If you like, you can read a brief NOTEI thought long and hard about how to do this first post for the new Convert To Shape. What would it be on? How would I write it? Should it be more formal, and appear as a proper essay, or would it be an extended piece of commentary? Perhaps these questions should have been resolved before beginning writing, but here we are. Inevitably, it is the content that has directed which way the good ship HMAS Convert To Shape will head. on this first piece.
Initially, I wanted this post to be a comparative assessment of the video works of Lady Gaga and Matthew Barney—who is the most post-modern? Although amusing, it turns out that the idea didn't have much legs—it became pretty clear that the latest pop sensation seemed more willing to accept post-modern concepts of identity and originality. However, her acceptance and co-option of consumer capitalism and the multi-faceted identity have combined with all consuming media attention to create something with more mainstream impact than anything Barney has done. To that extent, Gaga is a little less avant-garde, but, as a result, a little happier within the constraints of the commercial realm. Perhaps more than anyone since Madonna, she understands that her fame requires a near constant state of regeneration, and that she needs to be doing something new to keep the eye of the world focused upon her.
While this seems all too familiar for those who take even a passing glance a popular culture, what is interesting about the rise of Gaga is that it seems to be the first time that mass culture has accepted the post-modern aesthetic and identity. Sure, we've had artists who have stage names, and even those who go through a multitude of phases, each with a slightly different bent. But none have captured the imagination of the public as Lady Gaga has. And so we must ask us why—what has changed that the general public now embrace what was once seen as the strange posturing of the social vanguard?
It may be obvious to most, but with the meteoric rise of social media comes a different sort of interaction. We are more used to dealing with people in abstract terms—people with and without avatars, people who flat out pretend to be someone else, and all sorts in between. The idea of someone possessing multiple, somewhat false identities is something that the internet generation has either acclimatised to or grown up with. While the internet offers plenty of room for social deception and split personalities, social media has led the charge towards the unification of offline and online identities. Facebook, preceded by myspace and Friendster, has allowed us to interact with our friends and colleagues in a real way—it allows us to virtually share our experiences, and to talk about those experiences in a lasting and meaningful way.
While this may sound quite utopian, social media differs from physical interaction in a key way: we are still communicating via avatars. We are meant to accept that the image presented to us on the screen is a facsimile not only of the person's image, but of their thoughts and emotions as well—we essentially fool ourselves into thinking of the representation of reality as reality itself. This is a remarkably effective lie—it has been known for a long time that people will behave differently when physically removed from the person they are interacting with. While common knowledge of internet forums may have clued you in to this factor of human psychology, we've actually known about it since the sixties. The Milgram ExperimentsDefinitely worth looking up. Don't worry—I'll wait. Also worth noting, but not mentioned in the wiki, is that subjects were more likely to shock when the learner was removed from the subject. show that people are more likely to commit acts of violence to those who are physically removed from them.
So what does this have to do with Gaga? I have a theory that Gaga is, essentially, the virtual avatar rendered physical. The outlandish clothing, strange pronouncements and hyper-real performances are all part of Stefani Germanotta's avatar. While we may know of her background, much in the way we might someone in online forum, the way the public interacts with her is analogous to they way we interact with an avatar. Even compared to the vast mental distances we are required to travel in order to relate to, say, Beyoncé, we are still able to do it because we view her as a person. With Gaga, we are essentially, and forcibly, removed from her humanity. The clips below illustrate my point pretty well—the first is for Beyoncé, undoubtedly a pop superstar, the second for Lady Gaga. Look at the way each of them is portrayed, with particular reference to the way the world is constructed around them.
We can immediately see that the way Bad Romance treats Lady Gaga's identity is much more surreal. She is portrayed not only as something wholly unnatural, but as a fractured personality—throughout the video, each emotion is given a different form. When we compare that to Beyoncé's clip, we can see that the different physical manifestations are given a grounded base, that of the dream world. We are told not to worry, that this is merely the expression of her subconscious thought, and assume that at the end of it she will wake and continue on with her day to day life. This is not the case with Gaga. Her identity is constructed wholly within the reality of the video clip—there is no rational reason given within the video for the disintegrated personality present. We must assume, then, that these are representations of a larger self. They are avatars. And so it is with Gaga's public identity—it follows the path laid out for it within the video clips.
That she constructs for herself an alternate reality for the public is no different to other performers, but she has done it early and wholly. David Bowie springs to mind as a good example of this, but, even though Ziggy Stardust was an amazing performance, we had already met the man behind the curtain. Gaga has risen to fame as an alternate identity, and the public hasn't (yet) met the controller behind it, and so we cannot associate the strangeness of her actions with a real person. Gaga has become a person in her own right, even if she is just a shell.
That she constructs for herself an alternate reality for the public is no different to other performers, but she has done it early and wholly. David Bowie springs to mind as a good example of this, but, even though Ziggy Stardust was an amazing performance, we had already met the man behind the curtain. Gaga has risen to fame as an alternate identity, and the public hasn't (yet) met the controller behind it, and so we cannot associate the strangeness of her actions with a real person. Gaga has become a person in her own right, even if she is just a shell.
What all of this points to is the long accepted reality that post-modernity is no more avant-garde. While the works of Barney still have the potential to shock, the public has accepted the fractured nature of identity to the extent that we are able to comfortably consume, and relate to, the products of a multifaceted shell. We could say, then, that post-modern thought has integrated itself into society in such a way that it is no longer a discernible part of the larger whole. And that's a good thing, because it means that the next wave should be on it's way very soon. Fingers crossed, it's already here.
