Simulacra and Simulation

The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard is one of the major players in discussions about postmodernism. He has written an essay "Simulacra and Simulation" which is referenced in the movie The Matrix.

Simulacra: a copy without an original. In The Matrix, there is a computer program called "the matrix" which is a simulation of the world at the end of the 20th century. That world no longer exists. The real world is a nuclear wasteland; cities are charred and empty, life on earth is only possible beneath the surface. But an exact copy exists in the form of a computer program. People are living life in a simulacra, a copy which is its own reality.

Simulation: a model of the real or the creation of the real through conceptual or "mythological" models which have no connection or origin in reality. The model becomes the determinant of our perception of reality, we end up confusing the model for reality.

In his essay, Baudrillard begins by discussing a fable written by Jorge Borges where cartographers draw a map in such detail that it ends up exactly covering the real territory of the empire. The map frays as the empire declines. The reality and the abstraction (map) decline together.

By contrast, today that pairing has disappeared. Abstractions are no longer "the map, the double, the mirror, or the concept." No longer is there simulation of a "territory, a referential being, or a substance." Instead, Baudrillard sees a "real without origin or reality" being generated "by models." This is the hyperreal. In the hyperreal, (referring again to the Borges fable), the map "precedes the territory." And this map becomes a simulacra, which "engenders the territory," such as it is.

Homes, relationships, fashion, art, music, all become dictated by their ideal models presented through the media.

VH1 recently featured "Bubblegum Babylon" which explores the manufacturing of teen music. What is paramount in bubble gum pop is not the music, but the manufacturing of the image. Britney Spears is about an image, not simply music. Nike doesn't sell sneakers, but an identity, an image that is constructed by the company.

According to Baudrillard, the boundary between the image, or simulation, and reality implodes (breaks down). This creates a world of hyperreality where the distinctions between real and unreal are blurred. Ronald Reagan becomes a simulation of politics; Britney Spears is a simulation of pop sex idol; Kurt Cobain a simulation of marginality.

The culture industry blurs the lines between facts and information, between information and entertainment, between entertainment and politics. The masses get bombarded by these images (simulations) and signs (simulacra) which encourage them to buy, vote, work, play,... but eventually they become apathetic (i.e. cynical).

The point Baudrillard is trying to make is that simulations have devoured reality, and that models have taken "precedence over things." Too much reality has resulted in saturation and explosion. Now, we are looking at an implosion -- reality and meaning are melting into a nebulous mass of self-reproducing simulation.

So there is an odd chain reaction, whereby simulations have taken over for reality, but now generate nothing but more simulations.

This "fall" into simulations is exacerbated by the masses and media. The public prefer spectacles to reality. We would rather go to Disneyworld than to work. When we watch the news, we would rather be entertained than informed. The consequence of this preference is that reality loses its status, and that the effectiveness of simulation is greater than the potency of reality.

How real is reality TV? Survivor, The Fifth Wheel, The Real World? How are these simulations of reality?

Baudrillard uses the concepts of simulacra--a copy without an original--and simulation to display how perceptions of ‘reality’ are altered bases on cultural stigma.

“The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true.”

Baudrillard points out very clearly how our modern culture is contrived of images and other stimulus from media sources and simulations rather than what is considered real and how it becomes what is real to us by perception. For instance, we are all familiar with various commercials and other forms of advertising that are creations, sometimes of non-real visuals and events, to promote products. We see people and places on TV that we have never been to yet we know them visually as if we had. The simulation is real to us not the real place. Another and maybe even better example would be how we relate to ancient cultures. Archeologists dig them up and create simulations of their cultures in museums that we see. We have never seen the real societies and thus the simulacra of these cultures is what becomes real to us about these cultures. Baudrillard clearly defines how various things like Disney, multi-media advertising and many other sources have replaced the stimulus of the real for us and how our media culture has become our reality.