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Home , Cultural movement, Disposability, Replicant, Superficiality, The Postmodern Condition

1 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020

On the Postmodern Condition

Sean Carroll Abstract University of Texas at San Antonio As a cultural movement, begun to solidify itself since the 1970s. Despite what some may say of its necessarily unstructured , coherent reflection about it is useful. While there is a growing literature on this topic, the present study, as suggested by David Harvey, seeks to use an historical, materialist framework, as developed by Karl Marx, to interpret postmodern . To do this, I began with the studies of the substructures of postmodern culture (political-economic and material conditions), and then sought to find reflective cohesion among its ‘aesthetic’ superstructures (social, philosophical, cinematic, literary, and musical) and their underlying conditions. As a result, from these studies, I found that the aesthetic sentiments of postmodern culture quite neatly map onto the material conditions, which inform its context. These sentiments imply a complicit disposition towards many aspects of late (such as consumerism and alienation). These findings are significant because it forces postmodernism to take a more honest look at itself, and become self-aware of its implications. My findings imply that if postmodern sentiments truly want to harbor an toward the status quo, it must first realign itself with more unifying attitudes. While a single resolution has yet to be concluded, the present study provides some general directions for positive change.

Keywords Postmodern, postmodernism, , political- economy, historical , capitalism

2 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 Introduction spheres—material substructures (economic systems and relations of production) and superstructures (, cultural Naming a movement, or an era, can production, political , etc.)—and be a complicit thing, but it is also the first using the former as a way to understand the step required to take up the opportunity for latter in its concrete, material terms. I change. We say we live in a ‘postmodern believe this way, pioneered by Karl Marx condition’, and this seems to give us some and adapted by David Harvey in the project confidence: that we have seemingly of exploring postmodernism, will serve as intellectualized something that is dynamic. I an excellent reference point.2 keep in mind two aims with the present study. First, what I intend to do is to make The organization of the paper is as the reader aware of the postmodern follows: it has three primary sections with condition in all its ramifications. Second, my their respective sub-sections. The first seizes me when I say that I hope section is concerning the and to inspire in him or her possibility for of and change. If David Harvey, Frederic Jameson, Postmodernism. This serves to give the or have found no decisive cultural moment of Postmodernism some way for moving forward (even less, if they context. The next section explores socio- have, they have failed to inspire a people to political experience of the current condition. take action) in our current condition, far be Lastly, a section on culture, consumerism, it from me to claim “Eureka!” By and aesthetics is the most speculative section illustrating the more unpalatable aspects of of the paper, arguing that postmodern the state of affairs, one can at least make a aesthetics is largely a reflection of the conscious decision not to continue to culture of consumption. By dividing the perpetuate a certain way of life. This, I paper into these sections, I hope to approach believe, is the true of critique. I the issue from three general points: material, encourage the reader continually to reflect political, and aesthetic. Through these on the way things are when reading this perspectives, we can take a more parallax study, as he or she may be in the midst of view of and its cultural what I am describing, and the picture might articulation. become clearer. How should one undergo such an Economics and Ideologies exploration of this ‘postmodern’ condition? I believe that a historical materialist1 A Definition of Postmodernism framework might be quite useful. Through The definition of any ‘-ism’ is this framework, we will see the relationship elusive—at best, it is reductive. With that between a culture’s ethos and its underlying said, the reach of a movement is determined economic conditions as a mechanism. By through the “irresistible force of its ‘historical materialism’, I mean dividing our influence” (Brann, 1992, p. 7). Thus, if we socio-political experience into two

1 This method of analysis was developed by Marx 2 However, the author recognizes the limitations in and Engels. It uses the development of material this approach, and may at perhaps suggest a conditions as a way to ground the mechanism of flexible approach, as in the power of cultural movement (rather than ideals or social ‘superstructures’ to exert some influences in attitudes). changing material conditions. 3 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 are to study Postmodernism, perhaps we postmodern culture within the movement should stray from static definitions, and look that preceded it. instead at its tendencies for particular cultural production (that is, the political- The two intellectual and cultural economic, social, and aesthetic moments immediately preceding th manifestations). As such, I do not intend to modernism, the 18 century Enlightenment th define a cultural era; rather, I intend to (the ‘age of ’) and the 19 century locate the current cultural, productive forces (in many ways, a revolt in the broader movement of Postmodernism. against the former), both exerted heavy Historically speaking, Postmodernism influential pressure on modernism. The goal follows the mid-19th to mid-20th century of the Enlightenment, to be unapologetically Modernism. It began truly to grip the reductive, was to study and pursue the Western after the recession of universality of mankind in order to construct 1973, but one can find traces of its roots societies predicated on these universalities further back in our cultural . Before for the productive development of well- we can begin to understand the tendencies and emancipation for all. Alexander and aspects of Postmodernism, it is of Pope’s poem An Essay on Man: Epistle II utmost importance that we first articulates the entire movement in the conceptualize Modernism. opening lines, “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;/ The proper study of man is man”. and improvement was autotelic: the inherent of things Modernism tended towards their progress (from sociality in Rousseau to in Hegel)3. and In the term ‘postmodernism’, there space, rationally and geometrically ordered exists a prefix before its root, ‘modernism’: (from Spinoza’s God to Newton’s absolute namely, ‘post’. As such, it is understood, as space and time), was too static for the noted above, as the movement following modernists, however, and the Enlightenment Modernism. However, it does more than movement gave way under the pressures of simply follow, for it demands our economic mechanization to the reign of recognition of its own . To Modernism. Romanticism was the artistic understand how it demands apart and literary project centered on the irrational from its predecessor, let us first recognize aspects of reality, commanding movement, that the latter is a highly complex and , and force (think of Rachmaninoff complicated era in human : or Mahler). As we explore the nature of mechanization, automobiles, new economic Modernism, the reader will see how these systems, wars of unprecedented scale—there two movements roles in its formation— is no conceivable way in which we could the dialectic of stasis and rationality against explore this era in its entirety of horizontal movement and irrationality. and lateral reach. However, it is vital that the reader understands at least the general If the mechanism for development in cultural and social atmospheres of Enlightenment thinkers was the underlying Modernism. I hope to illuminate the roots of reality inherent in the universe only to be

