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Unites States Live
Author: Laurie Anderson
Year: 1984 Edit Add
Book: Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
Unites States Live
Author: Laurie AndersonYear: 1984 Edit Add
Book: Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
But this is not the only reason for the discontent one feels when, in the midst of splendid postmodernist performances like Laurie Anderson USA, the repetition of the word alienation (as it were, whispered in passing to the public) made it difficult to avoid the conclusion that this was indeed what that also was supposed to be "about." Two virtually identical responses then follow: so that's what it was supposed to mean; so that's all it was supposed to mean. The problem is twofold: alienation is, first of all, not merely a modernist concept but also a modernist experience (something I cannot argue further here, except to say that "psychic fragmentation" is a better term for what ails us today, if we need a term for it). But the problem's second ramification is the decisive one: whatever such a meaning and its adequacy (qua meaning), one has the deeper feeling that "texts" like USA or AlienNATION ought not to have any "meaning" at all in that thematic sense. This is something everyone is free to verify, by self-observation and a little closer attention to precisely those moments in which we briefly feel that disillusionment I have described experiencing at the thematically explicit moments in USA.
But this is not the only reason for the discontent one feels when, in the midst of splendid postmodernist performances like Laurie Anderson USA, the repetition of the word alienation (as it were, whispered in passing to the public) made it difficult to avoid the conclusion that this was indeed what that also was supposed to be "about." Two virtually identical responses then follow: so that's what it was supposed to mean; so that's all it was supposed to mean. The problem is twofold: alienation is, first of all, not merely a modernist concept but also a modernist experience (something I cannot argue further here, except to say that "psychic fragmentation" is a better term for what ails us today, if we need a term for it). But the problem's second ramification is the decisive one: whatever such a meaning and its adequacy (qua meaning), one has the deeper feeling that "texts" like USA or AlienNATION ought not to have any "meaning" at all in that thematic sense. This is something everyone is free to verify, by self-observation and a little closer attention to precisely those moments in which we briefly feel that disillusionment I have described experiencing at the thematically explicit moments in USA.
Source type: pictureInfo: United States was Anderson's magnum opus performance-art piece featuring musical numbers, spoken word pieces, and animated vignettes about life in the United States.
Original size: 960x720 px. Edit
Source type: pictureInfo: United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson.
Original size: 658x652 px. Edit
Source type: pictureInfo: United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson.
Original size: 652x638 px. Edit
Source type: pictureInfo: United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson.
Original size: 662x648 px. Edit
Source type: pictureInfo: United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson.
Original size: 658x650 px. Edit
Source type: pictureInfo: United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson.
Original size: 664x650 px. Edit
Source type: pictureInfo: United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson.
Original size: 650x637 px. Edit
Source type: pictureInfo: United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson.
Original size: 662x650 px. Edit
Source type: pictureInfo: United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson.
Original size: 672x653 px. Edit
Source type: pictureInfo: United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson.
Original size: 660x640 px. Edit
Source type: pictureInfo: United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson.
Original size: 660x646 px. Edit
Source type: pictureInfo: United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson.
Original size: 672x653 px. Edit
AlienNATION
Author: Edward Rankus - John Manning & Barbara Latham
Year: 1979 Edit Add
Book: Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
AlienNATION
Author: Edward Rankus - John Manning & Barbara LathamYear: 1979 Edit Add
Book: Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
In effect, the points at which one can feel something similar during the Rankus-Manning-Latham videotape have already been enumerated in another context. They are very precisely those points at which the intersection of sign and interpretant seems to produce a fleeting message: high versus low culture, in the modern world we're all programmed like laboratory mice, nature versus culture, and so forth. The wisdom of the vernacular tells us that these "themes" are corny, as corny as alienation itself (but not oldfashioned enough to be camp). Yet it would be a mistake to simplify this interesting situation and reduce it to a question of the nature and quality, the intellectual substance, of the themes themselves; indeed, our preceding analysis has the makings of a much better explanation of such lapses. We tried to show, indeed, that what characterizes this particular video process (or "experimental" total flow) is a ceaseless rotation of elements such that they change place at every moment, with the result that no single element can occupy the position of "interpretant" (or that of primary sign) for any length of time but must be dislodged in turn in the following instant (the filmic terminology of "frames" and "shots" does not seem appropriate for this kind of succession), falling to the subordinate position in its turn, where it will then be "interpreted" or narrativized by a radically different kind of logo or image content altogether.
In effect, the points at which one can feel something similar during the Rankus-Manning-Latham videotape have already been enumerated in another context. They are very precisely those points at which the intersection of sign and interpretant seems to produce a fleeting message: high versus low culture, in the modern world we're all programmed like laboratory mice, nature versus culture, and so forth. The wisdom of the vernacular tells us that these "themes" are corny, as corny as alienation itself (but not oldfashioned enough to be camp). Yet it would be a mistake to simplify this interesting situation and reduce it to a question of the nature and quality, the intellectual substance, of the themes themselves; indeed, our preceding analysis has the makings of a much better explanation of such lapses. We tried to show, indeed, that what characterizes this particular video process (or "experimental" total flow) is a ceaseless rotation of elements such that they change place at every moment, with the result that no single element can occupy the position of "interpretant" (or that of primary sign) for any length of time but must be dislodged in turn in the following instant (the filmic terminology of "frames" and "shots" does not seem appropriate for this kind of succession), falling to the subordinate position in its turn, where it will then be "interpreted" or narrativized by a radically different kind of logo or image content altogether.
Source type: picture