobby encompasses a Latin acoustic melody with a rap break in it.

Another way in which post modern music can be defined is that it ‘locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers’ For example Pink Flyod’s another Brick in the wall was a concept album, which later became a film that followed specific events of a character whose father died in a war, although it had multiple meanings as some of the songs were lossely based on there bass guitarist Roger walters.

The artist madeon can be considered to be postmodern as his music complexly consists of remix of other people songs; this can be considered to be bricolage as he takes elements from different songs and uses them to create completely different, I believe he would also meet the requirement of ‘music technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music’ I believe that Madeon fits this because as well as producing with such music production software’s as Ableton and Logic pro he also preforms his track using a Novation Launchpad, this piece of technology allows madeon to load different loops from different artists and lock them to specific keys, this then enables him to either for example loop a drum track that will keep plays or just queuing in a loop that only play when you press the button

This very similar to Girl Talk who can also be considered to be post modern, as I think that he meets at least three of Kramer postmodern musical theories. As well as creating songs from various artists I think his blurs genre’s lines as he mixes in rock and rap together, this could also be considered to be blurring the lines between High and low culture as some of his remixes combine for example rap and classical. Girl Talk could be considered postmodern for being ‘distrustful of binary opposites’ as instead of sticking to a specific well defined genre he uses degree’s of fragmentation to encompass multiple genres into one track.

I believe that postmodern media can be defined as a text that rejects notions of a modernist lifestyle, the way society revers logo’s and brands instead of actual results.

The ability to see past a modernist view of a grand narrative and present and media texts that have multiple meanings or just leaving the viewer to interpret the text for themselves instead of forcing a preconceived concept that requires the listener to follow the story or idea of a music track in one way.

Postmodern media rejects the modernist utopian ideals and bases its knowledge on previous texts through a series of intertexual links, as well as piecing together media through the theory of Bricolage and creating new products from it.

Post Modern theories

Jacques Derrida proposed that a text cannot belong to no genre, it cannot be without... a genre. Every text participates in one or several genres, there is no genreless text


(Derrida 1981, 61).

Levi Strauss and his theory of 'binary opposites', he also however developed the theory of 'bricolage'.

Baudrillard's idea of hyperreality was heavily influenced by phenomenology, semiotics, and Marshall McLuhan who coined the phrase 'the medium is the message'. By this he means that the manner in which the message is shown becomes more important than the meaning of the message itself.
Some examples are simpler: the McDonald's "M" arches create a world with the promise of endless amounts of identical food, when in "reality" the "M" represents nothing, and the food produced is neither identical nor infinite.

Frederic Jameson sees postmodernism as vacuous and trapped in circular references. Nothing more that a series of self referential 'jokes' which have no deeper meaning or purpose.

Jean-François Lyotard

rejected what he called the “grand narratives” or universal “meta-narratives.”

Grand narratives refer to the great theories of history, science, religion, politics. For example, Lyotard rejects the ideas that everything is knowable by science or that as history moves forward in time, humanity makes progress. He would reject universal political ‘solutions’ such as communism or capitalism. He also rejects the idea of absolute freedom.

In studying media texts it is possible also to apply this thinking to a rejection of the Western moralistic narratives of Hollywood film where good triumphs over evil, or where violence and exploitation are suppressed for the sake of public decency.

Lyotard favours ‘micronarratives’ that can go in any direction, that reflect diversity, that are unpredictable.

Rosenau (1993)
1. Its anti-theoretical position is essentially a theoretical stand.
2. While Postmodernism stresses the irrational, instruments of reason are freely employed to advance its perspective.
3. The Postmodern prescription to focus on the marginal is itself an evaluative emphasis of precisely the sort that it otherwise attacks.
4. Postmodernism stress intertextuality but often treats text in isolation.
5. By adamently rejecting modern criteria for assessing theory, Postmodernists cannot argue that there are no valid criteria for judgment.
6. Postmodernism criticizes the inconsistency of modernism, but refuses to be held to norms of consistency itself.
7. Postmodernists contradict themselves by relinquishing truth claims in their own writings.










