Postmodern media blur the line

between reality and

representation. by Niamh
Sygrove
PLAN:
Grimes

Sampling/Genre

Intertextuality

Simulacrum

The Neon Demon

Hyperreality

Genre

Intertextuality

Setting

The modelling industry

Black Mirror

Simulacrum The Waldo Moment

Manipulation of time and space San Junipero

Too realistic The Waldo Moment/Donald Trump

The idea of modernism was concerned with the contemporary or modern era,
and was interested in the likes of innovation and moving/looking forward within
its society. Postmodernism rebelled against this movement with the idea of a
complete knowledge of the modern which has then been surpassed by a new
age. It's considered to be a movement of the arts and philosophy which goes on
to obscure modernism into something completely unconventional by subverting
genres and becoming self-referential; something in which not every audience
member will truly appreciate or understand, blurring the line in between reality
and representation as we expect one thing, but postmodernism presents it to us
in another way. Through postmodernism, from a film perspective I have looked at
the 2016 movie The Neon Demon directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, a TV
perspective with 2011-2016 TV series Black Mirror created by Charlie Brooker,
alongside a musical perspective where I researched with great depth into
producer and singer/songwriter Grimes.

The Neon Demon features an aspiring 16 year old model who moves to LA in
order to pursue her career, creating jealous, beauty-obsessed enemies along the
way who reveal their craziness through the likes of violence, cannibalism and
necrophilia. Black Mirror features different dark and satirical themes within
each episode that examine modern society, particularly with regard to the
unanticipated consequences of new technologies.

The Neon Demon can be seen purely as a piece of moving art through both its
editing and cinematography. Refns film focuses more upon the visuals and music
rather than actual dialogue from the main characters, contrasting the generic
conventions of mainstream film. This can be considered as a blurring between
reality and representation as what would be expected within a loud LA
environment full of models is contrasted through obscure, isolated silence that
Refn chooses to present instead with minimal character usage. The city alone
within The Neon Demon can be perceived as its own character, emphasising a
shallow atmosphere full of danger, oppression and a lack of help or escape. LA
within Refns thriller may certainly be described as a strange portrayal of
hyperreality, as the reality in which the audience would know of as a large,
glamourous, successful LA setting has been blurred into a new representation
that Jesse and the other characters present in the film; a brand new LA in their
own universe, one with no laws, police or sense of order. It may even be
suggested that this representation of LA alone is in fact what the neon demon
is in the film, ready to entrap anyone whos willing to set foot into its hell; a
metaphorical representation to describe the deadly reality of the modelling
industry, dragged out further in the film with Refns use of disturbing necrophilia
and cannibalism. The stylized characters within The Neon Demon also show
little emotion throughout the film in most of their situations, which also portrays
elements of hyperreality because of their lack of dialogue, which creates a very
sinister and uncomfortable atmosphere overall. Alongside this, the consistent,
artistic use of triangles within the film also suggest a representation of
interpreted witchcraft within the three girls who become jealous of Jesse and her
beauty, alongside a warning sign for Jesse and the danger she has walked into.
During the runway scene, a specific triangular shape appears in blue,
intertextualising The Legend of Zeldas triforce symbol. This symbol is referred
to as "The Golden Power" in ancient Hylian literature, a sacred relic which
represents the essence of the Golden Goddesses in the reality of The Neon
Demons case: the golden models. As the runway scene continues, its evident
to the audience that Jesses character gets swallowed into the trap of the neon
demon as the triangle and everything else around her turns from blue to red,
blurring the representation of her idealised, successful modelling world into the
dark reality of LA that she has actually walked into, ready to eat her alive -
literally.

