Simulation & simulacra

1. Simulation & simulacra The Environment in Cultural Studies

2. simulation • 'Simulation: a copy without a source, an imitation that has lost its original. • theory about how our images, our communications and our media have usurped the role of reality • our mediated world • simulation is a philosophy of reality and of our changing relations with it.' (Sean Cubitt 2000)

3. simulacra • Present historical moment characterized as an era of simulations • Models (as when a situation comedy simulate real family life) • Idea of the distinction between an original and a copy becomes disrupted • Duplications represent the real • “It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real” (Baudrillard 1994)

4. environment • ‘themed environments’ – simulate history and locales with art, architecture, and theater • To recreate an historical and cultural ambience • To present it as a commodity • Sometimes “branded” – fused with well-known, highly advertised product/product lines • E.g., ESPN Zone restaurants • Decontenxtualized history and art to create sites where culture and commerce mix to expand their markets

5. pastiche • a work is called pastiche if it is cobbled together in imitation of several original works • "Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter“ (Jameson 1991) • "the cannibalization of all the styles of the past, the play of random stylistic allusion…” (Ibid.)