Initial Research on Postmoderism - 14th April

what is 'postmodernism', what is 'postmodernist'?

"Postmodernism can be read as modernism taken to its extremes - that is, its extremes of individuality in relation to market choice underpinned by the ever quickening pace of technological change. Rather than the individual acting under a principle of freedom as a critical reflective centre, individuality becames re-packaged for advertising advertising terms of life-style shopping under a principle of market choice where branding becomes more important than content. A feature of modernism, as succintly put by Marx and Engles in the Communist manifesto, was that 'all that is solid melts into air.' Where there had been stability, industrialisation brought change. where it had taken weeks to reach by walking, horse or sail, it took days or mere hours. With the telephone communication across continents became instantaneous. With the internet globalisation increased in pace, reach and complexity. What kind of art, philosophy, research is then appropriate to such conditions? Where postmodernism may be a term to describe contemporary social, economic, cultural and political conditions, a postmodernist perspective seeks to formulate approaches that are appropriate in some way to such conditions.

For Lytotard (1984) what characterises postmodernity is a skepticism or incredulity towards all 'grand narratives', or 'metanarratives', that is, narratives that claim to encompass everything and explain everything. If this is so, then Desartes is not only an architect of modernity through his systematic use of reason but also an architect of postmodernism in his methodical use of doubt towards all prior forms of knowledge, traditional beliefs and views concerning 'truth'. Thus any grand narrative about the purpose of History as progress towards the full realisation of Reason as the basis for a new world of 'freedom' is to be critiqued, whether it is ambitions of Science, Politics or the Economy to bring everything under its control, is to be critiqued as a form of totalitarianism:

One of the main features of postmodernist theory is its suspicion of (and in some cases direct hostility towards) Marxism as a radical theory of social explanation. As a 'mirror image' of capitalism, Marxism is attacked for its modernist assumptions of rationality, social coherence and 'productivism' (that is, its over-reliance on the model of production and the labour-process as an explanatory basis of social life), as well as for its 'macro-theoretical', universalising and totalising methods".

Source: http://www.enquirylearning.net/ELU/content%20resources/Postmod.html

Choosing Pratitoners 2 - 2st April

Source www.wikipedia.com (for outline of practitioners)

During the first initial weeks of this project, we where given Different practitioners to study on to help us get an understanding of what kind of person we need to look for. These where:

Frank Miller:

Outline of what he does:

Frank Miller is an American writer, artist and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300. He recently directed the film version of The Spirit, shared directing duties with Robert Rodriguez on Sin City and produced the film 300.

We just looked into his different media industries and talked about him in class.

Jeffrey Lewis

Jeffrey Lewis is an American anti-folk singer/songwriter and comic book artist.

we looked at what kinds of things he would sing about. He is well known for his performances of his artwork. he would draw a story before the gig, then show the pictures while singing about them.

He has done low budget Documentaries in drawings. He started doing them on old Record Labels.

He also draws comics.

Choosing Pratitoners 1 - 1st April

July - 2009 - Different Pratitioners

Source www.wikipedia.com (for outline of practitioners)

During the first initial weeks of this project, we where given Different practitioners to study on to help us get an understanding of what kind of person we need to look for. These where:

Frank Miller:

Outline of what he does:

Frank Miller is an American writer, artist and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300. He recently directed the film version of The Spirit, shared directing duties with Robert Rodriguez on Sin City and produced the film 300.

We just looked into his different media industries and talked about him in class.

Jeffrey Lewis

Jeffrey Lewis is an American anti-folk singer/songwriter and comic book artist.

we looked at what kinds of things he would sing about. He is well known for his performances of his artwork. he would draw a story before the gig, then show the pictures while singing about them.

He has done low budget Documentaries in drawings. He started doing them on old Record Labels.

He also draws comics.

Initial Research 31st March

In July we started our investigation task.

We first did some initial research on Practitioners that fit more then one media industry, such as music and artwork or tv/films which other specific types.

At first i was confused as to what industry was which as i first thought that being an Director and producer put them in 2 different media industry. i was told this was wrong.

During this time I looked at J. J Abrams, who I thought would be a good candidate for this project, I then found out he has only technically worked in 1 industry so i quickly ruled him out.