Homework for Half Term Post Modernism

Half Term Homework piece 1: Reading Comprehension

Objective:

To develop your Independent learning & Academic skills

To prepare an introductory grounding in the concept of Post Modernism

Read through the chapter on Post Modernism from the OCR Handbook attached 

1. What does Post Modernism suggest about the value of high art (eg opera) and popular culture (eg TV)
2. What does Post Modernism suggest about the ideas of truth or reality - how is this linked the the Media?
3. Who were the 2 big thinkers and what concept do their theories share?
4. Give an example of 3 'Grand-narratives' or 'Meta-narratives' (2 will need you be your own not listed in the chapter)
5. What is significant about Disneyland and simulacrum?
6. How is our understanding of the events of 9/11 hyper-real?
7. What is significant about the Matrix as an example of Baudrillards ideas of simulation & hyper-reality?
8. Why are Post-modern elements of The Mighty Boosh ?
9. Why are Post-modern elements of Extras ?
10. Why is Grand Theft Auto Post-modern?
11. Why is the Cadburys Gorilla ad Post-modern?
12. What does FLOW and IMMERSION mean?

Half term Homework piece 2: Written analysis on Modern Modern features

Objective:
To demonstrate your understanding so far of why some texts are described as 'Post-Modern'.


Task:
Choose a 'comtemporary' example (2007-2012) you are familiar with that would be described as Post-Modern. Write a 300 word response and post to this blog as a comment


"Explain why your case study is post-modern, analysing how it constructs meaning through its post-modern features"


Use the class resources to revise apply these terms. 
The powerpoint we used in class 
Intertextuality how it makes texts richer 
Post Modern Aesthetic - some other examples and definition of the terms (bit long though)
Inglorious Basterds - example of how this can be applied


Mark Scheme
Analysis of how the text uses post-modern features - 20
Examples of post-modern features from the Text - 20
Correct Terminology applied - 10

Half Term Homework piece 2: Match up the Terminology

Objective:
To discover definitions of Theoretical Terms to improve grade in exam (10 marks)


Task: 
The mark-scheme rewards you for accurate and precise use of theoretical terms. However, that means you need to understand them very thoroughly. Try matching the theoretical terms with their appropriate definitions. Research the answers online and using the resources to help you

Theoretical Terms 

1. Post-modern 

2. Post-modernity 

3. Parody 

  

4. Pastiche 

5. Hyper-reality 

6. Consumer culture 

7. Simulacrum 

  

8. Cultural capital 

9. Signifier and the signified 

10. Multi-accentuality 

11. Ideology 

12. Hegemony 

Definitions

A To copy something in a humorous and tongue in 

cheek way.  

B A culture and society in which individual and 

collective identity is constructed in material acts of 

economic exchange e.g. shopping 

C The semiotic landscape of a society dominated 

by consumer culture and information technology 

D A copy without an original 

E A historical period in Western culture after the

Second World in which society became dominated 

by information technology 

F The knowledge and information that informs 

people’s cultural consumption in a post-modern 

society 

G The basic units of semiotic analysis. 

H To copy something without humour, irony or 

anything else that communicates difference 

I The dominant way of thinking about society and 

culture enforced by the ruling class. 

J A system of belief or ideas. 

K The collapse of the distinction between the real 

and simulated. 

L The way in which meaning changes according to 

context and over-time. 

Mark Scheme - 12

What is Creativity?

What is creativity? (G325 questions on production work)

Taken from Media Magazine blog.

One of the possible areas you could be asked about in the exam is creativity. The projects you have undertaken will hopefully have felt like an opportunity to display your creativity, but you will need the chance to discuss what you understand by creativity and what it might mean to be creative.

The assignment options at AS and A2 all offer constraints for your work, whether it be making pages for a music magazine, the opening of a film or the packaging for an album; one of the reasons why you aren't offered total free choice is because people often find that working within constraints gives them something to exercise their creativity, whereas total freedom can sometimes make it really difficult to know where to start. It's why genre can be interesting- how has something been created which fits with certain structures and rules but plays around with them to give us something a little bit different?

The word 'creative' has many meanings- the most democratic meaning would really suggest that any act of making something (even making an idea) might be seen as a creative act. In more elitist versions of the term, it is reserved for those who are seen as highly skilled or original (famous artists, musicians, film-makers etc). an interesting third alternative is to think about how creativity can be an unconscious, random or collaborative act that becomes more than the sum of its parts.

A great shared site for creative random art with some effort is on Flickr with the shared CD meme pool. This is a game where you create a CD cover for an imaginary band and upload it to Flickr; the trick is you have to create it from 'found' materials, again following a set of rules.

1. Generate a name for your band by using WikiPedia's random page selector tool, and using the first article title on whichever page pops up. No matter how weird or lame that band name sounds.
2. Generate an album title by cutting and pasting the last four words of the final quote on whichever page appears when you click on the quotationspage's random quote selector tool. No matter what those four words turn out to be.
3. Finally, visit Flickr's Most Interesting page -- a random selection of some of the interesting things discovered on Flickr within the last 7 days -- and download the third picture on that page. (Even better: Click on this link to get a Flickr photo that's licensed underCreative Commons.) Again -- no cheating! You must use the photo, no matter how you feel about it.
4. Using Photoshop (or whatever method you prefer), put all of these elements together and create your very own CD cover, then upload it to the CD memepool
My version:

Margarita Rosa de Francisco

Milk's Leap Toward Immortality




Ideas and theories to help you.


"A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people" (Jone 1993)


"The making of the new and the re arranging of the old" (Bentley 1997)


"Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation." (Csikszentmihalyi 1996)


"There is no absolute judgement [on creativity] All judgements are comparisons of one thing with another." (Donald Larning)