Contemporary Review

Argues for the idea that people no longer distinguish between reality and a constructed representation of reality or a simulacrum. Baudrillard goes on to say that in today's world the simulation is no longer a reflection of reality, nor a reference to it, but a creation of a new real by models that are not based on reality. He calls this the "hyperreal",

Baudrillard -French sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist, political commentator, and photographer.

Critically analyzed representation-the role of images in consumer society and the social and institutional interests they serve. Postmodern artists rejected painting (bourgeois) in favor of photography and other mechanical media [typography, print/poster design, & film]. Deconstruction artists recognized that tv, film, advertising and photography were dominant modes of discourse in contemporary culture. By using the techniques of media, artist thought that they could channel its the effectiveness and power and use it in a positive way-to raise mass consciousness and free art from its elitist position.

Deconstruction Art

Neo-bad art was identified with the generation of young artist who lived on Manhattan's Lower East Side soon given the name East Village Art. East Village art was accompanied by another cultural manifestation, Punk Rock, New Wave and Rap music. Time Square Show organized by the artist group Collaborative Projects Inc [Colab], problematic because artists start fighting over space to be seen. Show brought artist from the Bronx [ghetto, urban graffiti artists] into the art world. Their wild style commanded attention [crude, garish fluorescent paint, latest manifestation of primitivism]. Novelty wears off soon, and the artworld outside abandons graffiti. The only artists who develop roots are those influenced by graffiti: Keith Haring, Basquiat, and Kenny Scharf. East Village art takes 2 directions: sophisticated infantilism of Haring and Scharf and the sophisticated primitivism of Basquiat.

East Village Art

Significant as a paradigm to explain current cultural conditions. Consumerism, because of its reliance on sign exchange value (e.g. brand X shows that one is fashionable, car Y indicates one's wealth), could be seen as a contributing factor in the creation of hyperreal condition. -Hyperreality tricks consciousness into detaching from any real emotional engagement, instead opting for artificial simulation, and endless reproductions of fundamentally empty appearance. Essentially, fulfillment or happiness is found through simulation and imitation of a transient simulacrum of reality, rather than any interaction with any "real" reality. Baudrillard concludes that no one can resist or counter the seduction of the media, and that the function of the work of art is as a consumer product, no more.

Hyperreality

Name given to a group of artists who emerged in the East Village in 1986. They rejected neo-expressionism on the grounds that it had become familiar and established. They are best treated as 2 closely connected groups: Ashley Bickerton, Jeff Koons, Meyer Vaisman, and Haim Steinbach who appropriated commodities and their labels from consumer culture, and Peter Halley and Allan McCollum who simulated modernist geometric painting. Both commodity artists and NeoGeo considered consumer society and the media that fueled "the Spectacle". They were influenced by Baudrillard concept of simulation and that there was no escaping the spectacle. As such, they accept that they are trapped in consumer society and could make art only by "shopping" for existing artifacts and images.They were not interested in changing or distorting images, nor did their work demonstrate any desire to make social commentary, or create fantasy. Pop art had blurred the line between a work of art as a commodity and any other commodity, which paved the way for Commodity art. It follows that a commodity could then become a work of art. Commodity artist were complicit with consumerism as their art is an exemplar of consumer society, which they believe [Vaisman said] the best art mirrors the era in which it is made. In a way, by participating wholeheartedly in consumerism, the artist's works could be considered an ironic commentary on the market and careerism of artists.

Neo-Geo

-In art theory/criticism, terms like quality, originality, authenticity, and transcendence become problematic as they are no longer agreed upon. The primary focus of critical theoreticians is decentering [getting rid of anything that implies a center or hierarchy]. Thus the focus becomes marginality. The favored method of achieving decentering is deconstruction, formulated by Jacque Derrida. -The primary purpose of deconstruction disrupt structural values, to probe a text for its conflicting assumptions. The device used was to identify a key "privileged" term and pit it against a secondary, binary or marginalized term, which is referred to as the reversal of hierarchy. The purpose is to demonstrate the unstable relationship between the 2 terms, or to show that the binary/marginal term is equally or more significant . All established assumptions could be inverted ie: Originality (work of individual genius or painting) vs. Copying [appropriation or photography]. This provides a rational for new art forms; invert the primacy of the visual over the verbal= conceptual art, or invert the primacy of spatial over temporal= performance art "theatricality"

Post modern Theory

seeks to build in relation to everything: the site and its established environment, the client's specific needs, and historical precedent relevant to the current circumstance and communicable symbol for the whole enterprise. -Architects resist the unifying aesthetic and corresponding adherence to a single vision of architecture. Postmodernism has a voracious appetite for an illogical and eclectic mix of history, historical imagery, for vernacular expression, decoration and ornamentation, playfulness, metaphor and symbolism. -PM architects demonstrate that the tools, materials, methods and traditions that architects, engineers, contractors have always worked with are still valid. They are, however, debatable open to re-examination and rearrangement to solve architectural problems-especially as new materials and technologies become available. Baudrillard's Simulation & Dissimulation. Postmodern architecture often pretends to violate the laws of construction, feigns to be what it is not, or pretends not to be what it is.

Post-modern Architecture

-Jacque Derrida who argues that self and society are also constructs circumscribed by language.The artist as creator or as a unified entity, and by extension, the individual as a coherent center or ego is dismissed in favor of a new conception of self imaginary, ever—changing, multi-selves shaped by shifting psychosociocultural identifications- -Post-industrial age of information, power lies with those who control the networks of processing, retrieving, and transmitting information-abundance of goods, media induces consumers to buy, not only through images [signs of commodities], but differences in images [difference between marketed goods]-individuals cease to be autonomous-becomes cogs in the machine-identity is mediated by images. -1960s:Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle-Authentic social life replaced with mere representation-Spectacle; Debord argues that the history of social life can be understood as "the decline of being into having, and having into merely appearing." The critical issue is not the means of production, but the means of consumption. Capitalism, particularly advertising developed powerful mechanisms for manipulating consciousness that cause people to develop needs and desires they didn't have-that did not come from their true selves. By succumbing to media-induced desires, people develop false selves, and the fulfillment of these desires creates a false sense of well-being that is really just an illusion concealing profound alienation and boredom.

The conception of self as a social and cultural construct was central to art theory

Their method was appropriation of media images, texts, and techniques and deconstruction, which challenged the notion of originality and subverted the intended meaning of text/images by disassociating signifiers and signified.

Appropriation of Consumer Society