3 French philosopher Rousseau believed the reasonable agreement among individuals. Similarly, development of society involved the gradual German philosopher Hegel sees that human ‘Spirit’ movement from savagery to through develops toward a more self-conscious and absolute being, moved along in a teleological manner. 4 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 realized by human rationality, the Enlightenment. What lay beyond mere mechanism for the Modernists was “good” and “evil” was the of reality: movement. What Harvey calls “creative movement, flux, will (Darwin, Nietzsche)4. destruction” (1989, p. 16) was the ideology Underneath superficial rationality lay the whose influence on Modernism defined the muddled and messy reality of human very essence of the era. Nietzsche conceived thought (Freud, Breton)5. of a universe whose structure was struggle and overcoming. In order to build more The Modernist era also saw the mechanized and efficient urban spaces, unprecedented movement from rural to Haussmann and Moses restructured entire urban modes of life. Louis Wirth, in his segments of Paris and New York essay “Urbanism as a way of life” (Wirth, (respectively) for a new rational ordering— 1938) provides an erudite exploration into demanding, first, destruction of the the sociological effects of this transition. inefficient, outdated, and anachronistic. In Foremost, Wirth urges that the transition is a the 1940’s, General Motors proposed to process, not a sudden change. As such, restructure America’s highway system for many aspects of urban life contain that of more efficient automobile movement, to the rural experience. Impulses of elevate the priority of the automobile in the localization (the “Chinatown” of New York American social fabric (Walker, 2016). and “French district” of New Orleans), in Faust’s creative power predicated on which more culturally intimate communal desacralization took on a new meaning: to identities organize themselves are some create, one must first destroy. examples. Additionally, Wirth argues that the economic structure of the modern city, The material conditions of with its introduction of mass produced Modernism most certainly gave rise to these goods, led to a depersonalization of the sentiments. Conditions of production (the economy, and therefore of social relations: factory and machine), circulation and “there is virtually no human need which has transportation of capital (trains and remained unexploited by commercialism” automobiles), and consumption (mass (Wirth, 1938, p. 22). Karl Marx also markets and advertising) informed the illuminated this tendency in Capital in the cultural production of the early 20th century. discussion on use-value and exchange-value Ford saw the capacity of machinery to (we will revisit these more extensively revolutionize ; below). Keynesianism provided the economic policy for it: man was thus mechanized. As a result There were two attitudes that of the “age of the automobile” (a movement attempted to cope with the uncertain and defined by the dynamism of mechanization), unstable reality of . The first was there was a precedence of aesthetics over our search for a universalism. Our internal —Romanticism was the immediate need for narrative prompted the age of the 6 consequence of the fall of the of the Machine. Absolute in technological and mechanized progress to

4 Both Darwin (biologist) and Nietzsche 5 Similarly, (psychoanalyst) and (philosopher) argued that the essence of the universe, Andre Breton (artist) saw that beneath the superficial and humanity, is dictated by movement, not static aspects of humanity lay something much more ideals arrived at by the rational capacities of human dynamic and irrational. . 6 See Thomas Hart Benton’s mural Instruments of Power. 5 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 propel humanity into brighter took in a proper materialist fashion, in the hold. Through the architecture of Mies Van economic relations and the material der Rohe and Le Corbusier, that conditions. In the early 20th century, Henry progress no longer lay in our rational moral Ford extended and advanced trends in capacities, but in our inclination for production by organizing time spent in labor industrialization and technological progress. and standardizing wages. However, the true “Form follows function” became the hymn of Ford was his insight that “mass of this new myth, placing efficiency above production meant mass consumption,” ornament in order to maximize welfare. leading him to become the father of the Purity of language was to be the vocabulary reproduction of capital: his workers were of ‘Man’, which is seen in the of trained on how to work and how to consume Mondrian, the writing of Hemingway, and (Harvey, 1989, p. 126). This new highly the architectural styles of the and modernized and rational economic praxis De Stijl.7 was called ‘Fordism’. During the Great Depression, however, even the great Ford The second was the turn to had to lay off his workers and lower the local. The increasing homogeneity of production. He realized he could not single- space required a deeper appreciation of the handedly sustain an entire economy. The 8 vernacular . This was the attitude of William crisis was seen as a lack of demand for Morris, who called for a return to the noble product. An economic model (pioneered by guild system of a rather idealized medieval John Maynard Keynes) was introduced into society. It was the urban sentiments of the American economy, known as Camille Sitte and Christian Norberg-Schulz: ‘Keynesianism’, to just flirt with “Vernacular architecture is at the origin of government intervention all the while the art of the place as a response to the avoiding radical fascist and socialist question of living, or inhabiting” (Schulz, outcomes evident in other countries. 200, p. 231)—it is the reaffirmation of Basically put, Keynesianism advocated for place. Communal identity was seen as the increased government spending and fabric of social relations, personal identity, management of the economy to stabilize and ethical conduct. “Archaeologists” capitalism against the ravishes of its (salesmen donning the name), such as (internal) irrationality and instability. Thus, Arthur Evans and Heinrich Schliemann, the Fordism-Keynesianism model of instilled the spirit of unearthing (and economic organization was spearheaded by commodifying) the local history in the the American economy. public’s fantasies, which exemplified the attempt to constitute the West’s identity in The economic transition that took their local historical narratives. place following Modernism was the dissolution of the Fordism-Keynesianism The transition from Modernism to model that allowed for such rapid Postmodernism industrialization. This dissolution was a result of the adoption of ‘flexible The transition from Modernism to accumulation’ models following, most Postmodernism should be primarily located,

