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power struggles.
Root/Depth tropes.
Faith in "Depth" (meaning, value, content,
the signified) over "Surface" (appearances,
the superficial, the signifier).
Rhizome/surface tropes.
Attention to play of surfaces, images,
signifiers without concern for "Depth".
Faith in the "real" beyond media and
representations; authenticity of "originals"
Hyper-reality, image saturation,
simulacra seem more powerful than the
"real"; images and texts with no prior
"original".
"As seen on TV" and "as seen on MTV"
are more powerful than unmediated
experience.
Dichotomy of high and low culture
(official vs. popular culture);
imposed consensus that high or official
culture is normative and authoritative
Disruption of the dominance of high
culture by popular culture;
mixing of popular and high cultures, new
valuation of pop culture, hybrid cultural
forms cancel "high"/"low" categories.
Mass culture, mass consumption,
mass marketing.
Demassified culture; niche products
and marketing, smaller group identities.
Art as unique object and finished
work authenticated by artist and validated
by agreed upon standards.
Art as process, performance,
production, intertextuality.
Art as recycling of culture authenticated by
audience and validated in subcultures
sharing identity with the artist.
Knowledge mastery, attempts to
embrace a totality.
The encyclopedia.
Navigation, information
management, just-in-time knowledge.
The Web.
Broadcast media, centralized one-
to-many communications.
Interactive, client-server, distributed,
many-
to-many media (the Net and Web).
Centering/centeredness,
centralized knowledge.
Dispersal, dissemination,
networked, distributed knowledge
Determinancy Indeterminancy, contingency.
Seriousness of intention and purpose,
middle-class earnestness.
Play, irony, challenge to official
seriousness, subversion of earnestness.
Sense of clear generic boundaries and
wholeness (art, music, and literature).
Hybridity, promiscuous genres,
recombinant culture, intertextuality,
pastiche.
Design and architecture of New York
and Boston.
Design and architecture of LA and
Las Vegas
Clear dichotomy between organic and
inorganic, human and machine
Cyborgian mixing of organic and
inorganic, human and machine and