Throughout The Neon Demon, atmospheric, spooky music (created by Cliff

Martinez) is played along with the use of slow motion editing, to emphasise the
intense emotion within Jesses character, which almost makes it feel and looks
like the film is set within a dream or a fairytale. For example, when Jesse goes in
for her first professional photoshoot, the rest of the crew are asked to leave,
remaining only herself and the photographer in the room. Here the scene is lit up
with a golden glow of paint, emphasised in front of a blindingly bright white
background, which represents the films idyllic heart and the utopian aspect. As
the scene progresses, Martinezs romantic and calming music fades and the slow
motion disappears after the photographer spreads golden paint all over Jesses
body, represented in an eerily seductive manner, and reality is restored when the
scene cuts to Jesse outside after the shoot is over. Similarly in the runway scene,
when Jesse finally gets her first big break in terms of happily modelling on stage,
the pace of the film is manipulated into her own space, making the audience
pause for a second to get into the space of the protagonist. The slow motion and
music is once again introduced which blurs the boundary between reality and
representation as the music again presents the scene like a dream, but when
these two factors disappear, we as the audience are reminded that the situation
is actually real, and Jesse has in fact been sucked too far into the degrading
machine of LA and its industry.

Black Mirror can be seen to portray an element of theorist Baudrillards

simulacrum within the episode The Waldo Moment, as Jamie Salter takes on
the role of a blue animated bear called Waldo during a television program in
which he is featured upon. By doing this, Jamies character is paused in order to
portray the persona of Waldo to the public eye, acting as a blurring between
reality and representation as Jamies character is manipulated through how he
perceives himself as Waldo, representing his view on publicity and politics in the
episode through his animated portrayal rather than his lesser known human self.
The use of political discussion from an animated bear who isnt taken seriously
as well can also be seen as a blurring between reality and representation, as
Waldos persona can most certainly be compared to 2017 president, Donald
Trump as a mockery character in power. These similarities also exaggerate the
blurring of reality and representation as this episode of Black Mirror alone
appears too realistic to the public, as some in the audience will admit that they
can relate extremely towards the reality of their political system, alongside the
represented system within the program due to the mockery that is presented
within one particular party leader.

Black Mirror may also be seen as a TV show in which manipulates the time and
space of its characters. For example, in the episode San Junipero, the two
leading ladies first appear in 1987 in San Junipero at a nightclub, young and
looking for love, but as the episode progresses, it is clear that they are really
codes within a machine who can live on after their actual older self has passed
over in real life. Their coded characters can move through any time period they
like as soon as the clock hits midnight, fast-forwarding a week on after every
sequence, placing them in eras like the 1990s and early 2000s. This blurs the
line between reality and representation as the harsh reality of near death for
both of the characters can be replaced through the representation of their
younger selves within their minds in San Junipero, allowing them the paradise of
staying young and together forever if they want to take it. The fast motion of
time also blurs the line between reality and representation, as whilst the
representation time moves by extensively within the coded versions of the girls
in San Junipero itself, in reality, time is in fact moving at a regular, slow pace as
they wait to die of old age in a care home.

Grimes is a producer and singer/songwriter featuring in the likes of experimental

pop and ambient music. As a current artist, Grimes may be seen as a musician
who blurs the line between reality and representation through postmodern
theories by Genette and Baudrillard, involving her stylistic motives based upon
the likes of simulacrum, sampling and intertextuality.

Grimes describes herself as a product of the music industry, a character which

is created by the innovation within Canadian musician, Claire Boucher. In terms
of postmodernism and theorist Baurdrillard, Bouchers simulacrum is presented
by putting on the persona of another person when she performs music as
Grimes. It can also suggest in terms of postmodern music theorist Kramer that
Boucher is presenting multiple meanings through herself as she is able to act as
a completely different person in any way she chooses to when she takes on the
persona of Grimes. This may be considered as blurring the line between reality
and representation as Claire Boucher is in a sense manipulating her own
persona, by pausing what is actually her reality and therefore becoming a
representation of her own musical self, something that the world will see as just
Grimes and not her as Boucher, when really theres a whole lot more to her
character than what is presented within her stage presence.

