Information and the Postmodern Socio-Cultural Conditions...

Dear public-informationarchitecture,
public-appsdesignlab,
public-xformsusers

"Baudrillard (1983a & 1983b) describes the implications for a theory and
politics of a postmodern society in which 'radical semiurgy' , the
constantly accelerating proliferation of signs, produces simulations that
create new forms of society, culture, experience, and subjectivity" (Best &
Kellner, p. 27).

Signs...texts...? Texts are linguistic artifacts/practices whereas,
considering F. Sussure's semiotic theory, "language is 'system of signs
that expresses ideas', or signifieds, through differing signifiers that
produce meaning". (ibid., p. 19) (Saussure's semiotics was one French
Structuralism (1960s) had roots --" (French) structuralists applied
structural-linguistic concepts to the human sciences" (ibid., p. 18).

"...while sharing with structuralism a dismissal of the concept of the
autonomous subject, postructuralism stressed the dimensions of history,
politics, and everyday life in the contemporary world which tended to be
suppressed by the abstractions of structuralism" (ibid., p. 20)

"Poststructuralism forms part of the matrix of postmodern theory, (and
while the theoretical breaks described as postmodern directly related to
poststructuralist critiques, ... poststructuralism (is) a subset of a
broader range of theoretical, cultural and social tendencies which
constitute postmodern theories)" (ibid., p. 25).

"Postmodern theory generally follows poststructuralist theory in the
primacy given to discourse theory... (seeing) all social phenomena (thus
realities as phenomena) as structured semiotically by codes and rules, and
therefore amenable to linguistic analysis, utillizing the model of
signification and signifying practices (ibid., p. 26)

"Postmodern theory provides a critique of representation and the modern
belief that theory mirrors reality, taking instead "perspectivist" and
"relativist" positions that theories at best provide partial perspectives
on their objects, and that all cognitive representations of the world are
historically and linguistically mediated" (ibid., p. 4).

Postmodern theories deal with representations, of realities, thus concern
with texts in such particular ways... to the degrees where texts are
critically analogous or constitutive in such ways to realities, to say that
realities are textual in such ways...Yet, "most postmodern theorists are
not linguistic idealists or pan-textualists, who reduce everything to
discourse or textuality" (ibid., p. 27) Baudrillard (1981) describes a
semiurgic society in which signs take on a life of their own and constitute
social order structured by models, codes, and signs... (he) advances a sort
of technological determinism whereby models and codes become the primary
determinants of social experience (ibid., p. 119). The Baudrillardian
universe of simulacra without referents (is) an effect of the
poststructuralist critique of meaning and reference taken to an extreme
limit where the effluence of simulacra replaces the play of textuality or
discourses in a universe with no stable structures in which to anchor
theory or politics" (ibid., p. 121).

If texts are understood as being critically analogous, or critically
constitutive --considering those notes above--, to realities then
concerning with "hypertext" which is about "hyperrealities as hypertexts"
we may say architecturally --by understanding on text as a building-- about
"text forms", "text spaces", & "text orders"...?

Regard,
Guntur Wiseno Putra

Pada Sabtu, 04 Januari 2020, Guntur Wiseno Putra <gsenopu@gmail.com>
menulis:

> Dear public-informationarchitecture,
>
>
> "Information" and the Web today and tomorrow...?
>
> In sorting out and appraise the contributions and limitations of
> perspectives that map allegedly novel postmodern socio-cultural conditions,
> there was "Baudrillard en route to Postmodernity"  telling about an
> intellectual figure Jean Baudrillard having concerns by his works (1980s)
> with among others computerization, information processing, media,
> cybernetic control system and the organization of society according to
> simulation codes and models: those bringing him to an understanding on
> trinity of simulations, implosion, and hyperreality --that predix "hyper-"
> reminds us about "Hyper Text (Markup Language)"...
>
> (Those what I find in my note made possible by a machine-based copy: Best,
> Steven and D. Kellner, "Postmodern Theories: Critical Interrogations", The
> Guilford Press, New York, 1991 pp.111-145, especially pp. 118-122)
>
>
> Regard,
> Guntur Wiseno Putra
>