Simulation & Hyperreality Jean Baudrillard The Precession of Simulacra, 1980

Lecture Outline Baudrillard’s concepts of simulation and hyperreality Examples of simulation and hyperreality The impact of simulation and hyperreality on everyday life and experience

What is a simulation? A model, an image, a virtual thing, some kind of fiction or artifice

Baudrillard’s definition Simulations are: “models of a Real without origin or reality: a hyperreality”

The four stages of simulation Stage One Initially, the sign (i.e. image or represent.) is a reflection of a basic reality. Ansel Adams “Horse Racing” by Edgar Degas

The four stages of simulation Stage Two The sign masks a basic reality. The image becomes a distortion of reality.

The four stages of simulation Stage Three The sign masks the absence of a basic reality. The image calls in to question what the reality is and if it even exists.

The four stages of simulation Stage Four The sign bears no relation to any reality whatsoever; it is its own pure simulacrum. Example: Cottingham’s simulated image of the boys.

Digital Photography

Cottingham’s images The photograph is a pure simulation made up of: –Scanned anatomical drawings –Photographic samples of skin, hair, eyes from a variety of individuals of different ages, sexes and ethnicities including the artist himself Image credit: Keith Cottingham - Fictitious Portraits Source:

Traditional Photography In photography, there is a one-way logical relationship between: –the thing and its photographic image –the original and the “copy” –the actual and the virtual

Digital Photography Digital simulations undermine the one-way logic of the original and its image: –In a digital photograph there is no necessary origin or actuality which the image reflects, or to which the image refers ”Pure Land” by Mariko Mori,

Simulated images Simulated images break the assumed link between reality and representation Simulation produces images of things which appear real “ex nihilo”—out of nothing.

Simulated images Chtulhu People, Image #d6, Gulnur Guvenc, Adobe Photoshop

Simulated images Principal consequence: the truth value, evidentiary status and objectivity that is traditionally ascribed to photographs no longer applies. The image is pure digital information, endlessly manipulable and remote from any pre-existing reality.

Simulated images The 15 most manipulated images

What does all this mean? Various simulations of reality— images, fictions, artifice etc— are eclipsing or displacing reality itself. The boundary between fiction, images and artifice on the one hand, and reality or truth on the other hand, has become blurred.

Kate Winslett / Jennifer Lopez Covers

Virtual Environments, Games The Sims WOW Second Life, etc.

Virtual Environments, Games Woman Kills Virtual Husband

The map and the territory In The Precession of Simulacra, Baudrillard reworks a famous Borges story where cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it covers the territory entirely - as the map decays the territory reasserts itself.

The Precession of Simulacra Now, according to Baudrillard, the map comes before the territory - media images, simulations and the hyperreal precede our experience of the real. We experience simulations before we experience the real thing. These experiences and perceptions shape the way we see reality.

The Precession of Simulacra Images of great artworks take precedence over the actual artwork, which often pales by comparison Ex: Michelangelo’s “Sistine Chapel”, etc.

The Precession of Simulacra Armchair tourism - Getaway, Lonely Planet - we typically see media images of the world before we see the real thing

Precession of Simulacra Digitally altered images of women in magazines determine how real women wish to look

Precession of Simulacra Plastic surgery simulations - try before you buy

Precession of Simulacra Lara Croft, a computer generated animated character in the game Tomb Raider - played by Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider movie.

Hyperreal Becomes New Reality Baudrillard: “signs of the real are substituted for the real itself” In the end, the signs of the real (i.e. simulations) come to take precedence over the real itself.

Reality Television The stuff of reality becomes the “story”— food for the fictional televisual world. "You no longer watch TV, TV watches you.” - Jean Baudrillard

Reality Television Real people in “real” situations are used instead of actors:

How real is reality TV? Reality TV might use real people but they put them in contrived rather than real situations. Events are set up and manipulated. Real people are selectively represented, often manipulated and staged as caricatures. When they are being filmed by a television or video camera, real people “act”.

“The Truman Show” Movie Peter Wier’s 1998 film The Truman Show is the ultimate reality TV show!

The Truman Show (1998) The film raises some interesting issues about the nature of reality and our experience of it Truman, the subject of the show, has been filmed from birth 24/7 without his knowledge - he thinks his simulated world is real

Simulacrum is True “The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth—it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true.” We cannot know or experience reality beyond our own experience. In a sense there is no reality beyond our own experience.

Conclusion Our experience of reality is increasingly mediated (viewed through the lens of a variety of media forms) These mediated simulations of reality are starting to displace reality and to shape our perception of reality “… reality has passed over into a play of reality” - Baudrillard

Conclusion Digital technologies are increasing the scope and seductive power of simulation technologies In the future, digital technologies such as virtual reality will increasingly blur the boundary between the real and the imaginary (virtual)

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