7 The author recognizes and concedes that some of movements cannot be denied to reflect many of these these movements mentioned are conscious revolts underlying ideologies. against what they saw as the mindless culture- 8 “Vernacular” is a term used to designate the local numbing capitalism. Nonetheless, the styles of these attitudes and cultural manifestations of a given place. 6 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 prominently, the recession of 1973. In short, varied understanding of these two terms. In flexible accumulation was “marked by a feudal Europe, the local view that people direct confrontation with the rigidities of had was reflected in their cartographical Fordism” (Harvey, 1989 p. 147), truly practices: their maps depicted relatively emphasizing the instabilities of late limited perspectives, featuring primarily capitalism (these instabilities are tangible objects and reference points that the characterized by its tendency to devolve into naked eye could see along one’s travels. crisis). Thus, the ephemerality and Monsters and gods of mythical proportions dynamism of modernist culture and inhabited the unexplored spaces. aesthetics were carried into postmodern Cartography slowly evolved as more cultural production. was gathered. Mercantile systems of economics expanded trade in the 16th and 17th centuries, so that geographical information had to be understood more Time and space rationally than personally (as was evident We have thus discussed the general during the guilds, restricted transportation, attitudes of Modernism and its “force of communication, and therefore the economic influence.” Next, we will explore the practices during the feudal ages). The more relationship between time and space to that was understood about the global discern how these ’ attitudes are geography, the more effectively trade, grounded in its material condition, and natural resources, and other economic versa. As such, to understand the material advantages were understood and conditions of Postmodernism (which maneuvered. Thinkers such as Descartes influences its cultural production), we began applying geometric to should understand how time and space have space, developing what we would call today been grasped by the Western consciousness, Cartesian geometry, which organized space and trace the lineage into our own time. To on a coordinate system. The in God’s do this, it is most effective to trace out the rational ordering of the universe allowed us picture described in part three of David to conclude that if we can understand this Harvey’s The Condition of Postmodernity rationality, we can deduce the general (1989). The following is the laid spatial ordering all across the globe. Trading out in his account. was also continually growing, as more nation-states began opening up their borders There are many things we take for for economic interconnection. granted: that we are (you and I) both conscious; that you are awake and not With the advent of industrializing dreaming; that memory is accurate; that you economies in the West, space was slowly have of choice; that time is linear subsumed by time. Movement and progress and that space is geometrical and was the ethos of the era. Being, as a subject homogenous. These are “” we tell for philosophical enquiry, gave in to ourselves in our culture so that we can communicate effectively about many things. We conflate these beliefs with objective reality, forgetting their cultural foundations. Here, I would like to focus on the contemporary understanding of the spatio- temporal order. Every culture has a slightly 7 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 Becoming.9 The world was being Modernism’s compression of time and space compressed, space ‘temporalized’. Bong valued technological innovation above all Joon-ho’s 2014 film Snowpiercer is an else and the ideology of progress as always excellent example of this inclination. The good was woven into the social fabric. mighty train, upon which the last remaining survivors on earth following an apocalyptic Postmodernism has strong roots in war reside, keeps time by its rotations done Modernism’s treatment of time and space: throughout the world—the ‘spatialization of growing technological innovation allows for time’ through movement. In a capitalist higher turnover rates in production, and system, the primary goal of a producer is to information becomes even more important increase turnover rate. Therefore, every for controlling and representing this decision made on the side of the producer compressed space to the public. An will include decreasing the time it takes for a important shift, however, has taken place. product to be made, delivered, and The 1940’s and 50’s saw an increase in consumed. If the producer can increase union power in the United States. Large turnover and efficiency, business will be factories with many people working in it profitable. Thus, early capitalism was ridden who saw each other day in, day out for with the motive to speed up social processes basically their entire lives could form real and to decrease time horizons for decision social bonds with each other—even across making (space was seen as subordinate to generations. This allowed for the grounds to time). Spatial barriers were met with be cultivated for a unified class technological innovation: trains, consciousness, allowing them to organize automobiles, and more efficient highways. for . In the 1970’s and onward, Following the Second World War, there was there was the dispersal of large factories and an incentive by the developed nation-states increasing fragmentation of all the economic to increase output, so the global market was sectors in the West. Factories were made vastly expanded. Countries that were smaller, more spread out, and more unaffected by the capital market were being mechanized, making realistic union efforts seduced into the globalizing economy; on a notable scale almost impossible. This accurate geographical information and its command of space that the organizers of representation become highly important capital have is a marked difference—but assets, and the decompression of perhaps the necessary from the space- transportation and communication barriers time compression in the era of Modernism. became a means to these assets.

It might have become increasingly evident to the reader that a given culture’s Political and economic ground of understanding of time and space are largely postmodern culture determined by (or at least related to) the Given our understanding of material practices of that culture. Feudalism postmodern time and space, the political and in Europe needed only perspective economic ‘ground’ of cultural production cartography; mercantilism, a more might be made more lucid. Kurt Vonnegut, geometric representation of space; in his 1952 novel Player Piano, depicts a

9 Before this era of Modernism, things were was the study of the universe as it is. ‘Becoming’ was conceived of as more static and consistent. ‘Being’ the study of the universe whose was in motion. 8 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 highly advanced urban landscape. The story capacity among the working class and has follows a certain Paul Proteus in the Ilium resulted in more fragmentation. $77 billion district of New York City. The year is was spent on corporate mergers in 1977; in undisclosed to the reader, but we understand 1988, the number rose to $198 billion—i.e.: that the story takes place after a war The Works. On the other side of the flexible (perhaps a third world war) and onset of a economy, self- and highly third . The majority of specialized businesses and consultant firms labor, by this time, is mechanized. Very few have also seen dramatic swells (increasing factory workers remain, and the economic 25% from 1973 to 1982)—i.e.: Homestead. spectrum is bifurcated (physically, by the What this signifies, Harvey (1989) tells us, spatial separation of the two, and fiscally) is that the “tension that has always prevailed into those whose work has been displaced within capitalism between monopoly and by machinery and the engineers and competition” has led to increased bureaucrats. The characters in the novel are centralization of corporate power”—i.e.: quick to realize the overriding importance of bifurcation of economic system. This is “know-how” (information and a particular done in two ways. First, the increased value aptitude for technological work) in their of information—i.e.: “know-how”— economy. There are three modes of labor privileging those who have access to it, has left. First, one can place high enough in I.Q. allowed for further reaching corporate and aptitude tests to become an engineer or influence and response in the tastes of the manager in the Works (the last major masses. The second, combatting the productive corporation whose factories are rigidities of Fordism, was the deregulation entirely mechanized—similarly to the Tyrell of the financial system (e.g.: global stock corporation in the 1982 film); markets, global commodity futures second, one could work in the government markets—including debt, and increased assigned positions in the army or “Reeks geographical mobility of funds and and Reclamation Corps”; finally, one could products). All of this leads to increased begin his or her own small business in the autonomy of paperless financial systems and Homestead (the quarter of the city for the less regulative capacity of national or non-elite). international organizations. This was symbolized in the dissolution of the Bretton The temporal and spatial Woods agreement of 1971 in which the understanding in Modernism has only been major nation-states abandoned the project of exaggerated. The compression of this order grounding its dollar in gold. Harvey has created a hyper-globalization in recent concludes, “The structure of this global years, and has allowed for an unprecedented financial system is now so complicated that diffusion of ideas (typically economic, but it surpasses most peoples’ understanding” we’d also like to add “democratic and (1989, p. 161). enlightened”)—i.e.: the third industrial revolution. The insatiable appetite of a The general conclusions to make of system whose primary goal is increased our current flexible economic practice is the turnover rate necessarily results in increased diffusion of products, emphasis on instability. Decreased “core group” labor (9- as a commodity, farther reaching 5, long term, geographically secure) and corporate influence, increased turnover increased “periphery group” labor (part rates, and fragmentation of working class time, short term, specialized, and and consumer society. I should like to add dispensable) has reduced unionization that the two most influential of these aspects 9 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 on postmodern cultural production are the illustrate here. First, what lies implicit in this commodification of knowledge and ontological fragmentation is the tendency to fragmented class relations. These are two fetishize one’s marginalization. It seems the aspects whose sociopolitical that, increasingly, the validity of one’s voice ramifications are explored directly below. is the degree to which it is peripheral to political power. Since these degrees seem to be arbitrarily designated (one can break one’s group identity up into innumerable

