Postmodernism

Postmodern, can be defined as a style and concepts in the arts characterized by a distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions.

Postmodernists claim that in a media saturated world, where we are constantly immersed in media,24/7 and on the move, at work etc- the distinction between reality and media representation of it becomes blurred or even entirely invisible to us. In other words, we no longer have a sense of the difference between real things and images of them, or real life experiences and simulations of them. Media reality is the new reality. Others say postmodernism is just a a new way of thinking about the media, when really it has always been the way. Mass media where once thought of holding up a mirror to and thereby reflecting a wider social reality. Now that reality is only definable in terms of the surface reflections of the mirror. Its no longer a question of distortion between since the term implies there's a reality outside the surface simulations of the media, which can be distorted and this is whats basically the issue. Postmodern also reject idea that any media product or text is of any greater value than another. All judgments are merely taste. Anything can be art, anything can deserve to reach an audience and culture 'eats itself' as there's no longer anything new to produce or distribute.

Distinction between media and reality has collapsed and we now live in a reality defined by images and representations-a state of simulacrum. Images refer to each other as reality rather then some pure reality that exists before the image represents it- this is the state of hyper reality. All ideas of truth are just completing claims or discourses and what we believe to be the truth at any point is merely the winning discourse. Baudrillard and Lyotard argue the belief the idea that the idea of truth needs to be deconstructed so that we can challenge the dominant ideas that that people claim as the truth, which Lyotard described as a grand narratives. In postmodern world, media texts make visible and challenge ideas of truth and reality removing the illusion that stories, texts or images can eventually reproduce reality or truth. So we get the idea that there always competing versions of the truth and reality, and postmodern media products will engage with this idea.

Critics of these theories and beliefs:

People have criticized Baudrillards and Lyotards theories on postmodernism as being been too offensive and hard to reconcile with their belief systems. It can be seen as whimsical luxury to question and play with the idea of truth and something that people live in countries like Tibet etc, they have to contest on a daily basis the existence of truth, justice and human rights. Some people also find idea that idea of rejecting their grand narrative goes against their whole religious beliefs and moral principles.

For Baudrillard there's only the surface meaning, there is longer any original thing for a sign is the meaning. We inhabit a society made up wholly of simulacra-simulations of reality which replace pure reality.

McDougall-Pure reality is replaced by the hyper real where any boundary between real and the imaginary is eroded. Baudrillards work is an attempt to expose the open secret that this is how we live and make sense of the world in postmodern times.

Simulacra and simulation is known for its discussion of images, signs and how they relate to the present day. Baudrillard claims modern society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and and signs and that the human experience is off reality rather then reality itself. Simulacra which Baudrillard refers to are signs of culture and media which create the percieved reality. Baudrillard believed society has become so reliant on simulacra that its lost contact with the real world on which simulacra is based on. Baudrillard referred to hyper reality, where real objects have been effected or suspended. This is criticized for his fatal strategy of attempting to push his theories of society beyond themselves.

Susan Sontag in her book on photography, that the notion of reality has been complicated by the profusion that of images it; Baudrillard asserts that reality no longer exists. Postmodern texts: There are many examples of postmodern examples of texts and products which set out to explore and play with this state of hyper-reality. These texts are said to be intertextual and self referential they break the rules of realism to explore that nature of their own status as constructed texts. They seek not to represent reality, but to present media reality.

Postmodernist films can be seen to voice ideas of postmodernism through the cinematic medium. Postmodernist film upsets the mainstream conventions of narrative structure and characterization and destroys or toys with audience suspension of disbelief to create a work in which a less recognizable internal logic form of the film forms meanings of expression. By making some changes to the conventions of cinema, artificiality of the experience and the world presented are emphasized in the audiences mind in order to remove them from the conventional emotional link they give to the subject matter, and to give them a new view of it.

Noam Chomsky suggests postmodernism is meaningless as it doesn't add nothing analytical or empirical knowledge. A Marxist point of view, from Fredrick Jameson attacks postmodernism as he states what he claims, its "the cultural logic of late capitalism for its refusal to engage with meta-narratives critically of capitalization and globalization. He says its refusal renders post modernity complicit with the prevailing relations of domination and exploitation. A moral relativist perspective of postmodernism would be that many critics of postmodernism have attacked the tendency to the abandonment of objective truth as the unacceptable feature of the postmodern condition and have often aimed to offer a meta-narrative that provides this truth.

Why is the Matrix considered postmodernist:

• The narrative structure 
• Idea of changing established conventions
• Drawing the viewers attention to the construction of film, 'bullet time ' sequences. 
• Taking existing ideas from earlier films and using them in a different way-paying homage.
• Suggestion which it makes about society and its troubles.
• The Matrix is an allegory for contempoary experience in a heavily commercialized media driven society, especially of the developed countries. 
• The Matrix makes many connections to Simulacra and simulation. In an scene, Simulacra and simulation is the book in which Neo hides this illicit software.
• Morpheus also refers to real world of outside of the Matrix as the 'desert of the real' which was directly reference to Slavoj Zizek 
• Reeves was asked to read books by the directors to read the book, as well, as Out of Control and Evolution Psychology, before casting as Neo.

Our consumption of the films, merchandise and the world and myth of the Waschowski's sells us, and our collective orgasm over the effects and phones, guns, shades and leather represent our integration into the virtuality it promotes. The Matrix became a viral meme spreading through and being mimetic-ally (mimicked or copied) and absorbed into the modern culture, extending our virtualistation.Just as the film, offered choice of being inside or outside the Matrix, so you were either inside or outside the zietgeist. Baudrillard makes clear that fans and public are caught in a similarly invisible Matrix and is fare greater then depicted in the film and the film itself is part of and extends. The Matrix describes a future in which reality perceived by humans is actually the Matrix; a simulated reality created by sentiment machines in order to pacify and subdue the human population, while their bodies heat and electrical activity are used as energy sources. Neo is drawn into rebellion against the machines when coming across this. The film contains many references to the cyberpunk and hacker subcultures: philosophical and religious ideas and homages to Alices adventures in Wonderland, Hong Kong action cinema and spaghetti Westerns.