Taken from Mr ford's blog, http://fordmedia1112.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/postmodern-theories.html

advertising- simulation and simulacrum

What is simulacrum?

An image or representation of someone or something

what is authenticity?

undisputed credibility

what is romanticism, what's it's purpose?

An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions.

J20 cats and dog advert, postmodern advert

I thought that this advert was pretty postmodern, as the hyperreal situation of cat and dogs on human bodies are partying together because of J20. 

Quentin Tarantino, a review (work in progress)

It has been widely debated that Quentin Tarantino's style of directing and producing movies is just other movies, never coming up with a fresh new idea for himself. Others debate that this is Tarantino's style and because he hasn't changed since he started to direct it is unlikely that he will change, which many will argue is a good thing.

We can tell that his inspiration from different films bleeds into his other films. in an interview about Kill bill, Tarantino describes kill bill as a 'revenge' movie, 'Revenge movies span all genre's, that plots been in kung fu movies, samurai movies, spaghetti westerns' these specific genre's tend to be used by Tarantino as a basis for a more complex movie. Kill bill for example draws on the whole 'Samurai Revenge' movie, where an individual would have 'a bunch of jokers screw them up really badly' and kill loved ones around them or 'beat the hell out of them' and then that individual tracks each person down and 'makes them wish they were dead'.

1a

1a. You need to write about your work for your Foundation portfolio and Advance Portfolio units.

1a. Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time. [25]

In question 1b you must write about one of your media productions only.

1b. Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of audience. 




Existing media products helped me to plan my media coursework in both my preliminary and my advanced portfolio's. Planing my products around standard conventions of existing media products allowed me to view the tasks that I had been set in a more constructive manner, meeting different requirement's that past products had used allowed me to have a check list of idea's that I would include, going down the list and making sure that I had incorporated these elements allowed me to create an effective end product that met the requirements of the specification.


During my As media coursework I found that I tried to stick to many of the conventions that a normal music magazine would have. I started out in my preliminary task at the start of year 12 with no real experience in photoshop or the conventions that a magazine effective would have. this led to me creating a poor first attempt at a school magazine front cover and contents page, the resulting effort's were pretty poor, I had set the main image out badly and it floated in the middle of the page, this meant that the person in the picture was without legs. the colour's that i had used for the front cover were pretty bad, I had not yet met the convention that a media product should ether have a effective and simple colour scheme or the colour scheme should match the 3 colour principle, where the magazine would only use three colour's. My first attempts at trying to create a media product without meeting any premising media product convention's produced a pretty amateur result which looked very unprofessional and didn't offer anything aesthetically. 


My understanding of preexisting media convention's had started to expand during my AS coursework as i found that creating drafts of my first music magazine front cover, although due to limitations with my photoshop skill's i found that I wasn't able to produce any images to a very satisfactory level. Although my use of media conventions had started to expand I was able to include the three colour rule and the golden spiral, this paired with a new found knowledge of magazine layout through the post 'magazine analysis' allowed me to produce some slightly higher quality work. although these draft were a improvement on my original preliminary work they were not at the standard I needed to be able to complete a professional looking final draft.


With my development of my understanding of existing media products I was able to produce some work that included more elements of convention, for example the positioning of a title so that It was central or the use of contrasted colour's allowed me to improve on my original drafts. Therefore I felt that my understanding of conventions had allowed me to create a product that had a more professional style to it, therefore making similarities between existing products and my own products allowed me to create a more effective product.

Drive class notes

Drive Notes

post modern Artist Madeon

Post Modern Artist-Madeon on Prezi

Detail how your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework

Detail how your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework

During the research stage of my AS media blog I found that research was a very important part of the course, without the appropriate research and planning the task wouldn’t follow a set idea and any work that was created lacked a distinct style, therefore it lost marks. However I thought that I had improved vastly in my research skills on my A2 blog as I found that the more posts I did about planning and research the easier I found designing the work I had create, for example in my A2 Blog I did a number of posts on researching already existing music videos and posting about what I liked about them and which aspects I wanted tom include in my A2 coursework.