categories, if one likes), any kind of coherence or organization between these groups seem highly unlikely. There is, in a The Postmodern Socio-political sense, a satisfaction—indeed, a Experience glorification—with one’s periphery as more peripheral than another’s periphery. There is Postmodern political a brutal honesty that has been lost in the The political ontology of transition from modern political to postmodern political ontologies. As postmodernism can be generally understood th as one of “pluralism”. In the fragmented horrific as the 20 century project of postmodern universe, there is no objective was, there was an honesty in its reality, no unification of narrative, and, belief and articulated : “I do not like therefore, no unification of voice. Every being weak.” It demanded that its peripheral person inhabits an entirely different position be rectified in action: it demanded universe. It is very possible that the woman to be the centrality of political power. In sitting on the bus beside me exists in an short, it seems to me that postmodern entirely different reality than I do, governed political ontology lacks an initiative for any by its own , structured by its own true change—any substantial reorganization architecture. The only medium of of power. communication between us is language, but Second, the fragmented, incoherent even that is a tricky territory, as Jacques voices of ‘othering’ busy themselves with Derrida has pointed out. One thing remained fracturing more and more, building certain, however, from modernist impenetrable walls in these gaping fissures. like Hegelian and Marxian What they are really doing is allowing the dialectics: there is an ‘othering’ aspect of exploitation of this political fracturing. As this political ontology. In Marxism, there is Harvey (1989) points out, while, for a time, simply the ‘Other’: the outside of political place might be commanded by the ‘others’, power, the proletarian. Its role is defined and space certainly remains out of reach. Sub- maintained by the bourgeois class. In groups develop as people, increasingly filled postmodern political ontology, which is with the feeling of alienation, search for a devoid of meta-theory, there are many grounded social identity. We are sold ‘others’, each fragmented in their own innumerable group images—Christian, idiosyncratic way—not only from political liberal, conspiracy theorist, mindfulness power, but from each other, as well (Harvey, practitioner, photographer, Indy music 1989). It might even be more acceptable to listener—to entertain this craving for say, “Postmodern ontologies are of identity and solidarity among others. What pluralistic relation.” Four tendencies follow is , at a material level, is the from this ‘othering’ that I would like to commercializing of these identities that we 10 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 buy into. We can join any group—as long as such as astroturfing10 undermine NGO’s and we have the means, of course. It would be other seemingly authentic media of political difficult to be a part of the Indy music group voice. Astroturf practices weaken without our music tastes informed by the communication and democratic opinion with media, without making regular trips to the “‘manipulated authenticity,’ which local music venue, and without purchasing a undermines the credibility of civil society music subscription service to wet our engagement” (Lock, Seele, Heath, 2016; See diverse and unique musical palate. In Ridley also Durkee, 2017). Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner, the only thing uniting Deckard and the replicants is Fourth, along with an increasingly their oppressed stature to the elite class, yet alienated populace in a pluralistic political that is never realized. A similar scenario in body is the task to communicate across these Bong Joon-Ho’s 2019 film Parasite, in barriers. The woman on the bus sitting next which two beggarly scramble over to me is living in an entirely different and under each other just to inhabit the ontology than I am, unique with its own space below (physically represented with the of laws and natural tendencies. As Borges basement and the mansion’s placement on a writes, “Though but a few paces from me, hill) that of the opulent : when the [s]he seemed immensely distant” (Borges, vein of unification is severed, true action 1998, 189). There is no possible way for me becomes very limited. The wealthy, on the to understand her reality, and there is no other hand, remain hopelessly naïve to the way for her to understand mine. R.D. Laing goings-on underneath their floorboards: the illustrates the problem from a powerful need not cultivate instincts if the psychoanalytic perspective that I think weak cannot even shout together. might shed some light on the political dilemma: “All men are invisible to one Third, while it is pleasant to think another. Experience is man’s invisibility to that the more fragmented the public is—the man.” It is thus the task of social more political ontologies there are—the phenomenology, he continues, to relate two more balanced and democratic our voice as alienated peoples’ experiences together a nation is, there is no shortage of external (Laing, 1967). It seems self-evident to us influence that floods our political that language is the most straightforward consciousness, making it difficult to discern method of communication, even across what is authentic political and social opinion barriers as such. However, the issue arises and action. Implicit influences on our world when we consider for a moment the views, like advertising, construct within us immense complexity of language—it isn’t needs and wants that are irrelevant (or even so straightforward. Derrida explores the authentically wanted, in some cases). (See culturally fluctuating and inter-referential Kassin, Fein, Markus, 2016, pp. 189-218). nature of language. Jean-Francois Lyotard’s More explicit—and deeply unnerving— “language ” illustrates the implicit cases, like direct constructing of political boundaries that define particular social sentiments and sowing activism by forces groups according to their signs. That means operating behind the scenes undermine the communication across these barriers of validity of this “democratic” voice. Practices ‘others’ becomes much more muddled than