Throughout multiple songs produced by Grimes, the use of sampling has been
featured from all kinds of musical time periods, for example, in her 2015 song
Butterfly she samples Penguin Dancer by Masayoshi Takanaka back in 2005,
and her 2012 song Know The Way samples 1888 classical piece First
Gymnopdie by Erik Satie. In terms of postmodernism and Kramer, Grimes can
be seen to blur the line between reality and representation as an artist within an
electronic genre like herself is able to show a sign of eclecticism by sampling
songs from such a varied range of time and genres. It also suggests that she
challenges the barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles by combining styles like
classical music (which would be considered high) with elements of rock, pop and
electronic stylings (which would be considered low) to create something
completely new and innovative. Grimes also blurs the reality of the boundaries of
her identified genre as she includes references to music of many traditions,
languages and cultures throughout her entire discography, greatly defining her
of postmodernist status. For example, her 2015 song Scream features a
Taiwanese rapper, Aristophanes, who extends Bouchers audience globally
towards an Asian background due to the large contrast of language choice for
this one song, alongside when she performs the song live without Aristophanes
reaching a Russian background due to her extensive knowledge of the Russian
language which she performs the song in herself as well as multiple songs off her
second album Halfaxa.

Similarly to the use of sampling within Grimes music, within her music videos
and artwork it is evident that there are signs of what theorist Genette would
classify as intertextual references/samples featured. For example, in her 2016
music video for Kill V. Maim, Grimes is seen to be wearing black wings to
represent her theme of Art Angels, which intertextualizes Natalie Portmans
character from the movie Black Swan. Its also evident that in the same music
video, Grimes has taken inspiration from Law and Order through her
introductory title, the Dark Souls video game for the you died sequence and
the movie Blade for the blood bath scene at the end of the video. In terms of
postmodernism, this can be seen as Grimes presenting multiple meanings and
temporalities within her art form not just through her audio, but through her
visuals as well, linking herself into the relevancy of the cultural and social
constructs of her time. This can be considered to blur the line between reality
and representation as the reality of the original visual has been blurred into the
representation of the newly edited version which Grimes portrays as her own
within her visuals, acting as well as a piece of bricolage, substituting the original
source and adding her own twist to it within her version of the visual references.

The future of postmodernism definitely seems like it can become a strong

movement of growth. For example, future films may begin to include the idea of
using CGI actors within real actors, placing a dead actor's face onto the face of a
stunt double's body to continue filming their production and make it appear as if
they are still there alive, featuring in the production. This would mean the movie
wouldnt lose any interaction from its audience who may have tuned out if that
actor was no longer being featured in the works. This can certainly be seen as a
working factor for film, as global blockbuster series Star Wars are featuring
actor Carrie Fisher in their upcoming 2017 movie regardless of the fact that she
died late 2016. Genres may also be experimented upon within film, mashing up
multiple genres in one that you may not have considered to be a straight
forward, working movement, turning them into something even greater and
more unusual from a visual perspective. You may also say that the idea of non-
linear narratives can be emphasised as well in the future of film, by breaking
down the typical structure of a chronological film structure and turning it into
something mixed up through the likes of both flashbacks and flash-forwards (this
is strongly evident throughout the whole of Tim Millers 2016 blockbuster:
Deadpool). This may be seen to blur the reality and representation as the
representation of a dead actors face has been blurred into the reality of a
blockbuster film, allowing an audience to believe that the dead actor is really
there in the film.

Alongside this, the future of postmodernism within music may feature the likes of
re-releasing and editing published albums. For example, when Kanye West
released his 2016 album The Life Of Pablo, he published his album with a
specific tracklist and number of tracks that were available to purchase on CD.
After this he then removed the CD, and messed around with his tracks, taking
some away, adding more in, and even changing verses in particular tracks, re-
releasing them continuously on social media for people to download digitally.
This could suggest a future movement of album creation for artists in the music
industry, as others may want to follow in his footsteps and disobey the generic
constructs of an album release by rearranging theirs whenever they please.
Music and its releases are an ever growing movement that can be taken in any
direction at any moment if it allows an artist to go on and create and distribute
as innovatively as they please. This can be considered to blur the line between
reality and representation as well due to audiences being used to strict album
releases, but are now presented with the idea of rereleasing.