Postmodernism: elements

After watching the videos on Ohio University, Virtual Classroom Project and Pop Art, I found several features of postmodernism. In the first two, this movement is shown in the field of architecture and technology, while in the third, in art. In the three of them, emphasis is placed on how visual perception takes place.

I interpret that in Ohio University and Virtual Classroom Project there is an instance of omniscient third person narrator: In this case, the buildings are seen from various perspectives by the viewer, as if they were God, so as to show the premises from various angles.

I think there is reflexivity or self-consciousness about the production of the 3D videos as well as pop art works, as each piece calls viewers' attention to its particular form of production.

I also see spontaneity and discovery in creation, especially in 'Introduction to Pop Art'. These visual works favour the idea of fragmentation and provisionality. The first stage of capitalism is evident in Ohio University as well as Virtual Classroom Project, which include, among other aspects, electronically techological developments to satisfy students' needs by including sophisticated audiovisual aids as a learning resource. And the third phase, multinational capitalism, is also evident, at least in the American college, which beckons students from all over the world to enjoy the premises. What Frederic Jameson states about the bond between postmodernism and technology -specifically computers- is applicable to the 3D videos.

Postmodernism seems to offer alternatives to joining the global culture of comsumption. Pop art integrates other cultures' features like Chinese paintings and British music albums (namely, The Beatles'). That is how we notice the influence of global trends or cultures on American artists. In pop art, there is a predominance of signifier, as there are not many possible signifieds for the images. In my view, there is no great depth in the realm of hyperreality in these artistic creations.

In Ohio University and Virtual Classroom Project, we find what Baudrillard mentions as simulacrum, consisting in the signifier/signified relationship. We can see that the exhibition of the buildings, which are the signifiers, are representations that point out to something outside themselves, having a reality on its own. They are a representation without an original to copy, being a reality in itself. This is also applicable to Introduction to Pop Art.

I feel we can also find inderterminacy. Especially pop art resists or destabilises the Enlightenment mode of thought, knowledge or action, based on reason, rationality and science as well as traditional art forms. The idea that 'knowledge must be digitalisable to be preserved' is related to the use of computers in the university and visual classroom, which enable endless oportunities for discovery.