10 Astroturfing, further explained in Lock, Seele, corporation artificially creating political sentiments Health(2016) and Durkee (2017), is the act of a or sowing social activism through the veil of grass- roots campaigns. 11 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 we initially assumed. As a very elementary this newly found empathy is not used as a example, how often are we misunderstood tool for expanding the power and autonomy when we speak to another, even if it is of the ‘other’, then it remains useless, and someone we consider relatively close to? As we will find ourselves back at the core of the soon as our words leave our mouth, they are issue: “Once the poor have been to be interpreted by the listener(s), entirely aestheticized, poverty itself moves out of independent of their original meaning. our field of vision” (Deutsche and Ryan, 1982). What used to be the unifying factor for the marginalized and displaced has Second, with new media (social become, at best, passive. I am not entirely media, the internet, more responsive pessimistic, however. I do think there are markets, etc.), there opens up a possibility of two potentially constructive social and more vocal power given to the consumer: political implications of this process of the people. As access to the internet ‘othering’. increases globally, people become more connected than ever on this planet: the world First, it is evident that with the is getting smaller. One has access to ideas falling of reductive metanarratives that through modes of communication that one necessarily displace one group as peripheral has never had before. Sociopolitical change and the other as central (often leading to engendered by regular citizens is suddenly th great amounts of : e.g. 19 within reach; a more democratic reality is century’s “Manifest ”), and the filling tangible in a way that has never been of this absence with many micronarratives, realized in recent human history through the we can begin to cultivate a ground of more consumer’s command of the market and empathetic understanding towards our media (Kvidal-Røvik, 2018). There are, of fellow human beings. To understand, at the course, limitations and obstacles to this very least, that another culture or group of potentially emancipating practice (e.g.: the people inhabit a reality so vastly distant four above). If these can be from one’s own (yet only miles away) can overcome—and this would require a much begin to break down the hardened deeper, systematic change—perhaps the sensibilities and dogmatic aspects of one’s expanding lines of communication might narrow perspective. When we are confronted indeed cultivate a new era of unprecedented with another universe, oftentimes emancipation and democratic autonomy. Of contradicting our own, we have two choices course, given some years with experience before us: harden our own vision in an with this new media, we have found less attempt to preserve what we perceive is empathic and productive discourse, the rise falling apart; or open ourselves up to a of needless provocateurs, and more access to broader understanding of people and nicely disguised fabricated content. ourselves. While this has the potential to be a wonderful thing, what could be its In New cultural politics of difference undermining is the cultivation of false (1990), Cornel West addresses the empathy: the recognition of other peoples’ complicity of the postmodern political realities and the praising of their landscape. The fragmented groups (typically idiosyncrasy, periphery, and displacement, articulated by educated contributors working to the degree that this empathy becomes within a given system) lack the fundamental more than passivity and fetishism of striving for true political change. There must the act of ‘othering’, and nothing more. If be a “crisis of civilization” in which people 12 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 put their “bodies and lives on the line” (p. relations behind all the glamorous—and 66). Otherwise, West asserts, the status quo fleeting—commodity fetishism of modern will continue without obstacle—and regress capitalism. I shall explore these social in most cases. While one can plainly see that relations below. the origins of this difference (in historically oppressed peoples) may very well rest in a group’s urge to establish a stable and Culture, Consumerism, and Aesthetics communal identity for survival purposes, we must be able to move past that to truly Consumerism progressive solutions. As such, West proposes a “new cultural politics of There is much literature on difference”, comprised of three solution- consumerism. I have in mind that the reader oriented goals: first, to locate the structural is somewhat aware of the nature of causes of unnecessary social misery; second, consumerism—if not in theory, then most to depict accurately the plights of certainly by his or her own actions. What we demoralized individuals (opiate use, shall discuss here is an introduction into the alcoholism, consumerism, etc.); third, to causes and implications of such a cultural draw on the moral and political system. connectedness (while avoiding the th universalism of Modernism) between C. G. Jung, regarding 20 century groups. It is, in my estimation, a manifesto totalitarianism, writes that the “dictator for a new reorganizing of postmodern State, besides robbing the individual of his political ontology. While one can see the , has also cut the ground from under strengths of West’s proposition in its ability his feet psychically by depriving him of the to potentially solve the first two issues metaphysical foundations of his existence” addressed above, the last two remain (Jung, 2010, p. 17). I think this behemoths of insurmountable challenge. serves as an excellent diagnosis of any such practices that attempt (explicitly or Without diving into the messy otherwise) to replace foundational systems territory of political theory too intensively in of belief with superficially constructed this paper, I would like to give some ideologies. The analysis continues when he credence, once again, to Harvey’s use of urges the reader to realize that such nihilistic historical materialism for analysis, and, attitudes will come with an unconscious perhaps more optimistically, a framework reaction. “ and rebellion are for working towards solutions to the issues inseparable correlates” (Jung, 2010, p. 9.). presented in our current fractured ontology. The reaffirmation of place in the modern When we are all alienated from one another, (and postmodern) context now seems more the seductiveness of becoming individuals tenable—realistic, at least—as people search through what we consume is more enticing. for that firm footing that was once beneath When we are faced with—not only the them. It wouldn’t be too much trouble to coldness of reality—the cold indifference of extend this diagnosis to consumerist others, corporations with their wide open tendencies. arms of motherly acceptance and capacity to give us anything we desire fill that longing. With all foundations blown asunder While I am far from suggesting any solution (by many years of the meticulous surgical here, Harvey seems to have intense faith in hand of the Western consciousness), what Marxist tools for unearthing concrete social takes its place today, as hinted at above, is 13 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 consumption—particularly of images. Our suspension of belief that a brand or fashion, field of vision, and our perspective horizon upon examination, does not mean anything. which directs our decision making, is That polished leather shoes mean business imbued with consumerist imperatives. What or that local coffee shops mean indie are not makes these imperatives particularly chosen by us, who consume such things. effective is, as drawn from Jung, our lack of Thus, the underlying meaning is not chosen, foundation. With our discussion above of it is not authentic, and is only, as the raft, the instability of our current system, its floating upon ephemeral brands, hoping to emphasis on “know how”, and its respective stake its flag of into influence on cultural formation, we can something firm and communal. make a vivid case for the underlying causes of the consumption of images. The volatility Here the reader may raise the of the market and the disposability of labor objection that if the idolatry of the signifier become the blood and bones of the dynamic is an aspect that even that old modernist nature of the market. To the producer, Marx identified, in what sense is turnover rate of imagistic capital becomes postmodernism responsible for more important than material capital. These depthlessness? Of course, this is a fair attitudes become inherent in all things today: observation. Obsessions and interactions fashion, tastes, relationships, and all other with themselves (as if they were the things that form who we are as individuals. ‘things’ themselves) have always existed The insistence on the depthlessness of (e.g., the crown of the king). Have we language, of history, of politics, of art, and always, then, been interacting with surfaces of music lead to the individual floating on a and experiences? Perhaps, but nowhere else raft across the vast ocean, drifting here and has it been commodified—and in some there, never dipping past the first layer of cases consciously glorified—to the degree water, unconcerned with what lies beneath: that it is today. in memory we find “only words” (Borges, Jean Baudrillard’s analysis of 1998, The Immortals, p. 194). contemporary culture is particularly useful The infatuation with the signifier at this juncture. The increasing abstraction (sign, surface) over the signified (material, in this image oriented society seemed depth) maps quite nicely onto Marx’s evident to Baudrillard. As we become more commodity fetishism, in which money alienated from the signified, we move becomes the objective sign of exchange further toward a simulacral society: a value, muddying and disregarding the social simulation. A simulacrum is a “state of such and labor value of a thing. Thus, the mere near perfect replication that the difference signifier of labor becomes, for the consumer, between the original and the copy become the object of desire. This is the direct almost impossible to spot” (Harvey, 1989, p. concern with mere appearances that conceal 289). As such, it “is a false claimant to being the underlying meaning of things. According which calls into question the ability to to the logic of this symbolic capital11, the distinguish between what is real and what is meaning that is concealed is the socio- represented” (Camille, 2003, n.p.). In economic status assigned to us in the order Modernism, representation was structural: of things. We all must partake in the there was a real, and there was a of

