1. Do We Live in a Postmodern Society?
What makes this PoMo?
Serious people (Elite culture) made to seem frivolous (Pop culture)
Playful
Taking from other historical periods
Lecture by Dr Christopher Kollmeyer

2. Outline for Lecture Key Question: Do we live in a postmodern society?
Postmodernism Defined: Things characterised by a rupture with, and movement beyond, modernism.
Possible Realms where Postmodernism Manifests
Time, Space, and Social Relations
Arts, Pop Culture, and Aesthetics
Epistemology
Societal Structures
Economy
Politics
Geo-political affairs

3. First, What is Modernity?
It’s a historical period that began in the 1700s in Western Europe.
It resulted in massive social change in which long-standing, traditional societies were rapidly and thoroughly transformed.
Economy: agrarian  industrial
Human settlements: small & rural large & urban
Polity: empires  nation-states
Epistemology: traditional, dogmatic rational, scientific
It spread unevenly across the world’s societies.
Imperial expansion (e.g. India, the Americas)
Imitation (e.g. Japan, Turkey)
Japan 1853: Matthew Perry of US Navy sails in Japanese Harbor
Superior military force
 favorable trade treaty
end to Japanese isolation
Japan responded by modernizing its society

4. Human Population Growth: Example of Massive Social Change Occurring During Modernity
Modernizing Countries  high population increases
Demographic Transition
AG societies: high births (but also high deaths)  stable
Modernizing: High births (but now low deaths)  rapid growth
Modernized:: low births ( and low deaths)  stable

5. Summary of Selected Social Changes Occurring During Modernity
Sphere of Society
Pre-modernity
Modernity
Economy
Feudalism
Agrarian
Capitalism
Industrial
Polity
Empire
Monarchy
Nation-State
Democracy
Human settlements
Rural
Small-scale
Urban
Large-scale
Population
High birth rate
High mortality
Falling birth rate
Low mortality
Knowledge
Dogmatic, traditional, stable
Scientific, rational, changing

6. Time-Space Compression: Technology Shrinks Our World
Sailing ships (1500s – 1840s)
Humans Experience Geographic Distance thru Time
Or space as a barrier to human activity is measure in time to travel across it.
This varies with technology
Example: Aberdeen to London
Horse (several weeks)
Sailing ship (several days)
Train (day or two)
Airplane (one hour)
Trains and stream ships (1840s – 1920s)
Propeller airplanes (1920s-1940s)
Jet airplanes (1940s –present)
Source: David Harvey The Condition of Postmodernity. Pp. 241

7. Information Age and time-space compression
Intel Corp invents micro-chip in 1972
Information tech becomes generalized
throughout society
Information now travels at light speed
 so-called ‘Death of Geography’

8. Time-Space Compression Occurs Unevenly
Old and new technologies co-exist.
London to New York (5,000 miles) == London to northern Scotland (500 miles).
Package London to New York (5 days)
E-document (instant!)
Source: Peter Dicken Global Shift. Pp. 153.

9. Social Consequences of the Separation of Time and Space
‘Dis-embedding’ of social relations: Removing social activity from its localized context. Co-presence not required.
Globalized Social Interdependence: Distant events increasingly have local consequences
Ontological Insecurity: Declining stability and continuity in one’s personal identity and one’s surrounding social environment.
Dis-embedding
Pre-modern:
Social interaction required co-presence
Modern times:
Certain amount didn’t require co-presence
Now
Co-presence not required.
Ontological Insecurity
Nature of our existence and our social world. Take-it-for granted assumptions about the nature of our existence.
Burka and mow hawk.
SoCal, Aberdeen, and midriffs
Social practice de-rooted for original locations
Source: Anthony Giddens The Consequences of Modernity.

10. PoMo in Fine Arts and Pop Culture: Dominance of Signs and Symbols
Signified
Signifier
Discuss PoMo in the Arts and popular culture
Symbol representing a man
An actual man

11. PoMo: De-linking of Signifier and Signified
‘Empty' or 'floating' signifiers: Signifiers with vague, highly variable, or little connections to their signified.
Advert for Perfume: Signifier
Perfume: Signified ≠

12. Postmodern Signs
Simulacrum: Simulacra are copies without originals. Or representations that bear little relation to any reality.
Disneyland as Simulacrum par excellence

13. PoMo in the Fine Arts: Andy Warhol and the Blurring of High and Low Culture, of Near and Far, of Past and Present
Across history, place, and types of cultures
Chairman Mao (first leader of communist china)
Beethoven (classical music composer from Germany late 1700s early 1800s)
Goethe (German Poet from the same period)

14. PoMo in the Fine Arts: The Many Identities of Cindy Sherman

15. Modern vs. Post-modern TV Adverts
Post-modern