Postmodern Culture

The videos I’ve chosen are War Games and Educational Uses of Second life.

Both of them have postmodern characteristics. In the case of War Games, which is a 1983 American film of a young hacker who thought he was playing with a computer game but in fact he was declaring a nuclear war by entering the United States military supercomputer, there are some postmodern features. For example, according to Frederic Jameson, capitalism has three stages in which the third one is “a multinational or consumer capitalism associated with nuclear and electronic technologies” and closely connected to postmodernism. The subject of War Games is nuclear and electronic technologies and their manipulation. Another feature is that “in postmodern society there are no originals, only copies” and simulations. “A reality created by simulation” especially in computer games like in this film where the protagonist creates his own reality and thinks to be simulating a war. Moreover, knowledge is another key feature of postmodernism where “the advent of electronic computer technologies (illustrated in the film) has revolutionized the modes of knowledge.” The film shows us how everything is stored in a computer and how an unknown person unwittingly can access to the information and cause chaos.

In the case of Educational Uses of second life, we can also find postmodern characteristics. It is amazing to see how a student can be exposed to different situations like being in a virtual museum and learning about paintings or in a virtual theatre and role play and interact with the characters of any play. The connection between this video and postmodernism is the technological and intellectual development of software that can provide students with knowledge and enjoyment. Moreover, as it is software there is no original, only copies and simulations. 

Words in italics taken from Klages' article.