11 A term coined by Pierre Bourdieu to articulate the treatment of capital described above. 14 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 that real. This is the birthing grounds of We inhabit a ‘house of mirrors’ in ideology and masks. This is the fertile soil in which we inform image, and image informs which capital grew its symbolic us: “[Media] looks at you, you look at superstructures. It (representation) leaves the yourself in it” (Baudrillard, 1994, p. 17). “ of reality intact”; the postmodern Media has become its own message, and no simulacrum has a much more chilling effect: longer requires a ‘real’ underneath. Indeed, it “threatens the difference between the the very of a ‘reality TV show’ is ‘true’ and the ‘false’, the ‘real’ and the absurd. Would these families and moments ‘imaginary’” (Baudrillard, 1994, p. 3). occur if the cameras were not present, the director was not ordering, and the makeup This lays the ground for the crew not there to make our heroes look precession of simulacra: the map that once presentable for their endearing fans? If reflected and followed the land it conveyed Baudrillard is correct in describing current now precedes that land’s reality society as a simulation, it would be difficult (Baudrillard, 1994). Indeed, perhaps the to draw the line of reality from un-reality. iconoclasts’ despair came not from their We consume the reality TV shows, romantic concern with the inability to represent , situational comedies, social God—it came from their anxiousness that media, and advertising and are influenced by underneath the image there was nothing at them; they are, in turn, chosen for their all (Baudrillard, 1994). The film Blade ‘relatability’ and watched by us—rated and Runner explores the question of authenticity supported with viewer count, of course. Do in the existence of replicants (immensely you see the cyclical nature of this social advanced robots) that have gained an almost production? The precession of simulacra sentient level of consciousness, complete raises the question, “who manipulates with suffering, despair, self-awareness, and whom?” (Baudrillard, 1994, p. 76). Social the capacity for . Now Baudrillard’s production and media are in an intimate question is raised: at what point do we symbiotic relationship. And yet we differentiate between the replicants and subscribe, every day, to this simulation. human beings, their ‘land’ of which they are When Truman, in Peter Weir’s 1998 The the ‘map’, so to speak? The waters become Truman Show, begins to question his more muddled when Deckard (the human childhood friend Marlon about the seeming replicant hunter) falls in love with the depthlessness of life, his friend reminds him, replicant Rachel. Similarly, in Her (Spike “Look at that sunset, Truman. It’s perfect… Jonze’s 2014 film), the artificially intelligent That’s the big guy, quite a paintbrush he’s OS, Samantha, declares to Theodore (the got.” The artificially simulated sunset in consumer), that she has discovered her Truman’s hyperreal world usurps questions ability “to want”: desire, craving, of depth and reality. resentment, fear, and hope have all become accessible to this ‘image’ that is advertised to Theodore at the beginning of the film as a “consciousness” that “listens to you, Mass culture understands you, and knows you.” What else What does Baudrillard’s analysis of could an alienated individual want in this image and simulation mean for the world of fragmentation where the woman on postmodern culture? We have, by and large, the bus next to you is “immensely distant”? already addressed the issue throughout the paper, and I should now bring together some 15 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 observations we’ve made thus far. A more and veil seem only to ennoble commodity fragmented spatial organization leads to fetishism.13 more fragmented political ontologies, inducing chaotic and volatile social relations—Indeed, Borges suggests a “god Collage and intertextuality in delirium” as the creator of this universe (Keiser, 1995): that the God of grounding In ’s , there is a and coherence has given in to the God of realm of Ideas, or Forms. It is a kind of ether reference and chaos. There are more isolated ‘behind’ or ‘underneath’ material reality. In groups than we’ve seen before in the West, the realm of Ideas, there exists God, pure each with their own language games to play and complete. In this realm, there is an and symbolic capital to buy into. As a result, ‘idea’ of ‘chair’, similarly pure and what we have is an historical apotheosis of complete. When we see a ‘chair’ on earth, high turnover rates (particularly of images) we are seeing an imperfect reflection of this on the side of production, instilling an truer, nobler reality, which is only accessible unprecedented age of fast consumption on through our rationality. An artist’s work, the side of consumers. In short, mass market then, is twice removed from the Idea, for he leads to fast fashion. Tastes and attitudes of only represents this reflection, increasing his consumers reach increasing ephemerality imperfect distance from that of the Idea and volatility (reminiscent of the underlying (Republic, Bk. X). The artist, therefore, economic conditions). We are taught to “knows nothing of true existence; he knows define ourselves in terms of what we appearances only” (Plato, 1901, p. 306). consume: our shoes, car, phone, and music While it is obvious not all philosophers or we listen to are how we articulate ourselves. art critics are Platonists, this idea of an This teaching is magnified in the alienated image corresponding to a truer reality and fragmented consumer, thirsty for (“logocentrism”) is the beating heart of individualism and unique group identity. Western thought. Our belief that there is indeed a truthfully objective reality The surface level treatment of capital “beyond” that of our representations stems and society leads to the same treatment of from this philosophy. Postmodernism, in history and art. The biography of past, perhaps its most powerful anti-aesthetic present, and are all crammed into this force, seeks to undermine this belief of a overwhelming now as we become “unstuck commonly-accessed reality behind images, in time” (Vonnegut, 1991). The reduction of asserting this to be a Western-centric view experience to atemporal scenes becomes the of the world, necessarily oppressive (or, at stuff of consciousness. This is productive of least, leaving the implication for what Frederic Jameson (1982) calls the oppression). Suppose we were to remove the ‘schizophrenic experience’.12 Regarding idea of a commonly-accessed reality identity (personal and social), signs and altogether, where would this leave art? The images become the determinant. In a capital- validity of a (literature, , centered economy, the infatuation of architecture, etc.) is in its distance from postmodern attitudes with signifier, sign, reality. Suppose there were no reality?

