Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the '
s. The failure by earlier feminists to address the
status of women within the technoculture of late capitalism led to
the development of 'Cyborg theory' by Donna Haraway, and latterly
of Cyberfeminism. In music the possibilities of digital technology
combined with the legacies of art school performance-oriented rock,
disco and punk, produced 'techno' and its assorted variations. Punk
was also one of the inspirations, along with 'postmodern' fiction, for
the science fiction genre known as 'Cyberpunk'. The technological
potential unleashed by desktop publishing and graphics software,
allied with the methodological potential offered by variously by
Punk and French deconstructionist philosophy, produced a style of
graphic design and typography known sometimes as 'deconstruc-
tionist' graphic design, and sometimes as 'The New Typography'.
Though obviously coming out of different contexts and circum-
stances, these developments all shared a fascination with contemp-
orary technology and in both its utopian and dystopian possibilities,
as well as its glamour. They also evince similar tropes and strategies,
of appropriation, juxtaposition, detournement, montage, collage,
and repetition, facilitated by or reflecting upon the extraordinary
capabilities of that technology.
60
s and '
70
poststructuralism
Poststructuralism emerged out of the compromised political and
cultural atmosphere of France during the Fifth Republic. It was
both a development of and a response to the dominance of Structur-
alism in French intellectual life. The mid-
s seemed to represent
the apogee of the Structuralist project in France, with even the
trainer of the French football team promising to reorganize the
team on structuralist principles.
9
Structuralism seemed to hold out
the promise of treating the social sciences and humanities with the
rigour usually found in science. Yet this promise was undermined
by the logical inconsistencies in Structuralism's own programme,
1960