I found that I didn’t have to spend any money at all when came to the research stage of my coursework blogs, this was mainly because I found most of the materials online, for example on my As media coursework blog I found various different magazine front covers, content pages and double page spreads on Google images, and as I have free access to the internet it didn’t cost me anything, likewise for my A2 media coursework blog as I found all the videos and digipacks either on Youtube or Goolge images again. In terms of accessibility I found all of my research materials relatively easily, searching for the correct phrases on Google usual brought up the correct images or videos.

The research and planning stages of both of my coursework blogs did take a considerable amount of time, this didn’t change over the two separate blogs, I found that research also delved into justifying different images I had selected, it also brought into the matter what worked well on a previous product I what you could use from it to make your product, for example colour schemes on an NME magazine could be used on my magazine.

I feel that in some respects my AS coursework blog did lack in validity with the final product I had produced, for example for my magazine I changed the style half way through the course because the previous style of ‘grunge’ was seen as dead and I would have a hard time trying to fit my magazine to a target market that didn’t exist any more. Though in contrast to this my research and planning for my joint A2 coursework blog could be seen as much more valid, as every element that had been discussed and posted about had appeared in the final product, for example some effort went into designing and creating some t shirts that each member of the band wore in the final music video.

I found that the organization of research in my As media coursework blog was lacking, I didn’t really know how to use blogger straight away so some of my posts wouldn’t have labels on them so if I searched for Research on my As blog it wouldn’t come up with all of my posts. I feel that I have improved this in my A2 blog as every post I did about research I labelled ‘research’ for example my tube chop edit research about three different music video types, and my mood board were both labelled as research.

I feel that the drafts I created for my as media blog were not up to a good standard, I wasn’t using photoshop properly and I hadn’t had much experience in designing a magazine, so when I created my three drafts I had some very poor drafts on my magazines, so this was a problem when they came back as I effectively had to create the drafts from scratch to be able to get a better grade.

I felt that the research I did into the genre of my of music magazine was fairly in depth but the problem was I didn’t have enough consistent analysis of my genre so the posts became more of a list of bands then I did research. However in my A2 media blog I found it much easier to research the genre as Rupert and I had clearly set out which genre we were doing and we created a very detailed and thought out list of research idea’s on our genre.

I felt that goog planning and research allowed me to design and create a much better product, for example in my AS media blog both my planning and research were weak and this eventually let me down we it came to designing my magazine as weak analysis of magazine layout had led me to create a magazine that didn’t really fit with standard magazine formats. 

Jonathan Kramer Post modern music theories

Jonathan Kramer

• considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts

•  encompasses pluralism and eclecticism

Donnie Darko Post Modernism

Copy of Donnie Darko- Post modernism on Prezi

In what ways can Inglourious Basterds be considered postmodern?

In many ways Inglorious Basterds can be considered postmodern for many reasons, Quentin Tarentino self-consciously rejected the past and focused more on the future, in Tarentino's retelling of the Inglorious Basterds he changes the ending and makes the ‘Basterds’ kill Hitler, this could be considered a postmodern element because it portrays a more utopian view of society because they Kill Hitler and effectively change reality and save millions of lives.

Quentin Tarentino uses a lot of Intertexuality in Inglorious Basterds as he uses many elements form the spaghetti Western Genre, Tarentino focuses on the use of western music by composers like Enrico Morricane, these pieces of music are used in parts that shouldn't have worked but do work, for example in the scene in chapter 2 when Brad Pitt is first introduced as Aldo Raine, where the use of spaghetti western music comes into play when we are introduced to the ‘Basterds’, we also get to see another element of Post modernism which is breaking the forth wall which is applied to anything that breaks the convention of a film being a film, for example addressing the audience, Aldo’s Raine American accent is really strong and over the top, it is almost to strong and addresses the fact Aldo Raine is a Character and not a real person.
Other elements of Intertexuality that Tarentino uses in Inglorious Basterds is the way he takes elements from different genres. In the Forrest scene the framing is taken from The Good the Bad and the Ugly as we get the classic standoff where the camera jumps from close-ups from one character to the other, this is used because it shows the tension between Aldo and the German officer, this is also where another postmodern element is introduced, as there is a kind of black humour when ‘The Bear Jew’ starts to beat the German officer, the brutality does kind of break the fourth wall.

