Understanding Baudrillard's Simulacra and Hyperreality

1. Group4 Janine Fang Joby Huang Joe Wang Tony Wang Cathy Lee Chris Chang Daphne Chia Edison Yen Jean Baudrillard’sSimulacra and Simulation

2. Jean Baudrillard • “The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true” • Jorge Luis Borges: the map and the desert of the real • Precession of simulacra – “simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal”

3. Orders of Simulacra • Symbolic Order: Society as a fixed system of signs distributed according to rank and obligation • First Order of Simulacra: The Early Modern period, from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution. Simulacra aim to restore an ideal image of nature, true originals underlie the fakes. • Second Order of Simulacra: From the Industrial Revolution to the middle of the 20th century. Mass production of copies or replicas of a single prototype appear, just as real as the prototype • Third Order of Simulacra: The present age - dominated by simulations, things that have no original or prototype. Death of the real: no more counterfeits or prototypes, just simulations of reality - hyperreality.

4. Phases of the Images • Art reflects a basic reality • Art masks and perverts a basic reality; the sign becomes an unfaithful copy • Art masks the absence of a basic reality; the simulacrum pretends to be a faithful copy, but has no original • Art bears no relation to reality at all; it is pure simulation

5. Age of Simulation • The substitution of signs of the real for the real itself • Deters every real process by its operational double, a metastable with all the signs and functions of the real: the real no longer needs to be produced • What remains is the orbital recurrence of models and simulated generation of difference

6. The Hyperreal • The real is produced from miniature units (matrices, memory banks, command models) – and can thus be reproduced endlessly • The real no longer has to be rational; it is operational – and since it is not enveloped by an imaginary, it is no longer real at all • Hyperreal: the product of an irradiating synthesis of combinatory models in a hyperspace without atmosphere

7. Disneyland as Hyperreality • Based on reality • Reproduced endlessly • Reality ≠ real • Disneyland ＝hyperreality   

8. Example: Bambi a spotted deer Bambi 

9. Other examples of simulacra • Literature: - Ovid’s Metamorphosis Galatée (ivory statue) - Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein  the monster - Magazines  photo of models touched up by computer • Film: - Jurassic Park dinosaurs - 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

10. Works Cited • http://cocadoodledoo.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/disneyland-paris_1195132957.jpg • http://www.yuwen789.com/book/reading/UploadFiles_2021/200705/200753014844157.jpg • http://disney-lyrics.us/bambi/ • http://big5.am765.com/zt1/ztfl/jlzt/eccjhsyzsx/lhzxbbcj/200811/W020081104497913756735.bmp

11. Group4 Janine Fang Joby Huang Joe Wang Tony Wang Cathy Lee Chris Chang Daphne Chia Edison Yen Thank you for your attention