12 Here, he is speaking of ’s linguistic 13 Signifier, sign, and veil are all terms used by schizophrenia, in which the linear structure of critical theorists, linguists, and psychoanalysts alike language is never achieved in the schizophrenic’s to conceptualize ‘images without reference points’— mind, and she is left in complete narrative disarray. similar to Baudrillard’s ‘simulacrum’. 16 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 Images now only reflect images blended together. His Collage #1 is the (Baudrillard’s simulacrum): “reality will no assemblage of such bits from Elvis Presley’s longer exist when it is transaestheticized and Blue Suede Shoes (Grimshaw, n.d.). When what is left is an aesthetic realm only” (Jin, one listens to this collage, one hardly 2008, p. 2). recognizes the original. In the subsequent two decades, DJ’s became increasingly Fragmentation in the economic- interested in clipping and mixing different politico-social realm has seen its reflection songs together to produce more entertaining in artistic practices. To the postmodern effects for their crowds (the depth of music artist, the dissolution of a referential means is giving in to the jouissance of the the emancipation of the text from spectacle). Contemporary artists today are “reality”—that dreadfully boring and now perhaps more enraptured than ever tyrannical anachronism. Platonic anxiety before with practicing -bending as the dissolves into a Dadaist attitude of self- newest of “collage” music affirmation in the face of . The composition. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a triumph of the present over the future and Butterfly (2015) and R.A.P. Ferreira’s past now allows for the architect, musician, Purple Moonlight Pages (2020) intricately or author to dance across time in a rapturous combine traditional hip-hop with , now, extracting what he or she desires to leaving some moments in both albums’ 14 gain simply a jouissance from the indiscernible. John Adam’s City Noir consumer of the spectacle. As art loses its (2014) is a jazz-infused symphonic temporal roots, it becomes increasingly composition inspired by complicated and depthless; there is no longer a lasting impact nuanced urban life. Jim James’ Eternally of a work of art that unfolds over time. Even (2016) is a project that blends , with its emphasis on surfaces and psychedelic rock and electronic synth music its interest in exploring the same image with moments that give way to jazz riffs stuck in place from many perspectives, can throughout the album (most notably in the be seen as a forerunner to this artistic track True Nature). The music attitude. As a result of the loss of The Avalanches has created multiple referentiality, “[t]he postmodernist image is dizzying albums comprised entirely of regarded as entirely cut off from any samples leaving almost no genre or era original, from any supporting base. Images untouched. images images” (Brann, 1992). Collage, intertextuality, pastiche, and superficiality While all these projects are unique become the primary responses to the and have voices “of their own” (if one can depthlessness that now confronts art. excuse this un-postmodernist phrase), there seems to be a favored music of genre- In the 1960’s, a young graduate from bending artists. Across all albums and tracks the University of Illinois at Champaign- mentioned above, one might have noticed Urbana, James Tenney, began to use his the overrepresented presence of jazz studies in sound and electronic composition sampling. In an aesthetic movement, which to produce a series of pieces comprised of consciously rejects all traditional modes of bytes plucked from popular songs and structure and analysis, jazz seems to be the

14 Jouissance is a term developed by Lacan. It is the continual enjoyment from the process of the drive. drive in the human psyche to undermine constantly Because there is no depth, no goal, to this art, we are the achievement of its own aims and focus on satisfied simply with the act of its presentation to us. 17 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 least constrained mode of musical the basic form remains intact (and maybe communication. Its proclivity for even the narrative), but seemingly random improvisation and resistance to rational objects have been placed almost arbitrarily ordering (pardon for a moment that the in the text. Whether or not there was ever fundamental essence of jazz is predicated on truly a ‘subject’ is irrelevant; we are now rationally and mathematically structured facing the repercussions in artistic scales and octaves that are merely production of a movement consciously and manipulated by the musician to synthesize a emphatically rejecting the notion altogether. seemingly organic sound) makes jazz—at Jameson notes that the “pathological least, its attitude—a popular palate to symptom of a society that has become choose when blending and collaging genres incapable of dealing with time and history” and sounds. Using musical mechanistic results in nostalgia (1982, p. 113). Because language (“theme”, “variation”, we have been driven back into Plato’s cave, “development”, “transition”) and material only seeing images and reflections, the artist language (“high”, “low”, “dissonance”, is compelled, and in constrained to, the “harmonious”) makes music dependent on appropriate other eras (because he has no references, rather than being intertextual15. referent of his own), leaving only simulacral Postmodern music, in rejecting this production available. analytical vocabulary, cuts the link to any grounding (which it does with content that To make pastiche and nostalgia more escapes this vocabulary: improvisation, tangible, it’s best that we look at a couple of chance, atonality, open and flexible forms, examples. In The Truman Show, the setting serialization of dynamics) (Lewis, 2016). of Seahaven is stuck in the 1950’s, while the viewing audience is (presumably) in 1998. In addition to collage and The vision and comfort of a more peaceful intertextuality, pastiche is a chosen favorite and idealized version of the mid-20th century of postmodern artists to deal with the is quite popular in postmodern film. Woody problem of representation. What Jameson Allen’s 2011 Midnight in Paris is an (1982) calls the “death of the subject” in art excellent illustration of such nostalgia is the aesthetic reflection of unstable (making it the center of its story). A personal identities, incapable of original romantic writer, Gil is in with his production cultivated from an inward, fiancé. Enraptured by the spirit of the city, private life. While it is naïve to say that he finds himself on a street corner after an Western art is not “the biographical passion evening stroll, and is called over by a 1920’s from one artist to another” and that automobile. Adventurous—and a slight bit something “totally new…can be created” drunk—he joins the celebratory Parisians. (De Kooning, 1955) (one only need to see Suddenly, he finds himself at a cocktail Titian’s Venus (1548) and Manet’s Olympia party, speaking directly with F. Scott (1863) to affirm this belief), we are in an age Fitzgerald. Gil finds himself coming back where subjectivity has been entirely again and again to 1920’s Paris, developing dirempted from creation. Compare Titian’s relationships with the likes of Hemmingway, Venus and Manet’s Olympia to Picasso, Dali, and the other great artists of Rauschenberg’s Persimmon(1964) in which that era. It is evident that Gil’s attitude is

