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SIMULACRA
Jean Baudrillard
The Precession of Simulacra, 1980
S&S in a nutshell
Today, reality has been replaced by sign systems that
recodify and supplant the real. Simulation precedes
and determines the real.
Mass media shapes these symbols as agents of representation,
not communication. Mass media creates a new culture of signs,
images and codes without referential value, and are People come to live in pure
simulations, replications of reality
exchangeable. that resemble it in all respects
save they are representatives
Contemporary society consumes these empty signs of status through and through (Rivkin &
and identity having lost the ability to make sense of the Ryan 365)
The era of simulation is thus everywhere...All the great humanist criteria of value, all the values of a civilization of moral,
aesthetic, and practical judgement, vanish in our system of images and signs. -Symbolic Exchange and Death (1976)
What is Simulation?
Simulation is the active process of replacement of the real.
Simulation is no longer a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin
or reality: a hyperreality
(Baudrillard 1)
What is a Simulacrum?
A representational image or presence that deceives; the product of simulation
usurping reality
Based on reality
Reproduced endlessly
Reality real
Disneyland Hyperreality
Other examples of simulacra
Literature:
- Mary Shelleys Frankenstein the monster
- Magazines photo of models touched up by computer
Film:
- Superman super-powered hero
- 300 entire film shot in front of a blue screen
TV:
- Reality shows world of fantasy that viewers tend to engage to