Inglorious Basterds can be considered post modern because of the use of Tarentino’s Yellow text, its an elements he tries to use in ever film that he makes, for example it links in with Kill Bill Vol1 and 2, also there is a link of intertexuality as yellow can considered to be Tarentino’s favourite colour as he uses it so often, for example the Bride’s yellow jump suit in Kill Bill and the colour of the van that she steals after the hospital sequence. The yellow texts then also used in introducing characters in the film, which is very post modern because normally a film lets you try and work out the character or the film’s narrative explains who the character is but Tarentino just posts names next to important people so the narrative can flow faster, for example in the cinema scene we see different German officers and then some name tags appear and display them as Goering and Goebbels, this convention is said to break the fourth wall as it brings back the idea that we are watching a film.

Another way in which Inglorious Basterds in considered being post modern is the way it breaks the convention of the fourth wall in chapter 1 for example we get  instead of a view outside of the window we get a painted backdrop, also in the scene where the ‘Jew Hunter’ is interrogating the French Farmer we get a shot that goes through the rafters and down below the house to the cellar where the Jews are hiding, but there was no cut the camera just seemingly went through the ‘set’ so we can get dragged back to the reality that Inglorious Basterds is just a film, this could be a way that Tarentino address some more controversial issues in his film.

We also in chapter 1 get a link to the Sound Of Music via the screening of chapter 1, especially where we can see the countryside and all the hills it is a reference to ‘the hills are alive with the sound of music’ this could be considered to be making use of Genette’s theory of Hypotextuality where the sound of music has been referenced through a pastiche through Tarentino’s use of the camera angles in chapter 1.

Secondly the title of the Film Inglorious Basterds is a reference to the older film Inglorious bastards although it has more intertexual links to ‘Where Eagles Dare’ and the ‘Dirty Dozen’, for example the suicide squad of Jews if a reference to the Dirty Dozen which follows a similar storyline, though it can be argued that the title is a reference to fairy tale stories  as much of the films are in a stereotypical setting for a fairy tale but also the way that it end happily ever after with Hitler dead and Aldo escaping unscathed but it presents a more hyper real view of war films, but this can be viewed as Post Modern because there isn’t a really utopian view of  the world because yes they Killed Hitler and The ‘Jew Hunter’  changes sides but Aldo still carves a swastika into his forehead.

Another way in which you could argue that Inglorious Basterds is Post Modern is the Use of Bricolage in the selection of Music as Bricolage is essentially taking elements from different texts and combining them to make something  that works, as Tarentino uses a strange selection of music for a supposed World war 2 film, he uses songs like ‘Slaughter’ by Billy Preston and ‘Cat People’ by David Bowie, both of these would not be considered a good choice of music for a war film but it seems to work and this is also another one of Tarentino’s use of intertexuality as he always creates his own soundtrack by selecting tracks from a archive of music that he has been collecting since he was a boy.

There are a variety of post Modern elements in Chapter 2 as well, for example when we are introduced to Hugo Stieglitz we get the classic yellow text and Blaxploitation music, the Guitar riff fro Slaughter by Billy Preston,   this is also a reference to ‘Shaft’ as it uses the same kind of camera angles and music when Shaft is introduced in ‘Shaft’. This is followed quickly by the use of a OK Carrol reference to the stand off between the Basterds and the German officers via the camera angles and the use of Spaghetti western Music, and the way that Aldo raine makes the men scalp the German soldier another intertexual link to spaghetti western films and native Americans or ‘Injun’s’.

Chapter 2 also introduces us to Hitler, who we can see is immediately parodied as he is being painted for extremely large portrait behind him, but the man in the painting bares no resemblance to the actual character, as with Aldo raine the acting for Hitler is very overdone, this almost adds to the element of hyprerreality as we see a man that isn’t real what we expected, he is portrayed as pathetic and petty. We also get to see the British characters that are extremely stereotypical as they are very posh and talk with an almost painful English accent ‘speaking the kings’. The Character Archie Hitchcox played by Fassbender is very much Aldo Raines Binary opposite as the American character are portrayed via British stereotypes for Americans, as the British Characters are presented via the American stereotype, this allows the film to break through the forth wall as it provides examples of stereotypes that are pushed to the extremes, pushed to almost hyperreality as it is so fake that it kind of becomes real.

