What is post-modern photography

Sorry, Matthew, but I've never read Debord. The title sounds interesting, though. I'll bet that someone here has read him.

Matthew, I see that it can be found at http://bopsecrets.org in full translation.

 

Heavy! I'll have to try to read this when I'm awake.

Lannie and John.

 

Postmodern critical think ='s protest vote. Postmodern photographic think ='s protest vote.

 

iiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee! The sound of a door cracking open:)

 

And there the similarity ends:)

!!

 

The question, Thomas, is whether all that protesting was a bang or a whimper.

Lannie wrote<p>

 

<i>The question, Thomas, is whether all that protesting was a bang or a whimper?</i><p>

 

I don't know. Maybe that's a sort of question which is best suited for answer by the historical philosophical hind sight committee, fifty more years down the road:)<p>

 

Did Serrano's image do good? Did Serranno's image have it's intended impact? We'd have to ask Serrano that question.<p>

 

Also, one has to ask the question; What does one do should a perfect society be perfected? Does someone, periodically, then have to throw a social bomb into the societal mix, just to once again add dynamics to life; as struggle is the soul of life or blues if you will. Should one succeed in taking struggle away, you then have no life. What you'd end up with? You'd end up with a huge, world wide community of over six billion bio-robots, living uneventful lives of stabilized think. The ultimate in beige thinking, or mental death:)<p>

John I see. That was interesting. I guess I've never really seperated the critique and the politics. Yes I agree that capitalism is at this point inescapable. It basically has the planet in the palm of its hand. The world as we know it will fall along with capitalism whenever its time is up. I think america will most likely be the final empire because we're not going down easy...

I agree the world is a dangerous place as well. However I certainly don't think that the administration is handling this in a sensible manner. I don't necessarily want absolute pacifism, but I don't want brute imperialism either. That's a whole other can o' worms not worth getting into though.... anyway thanks for the clarification!

Good to at least a few republicans can read marx and not vomit!

 

Lannie- Yes Debords writings are extensive. You should certainly skim through "society of the spectacle" sometime though. Upon observing some of your previous posts and various ways of describing your own writings and beliefs, I think you'd get a kick out of him!

The situationists were basically a group of avante-garde artists influenced by dada, surrealism, and lettrism. Their primary concern was the suppresion of the arts. They longed for a revolution of imagination and creativity they wanted art to be a part of everyday life for everyone. They detested work and were basically hedonistic societal misfits. There are hints of marxism, anarchism, postmodernism and many others in his writings. It's cool to breeze through online but to actually delve into his books is much more intense! Highly recommended for philosophy junkies!

Oh nice yea... Lannie that site you listed has the entire book on it.

Yea look it over every now and again. Yes it is Heavy!

Read.... digest. Read.... digest. I think you'll enjoy it if taken in ideal dosages. It's all great but Chapter 4 is amazing...

If you know about hegel, marx, bakunin, dialectics, etc.. you will benefit from reading this section.

Hey you to John K!

 

Oh So what was the question again what is postmodern what? Photography?

Well I suggest that everyone go out and make a postmodern photo. First go out and take a modern one - and pay attention to how you are manipulating the scene through choice of subject, composition, staging, etc., and how you expect the (modern) viewer to apply a certain set of standards (both explicit and implicit) when interpreting the image in order to impose a meaning on it. Then make another image which subverts some aspect of that process.

John, I hope that your tongue was firmly in cheek on that one.

 

Matthew, since I woke up, I have been reading a bit here and there--mostly there. I remember the social movements in France in the 1960s, and so none of this is really new stuff to me, but it is good to get the opportunity to read Debord. One thing that comes through is how very different the counterculture of the 60s and 70s was in the U.S. compared to Europe.

Actually, I thought John was pretty succinct. I'm not sure where his tongue was, though.

What better way to understand it than to engage in it?

This is a really interesting topic. I am actually taking a class on postmodernism. One link that really helps with the aspect of photography is as follows: http://www.kiasma.fi/www/viewresource.php?id=3Ls8GqGJNO4Akji_&lang=en&preview=

also... In art, be it literature, photography...etc some recurrent themes can be found if it is postmodern. Not all of them will be found in a work, and there will be some overlap.

 

1. Self=reflexiveness

2. Intertextuality

3. Hybridization

4. Pop-cultural aesthetics

5. Depthlessnes

6. Decentered narrative

7. Themes

 

* Dr. Paul Maltby's notes in Lit/FLM 400 Postmodern Aesthetics*