Chapter 8: Postmodernism, indie media & Popular culture

In this blog post, I intend to examine postmodernism, indie media & Popular culture based on a discussion made with my fellow classmates. You can find the summary of the chapter here:
www.bpatricha.tumblr.com

and a further research in our Lebanese society here:

www.crazylittlethingcalledart.wordpress.com

In this chapter, the author explains that our world is not postmodern yet it’s an ongoing tension between modernity and postmodernism. Postmodernism broke through after the war and it is the phase of technology and information. The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard had mentioned that with the rise of technology, images became more real than reality. Postmodernists manipulate the truth, thus we are no longer able to differentiate between reality and our visual reading of the subject.
One of the examples of postmodern works in the book, was the World park in China which is modeled after the most famous monuments in the world such as Taj mahal, the Pyramids of Egypt, Eiffel tour… 

The point of this park is to let Chinese people see the outside world without even leaving China. Throughout our discussion, one of my classmates suggested that postmodernism was not used in a positive manner in this situation, as the World park for her, seemed like a Wake up call to Chinese culture. She believes that this park is telling the Chinese population that they are still primitive and no matter what they do, there are greater things in the world. Another theory suggests that this park imprisons its visitors and is a message to Chinese citizens to stay in China and to not be open to the outer world.

There are similar example of this all around the world, such as the Dubai land which is under construction and it's a huge space representing a small world.

 

Another example is Las Vegas and its hotels which some of them are architecturally built to look like a famous monument such as Eiffel Tour & the Pyramids. For people who have never traveled and saw the original monuments, while visiting Las Vegas they will believe they are true! Postmodernism is a recreation of the original to an extent where we don't know which is real anymore.

Las Vegas Eiffel Tour Hotel (recreation of the real Eiffel Tour)

The Eiffel Tour - Paris

The Luxor Las Vegas hotel - Recreation of the Pyramids

The actual pyramids - Egypt

Reflexivity and postmodern identity:

In this paragraph, the author talks about the works of Cindy Sherman who is a photographer who took photographs using herself as a model.

The series of photos looked like still images from movies, yet they are not. They are not even a self-portrait since she was disguised in costumes and the set was designed to look like a typical Hollywood set of that time. Her photos do not produce a real moment or star, yet they evoke a particular moment or genre which was famous back in the days.

The change of identity became very famous among pop culture artists such as Madonna who appropriated different looks and styles that changed her visual identity. In postmodernism, the body can be easily changed and remodeled.

The world of images today incorporated a lot of parodies and remakes. People don’t actually care about which is the original since we can do an identical replica with today’s technology. Some of the remakes were done in The Simpsons who also incorporated ironic remakes throughout their show. In on the episodes they made a parody about the horror movie Psycho where Homer’s eye lied on the floor of the bathroom and reenacted some of the scenes.

In conclusion, this chapter focuses on the different views of postmodernism and modernism and how they have changed over the years. Due to technological advances and other forms of media, the world we live in today is changing. It is difficult to determine what exactly postmodernism is, whether it be a style, a time period, or a set of ideologies and politics.

Cafe Abinasr Ads: Then and now

We are so accustomed to the presence of ads and brands in our lives that the marketing society keeps on trying to reinvent their marketing strategies and the way they promote their products. The other day on TV, there was a commercial for Cafe Abinasr which featured a song we've all heard. All Lebanese people know this song, I've been hearing it in each of their ads ever since i was a kid. So i decided to conduct a research, and i found out that Cafe AbiNasr has been using this song for almost 50 years now, conserving their identity. All of their ads in the past few decades have this song, and that's why we feel like it's imprinted in our heads.
I'm going to compare an old ad of theirs and a new one.

The first video is Cafe Abi Nasr's ad from 1979: as we can see, the commercial is like story telling. It starts with music, then lyrics for their famous song. The video shows how Lebanese people lived in the 70's, showing the best aspects of life. Beach, fun and Lebanese Dabkeh dance; integrating coffee in our daily activities. The advertising aims to present an image of a desired product (the coffee), and people to be envied (they are happy and enjoying their time) to tell us that we can be like those perfect people, happy, enjoying Cafe abi nasr. The ad ends with the phrase " Renew your energy, drink Coffee Abi Nasr".

The following videos are newer ads for Cafe Abinasr in the years 2008-2010.
In these videos, the lyrics are not used, but in other they still were used. That's why when we hear the tune, we mumble along the words. Their recent ads usually end with "there are things that never change" to show that cafe abinasr is still the best from 1956 (when it was established) til now. All their recent ads work around the idea of using old footage or and old object (such as the radio) and showing them in a recent context to show the evolution and continuity of Cafe Abinasr.



Cafe Abi Nasr TVC 2008
Cafe AbiNasr TVC



Cafe Abi Nasr's website also serves their visual identity, with a brown background (symbolizing coffee) and an earthy color palette. In the middle stands a picture of perfect coffee beans and coffee grinder, animated with a constant illumination as if it's shining.

Having the same tune for decades helps preserve the identity of the company and makes us all share the same idea about it which means it must be a good product for it to survive this long. Also the traditional image of the coffee on their website and the traditional colors make us realize it's a brand that has been for ages.