Inglorious Basterds can be considered post modern as it is constructed out of socially recognisable ‘debris’ from other texts, this is Levi Strauss’ Theory of Bricolage again but another theory by Strauss can also be applied to in Inglorious Basterds as he said that texts in this case Tarentino’s film construct itself by the process of Addition, Deletion, Substitution and Transposition. The elements that Tarentino added (addition) was the pastiche of the battleship Potemkin scene where someone is shot through the eye, Tarentino copies this in his film within film, ‘Nations’ Pride’   Frederick Zoller’s film , also the addition of a public information film on the type of nitrate film used to burn down the cinema. Tarentino’s also uses many elements of deletion in Inglorious Basterds as he takes out classic war film elements like the fear, Major battle and the journey into Germany, this adds a certain post modern element of breaking the fourth wall as we want to know how they got there but it isn’t vital for the film to show as its not real life. The most obvious substitution element that Tarentino uses is how he substitutes the ‘A’ for an ‘E’ in the title, but there are other elements of substitution as well, he substitutes the normal war music for his Bricolage mash of alternative tracks. The Last element Transposition can be applied to the way that Tarentino uses spaghetti western elements, for example the framing, also when Tarentino changes the end of the war another element of hyper reality links back to how the film is post modern.

I believe that you could class Inglorious Basterds as a post modern war film instead of a normal war film, and came to this conclusion by applying Fiske’s theory of a semic code, for example we can only understand elements from Inglorious Basterds by judging it against other texts, to make sense of The character of Hitler we think back to the film Downfall which set the bar for the portrayal of Hitler in a film we then judge that in comparison Tarentino’s Hitler is a Parody and therefore can be Genette’s theory of Hypotexuality, Tarentino has done this on purpose as he has to ‘Encode’ the film and have to use other texts to decode it, without Tarentino’s Bricolage the film would make little to no sense.

Creativity Quotes

• Explain in your own words what you think each quote means. Commenton whether you agree/disagree with it.
• Choose 2 quotes you agree with and apply them to any of your ownpieces of coursework.
• Choose 2 quotes you disagree with and explain why, using your owncoursework to support your views.

"A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people" (Jones 1993)

This comment is referring to creativity being in everybody's reach, but only few choose cultivate it.

Basically the quotes describes everyone as having the ability to creative its not just a gift that only a few people have.

"The making of the new and the re arranging of the old" (Bentley 1997)

This quote could be viewed as making new things through being inspired by taking old elements and 're-arranging' them, basically drawing inspiration from the past and using it to create new  idea's.

"Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation." (Csikszentmihalyi 1996)

"There is no absolute judgement [on creativity] All judgements are comparisons of one thing with another." (Donald Larning)

This quote basically describes the only way that you can judge something creative is if you judge it against something else, because if you had nothing to judge something by how could you justify it as a good or bad thing?

"Technology has taken all the creativity out of media production"

  This quote is basically describing how the use of technology doesn't make make anything creative, but the manipulation of images and effects that you can design and create on different software's enables a person to be very creative.

"A project that is too well planned lacks opportunities for spontaneity and creativity."

I think this quote means that creativity comes from the process of being spontaneous, the fact is that the process of planning stops your idea's from being instantaneous you have to stick to a plan, though I think that planning wouldn't completely stop the ability of the person to be creative during the project

"Media producers can learn nothing from studying the conventions of old texts"
I believe that this theory is not true, because the fact that 'nothing is original' now can be applied to this theory as you can only draw from past experiences to move forward.

"The creation of bringing something new into existence -this particular understanding  of creativity involves the physical making of something, leading to some form of communication, expression or revelation".

(David Gauntlett)

 

I believe that quote means that the creation of some form of creativity allows the person to gain a form of expression or revelation that can only be gained from the physical creation of something.