15 I include ‘intertextuality’ with collage because I other texts for meaning (not some external believe that one implies the other. If art was referential), it would follow that collage is necessary ‘intertextual’, meaning it relied on its reference to to articulate the given piece. 18 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 one of disillusionment with his own era. He Postmodern composition is a often says in the film that he “was born into wonderful example of superficiality. In the wrong era”, noting the inability to cope Luciano Berio’s Signfonia (1969) and John with the fluidity of his postmodern Cage’s Variations I (1958), there is no simulacral ‘reality’. development of music: no swelling to the apex of the musical moment. There is no Robert Venturi’s “Vann Venturi receding of this moment into its more House” (built for his mother in 1964) is thoughtful, reminiscent, and gentle nuances. predicated on reorganization of architectural Gustav Mahler offered a different orthodoxy: incorrect Palladian geometry, understanding. As one might find in his 9th caricatures of traditional window panes on symphony, a power is developed and the façade, emphasis on the external followed through in first movement; it presence of the hearth; and a distorted begins to break down in the second moment, external representation of the floor plan that where the listener is brought into Mahler’s contradict the Modernist “quest for mind, into his intimate and reposed thought. simplicity and resolution” (Unwin, 2014, p. It withdraws into itself, leading the listener 284). Could Venturi have designed this into this beautiful moment of introspection house without such nostalgic pastiche? I with himself and the relationship with the think not. Furthermore, I would agree with composer: the subject is unapologetically Jameson’s rather damming assessment that alive. This power can be traced like a our only understanding of the past is through narrative. This nuanced musical intercourse our own pop art images of such, thus greatly is lost on postmodern ears; rather, there are limiting the creative potential (Jameson, fleeting moments here and there of 1982). explosive energy that do not give way to thoughtful repose, but are merely followed The third and final aspect I think is by it, and again by energetic moments: one important to identify in postmodern is confronted with fragmentation of aesthetic sentiments is superficiality (i.e.: consciousness as music keeps its distance as infatuation with surfaces). We see this a superficial façade from the listener. tendency beginning with Picasso’s and Braque’s attempts to take an object out of I am far from condemning the artists, reality, place it on a canvas, and emphasize filmmakers, musicians, and architects of the only its surface, exploring the object creation of this artistic attitude (although simultaneously from different angles. This some might take credit for these ‘leaps of experiment was strengthened as cultural innovation’). I invite the reader to recall our production that merged with postmodern discussions earlier in the paper on the material conditions. Cindy Sherman’s political-economic and consumerist Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980), a series of tendencies of our postmodern condition and photographs of the artist in multiple outfits, use it as a framework to locate the roots of keep the observer at a distance: we are not such aesthetic sentiments. Eclecticism in the able to know the deeper aspects of Sherman, market: the average citizen now has access only her appearances, which, as Andy to entire globalized markets advertising their Warhol’s Marilyn Dyptich (1967) illustrates, ‘cultural authenticity’ and ‘localized is the current mode of society (Gompertz, products’. Our adventurous and global 2013). Without knowledge of the depth of palates can be conveniently satiated by these people,we are restricted to interacting walking down the block, or browsing the with simulacra of their identities. web. San Antonio, where I am writing this, 19 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works Volume 7 December 2020 offers the River Walk—an authentic culture, and its apparent complicity with the Mexican culinary and cultural experience— more distasteful and ignoble aspects of late devoid of true depth and authenticity (it’s capitalism. I deeply feel estranged from this more practical this way, you see). The culture, and I am sure some others might aesthetic sentiment of collage does just this: feel the same. Why is so much of this plucking, with no concern for originality or cultural production indigestible to us? I historical depth, fragments of visuals and believe it is because of its underlying sounds and mashing them together in conditions: the ingredients that, together, increasingly eclectic albums and works of create a relatively distasteful cocktail of art. Pastiche, the habit of reproducing forms superficiality, image-obsession, and mass- in unoriginal contexts, leaves us bereft of art produced and consumed art. A path forward that is nothing other than simulacra—for the to me seems vague and indiscernible. subject is ‘dead’ (or never was), declare the Perhaps, there are more authentic, cultural postmodernists; and there is no referential practices we must return to. The ‘return to’ for art, leaving the artist with nothing other has to require a ‘towards’: I am not than other images to relate to. Underneath suggesting that we must revisit an already this is the tendency for media to produce attempted system of belief that has failed us. society and for society to produce media I am in agreement with Duchamp, when he (i.e.: image produces image). Finally, with said of Dadaism that nihilistic movements reality emptied of significance and words are “serviceable as a purgative” (Duchamp, emptied of the signified, our personal 1946). Indeed, a purgative! That is to say, a identity becomes as fluid as the market, and temporary laxative for the rigid our consciousness becomes saturated with of Western Modernism: one does not build imperatives to be an individual—again, societies on Nietzsche’s individualism or art through what we consume. Thus, infatuation movements on the Dadaists’ questioning of with surfaces: the lack of depth in a given art itself or even identity on the fleeting form or entity allows us to don any veil and allegiances of postmodernity. They serve as masquerade in images that conceal nothing. necessary, but temporary, developments in our cultural consciousness.

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