 

'If creativity is not inherent in human mental powers and is, in fact, social and situational, then technological developments may well be linked to advances in the creativity of individual users. (Banaji, Burn and Buckingham, 2006)'

I think in some ways people can only be creative by themselves and not through the help of technology, but I think some people need a technological input to allow them to channel some form of creativity into there lives.

 

Creativity during As and A2

Originality, imagination, inspiration, ingenuity, inventiveness, resourcefulness, creativeness, vision and innovation.

Originality

·         During the AS media project I had to create an interview with a fake artist, so it was original because I wrote it myself.

Imagination

·         Using a post-apocalyptic theme in our joint A2 music video

Inspiration

·         During the planning process for the music video, I listed and reviewed different Inspirational music video.

·         I also listed musical inspirational in the form of a playlist on the side of the blog.

Ingenuity

·         We used different landscapes and camera’s to get the most out of different light sources and certain times of days.

Inventiveness

·         We used a lamp for a microphone in the A2 music video.

·         Created false identities for people in my AS media magazine

Resourcefulness

·         We used all of our own equipment in the process of creating and editing the a2 music video.

·         I used my own cs3 Photoshop at home to create my final designs

·         We borrowed a couple of HD cameras from different friends.

·         We had access to a lithographic printer, which we used to design some t shirts that we wore in our Music Videos.

Creativeness

·         The fact we managed to create an entire music video constitutes as creative.

·         When  we had to create our magazine covers and digipack it took a degree of creativity

Vision

·         We had vision hen we planned what we wanted our video to look like, we then displayed this ‘Vision’ through the planning post and post-apocalyptic inspiration post.

Innovation

·         The fact that we incorporated the use of our own equipment, software and editing skills allowed us to be innovative.

Creativity Activity

The task was to create a cd cover out of random pictures and text we got off certain websites.

Hyperreal Examples

1.A magazine photo of a model that has been 'Air Brushed' with a computer.

2.Films in which characters and settings are either digitally enhanced or created entirely from CGI (e.g.: 300, where the entire film was shot in front of a blue/green screen, with all settings super-imposed).(Avatar where the lead female role was shit entirely with CGI and a skull cap to capture realistic facial expressions, by doing this the real expressions become hyper real as they are an imitation of the real thing.


3.A well manicured garden (nature as hyperreal).

4.Any massively promoted versions of historical or present "facts" (e.g. "General Ignorance" from QI, where the questions have seemingly obvious answers, which are actually wrong).


5.Professional sports athletes as super, invincible versions of the human beings.

6.Many world cities and places which did not evolve as functional places with some basis in reality, as if they were creatio ex nihilo (literally 'creation out of nothing'): Disney World; Dubai; Celebration, Florida; and Las Vegas. These places were built from nothing with no other function, Dubai was made from sand recovered from the sea and Las Vegas was made from a small town that had no other function than being a waystation for travellers.


7.TV and film in general (especially "reality" TV), due to its creation of a world of fantasy and its dependence that the viewer will engage with these fantasy worlds. The current trend is to glamorize the mundane using histrionics.

8.A retail store that looks completely stocked and perfect due to facing, creating a world of endless identical products.


9.A life which cannot be (e.g. the perfect facsimile of a celebrity's invented persona).

10.A high end sex doll used as a simulacrum of a bodily or psychologically unattainable partner.


11.A newly made building or item designed to look old, or to recreate or reproduce an older artifact, by simulating the feel of age or aging.

12.Constructed languages (such as E-Prime) or "reconstructed" extinct dialects.


13.Second Life The distinction becomes blurred when it becomes the platform for RL (Real Life) courses and conferences, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or leads to real world interactions behind the scenes.

14.Weak virtual reality which is greater than any possible simulation of physical reality.

Post Modern Theories

Jacques Derrida - stated that a text couldn't belong to no genre, every text has to have one or many genre's. Text cannot be genreless.

Baudrillard's idea of hyperreality was influenced by phenomenology, semiotics, and Marshall McLuhan who created the phrase 'the medium is the message'.
This means that its more important about how a message is presented and not the message itself
Frederic Jameson - thought that post modernism was Nothing more that a series of self referential 'jokes' which have no deeper meaning or purpose.

Jean-François Lyotard
rejected what he called the “grand narratives” or universal “meta-narratives.”

Grand narratives refer to the great theories of history, science, religion, politics. For example, Lyotard rejects the ideas that everything is knowable by science or that as history moves forward in time, humanity makes progress.
Lyotard favours ‘micronarratives’ that can go in any direction, that reflect diversity, that are unpredictable.

Rosenau (1993)1. Its anti-theoretical position is essentially a theoretical stand.
2. While Postmodernism stresses the irrational, instruments of reason are freely employed to advance its perspective.
3. The Postmodern prescription to focus on the marginal is itself an evaluative emphasis of precisely the sort that it otherwise attacks.
4. Postmodernism stress intertextuality but often treats text in isolation.
5. By adamently rejecting modern criteria for assessing theory, Postmodernists cannot argue that there are no valid criteria for judgment.
6. Postmodernism criticizes the inconsistency of modernism, but refuses to be held to norms of consistency itself.
7. Postmodernists contradict themselves by relinquishing truth claims in their own writings.

Post Modernism

The definition of post modern is quite hard to explain, although it is general thought to be something that doesn't try to hide the fact that it is fake for example René Magritte-'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' painting, it means this is not a pipe but clearly in the painting we can see that he has painted a pipe. It's a contradicting panting, because we could argue that it isn't a pipe because it is a painting of a pipe.

The Term of 'Post Modern' is a contradiction in terms as nothing can be after modern because modern is now, and we can't state that something made is after the present because the present is a constant that cannot be broken.

Mix Pod- Melancholy mix

1.       Raining Again- Moby- I choose this track because it sums up the mix quite nicely, the beat gives a livelier tempo for the play list but the main chorus and vocals bring it back to the Minor theme.

2.       The fix- Elbow- This track slows the playlist right down with the slower beat on the track and bass, Guy Garvey's vocals bring the mix to a more relaxed style, though the track is still minor.

3.       Freddy Kruger- Reuben- I choose this track because it reflects a more angry style of melancholy music, presents a more aggressive style, though it still sticks to the minor melody throughout.

4.       Minnesota, WI- Bon Iver- The Bass starts out with a more major feeling but the track quickly sinks into a more minor feel. This track is great for when you need something mellow to listen to.

5.       Tighten Up- The Black Keys- I really like this track as the lead guitar is mainly playing a really funky rhythm that fits the whistling really well. Though it’s the guitar and fill and vocals that really make the track melancholy.

6.       Andvari- Sigur ros- A good mix playlist always changes the playlist with highs and lows, this track is a more relaxed low that fits the playlist with a more mellow minor kind of sound.

7.       Children of the Grounds- Midlake-This track instantly changes the mood as it has a much faster beat, and the track is just really different because there are only three parts, the acoustic guitar, and the two vocal parts which are in different keys, this track really presents a faster paced minor sound that is really simple but effective.

8.       Infinite Arms- Band of horses- I then choose this track because it slows the pace of the playlist down again, the vocals work really well to present the minor melodies, also this track slips in and out of major and minor parts as the vocals clash with the guitar part.

9.       New Slang- The Shins- This song fades in slowly with a really great vocal and guitar part, although the vocals are minor the song still manages to make you feel really happy.

10.    The Thief and The heartbreaker- Alberta cross- The minor part really comes across with the lead guitar, this song is more of a straight forward melancholy track but with a more alternative rock vibe to it, I think it fits really well into the mix.

11.    Sometime around midnight-The Airborne Toxic Event- This track fits really well because straight away it comes in with a really melancholy string part, that goes into a catchy guitar riff, that is complemented by the vocalist’s minor singing. The pace starts to pick up after a while.

        12.    Pills in my Pocket- Fink-  I choose this track because it is simple and it really slows the pace of the playlist right down. The simple track sound allows you to connect to the song quite easily adding to the feeling of melancholy.

13.    You don't understand me – Raconteurs- I wanted the playlist to finish on a high so I choose this track because it has a really good interchanging melody between the vocals and guitar but the track finishes on a high with a really strong piano and guitar part that leaves the listener on a high after the playlist.










http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvy8bcRXe18&list=PLDEB644EFDF75BEED&feature=view_all