Jean Baudrillard and Hyperreality
Plato's Allegory of the Cave
Ancient Greece, big cave, inside which were a load of prisoners
Prisoners born in it, en-shackled
The only thing they can see are shadows cast by fire
Prisoners see the images on the wall to be reality because its the only thing they know
Shadows on the wall like television, advertising anything media related
We take instruction from this image world
Prisoner escapes, sees grass, sunlight trees etc
Rather than trying to flee he goes to try and save the other prisoners, explain this outside world
The other prisoners rather than thank him they kill him
We would rather face this world than the actual world around us
Baudrillard -
How unreality masks reality
How to get to the original or the copy
How consumer culture creates images that cover the real thing
How brand / advertising images affect us as people
Reality is replaced by images of reality that replace the reality and somewhat change reality
Alternative realitys that make true reality impossible to express
Corporate images, the images that surround commodities - disguise or change our view and understanding of the world
Coca Cola illustration - Haddon Sundblom illustration from the 1930's
Wanted the colour of Santa to match the brand image
Choose red and white for his image, keep using this for their Christmas campaigns
- Their version of the original European story has actually become to reality of Santa Clause
- People think of this automatically
- Origins in our cultures are lost through copies and copies to where it is almost impossible to find the origin or original
wired.com - measuring brain responses to coke
When they didn't know what they were drinking their brains didn't respond any differently to each one, but when shown the different branding they want the coke branded drink more
- This branding which is unreal is actually affecting what we think is real
Guy Debord - Society of the spectacle
Describes a society that is becoming increasingly unreal
Where people live around a spectacle image of life rather than a life its self
The spectacle (our society) - 'immense accumulation of spectacles'
People are becoming increasingly distant from each other, investing is fake realities
The system of objects (1968)
Marx - Commodity = use value, exchange value
Baudrillard - Commodity = Use value, exchange value, sign value
The sign value of a commodity is all of the various things that something connotes, e.g. a Rolex connotes success. Increasingly in society brands try to create sign value, society is driving towards a society that is increasingly glamorous and less real. Building a society that's moving further and further away from what's real
Simulacra and Simulation (1981)
Coca Cola is a simulacra - a copy of something thats already in existent
A copy of something that supersedes the original or makes it hard to tell away from the copy
When a copy becomes so detailed what happens then, does it replace the original?
Simulacra starts to affect reality, simulacra creates reality rather than the other way round
Sleeping Beauty's castle
He took inspiration from a real castle in Prague, Bohemian architecture
Made drawings that added a fairy tale, Western aesthetic
Version built in Disney land, simulacra version
American tourists were visiting it because they knew it was the inspiration for the Disney Castle
The copy is informing their version of the real world
Experience of the world is informed by Disney and the corporate culture that surrounds it
This happens in every stage in our lives
Christmas Markets
Started 13 years ago, someone was employed by the Frank tourist board to get more people over
They made a simulacra of the German Market, using German cliches for British taste - fair ground etc
They are not disimilar, still have wooden huts etc
Became very popular and start to spread into other Cities
These now become copies of the ones in other UK Cities
One in Birmingham has become 3 times bigger than the original in Germany
If you were to go to the original market it wouldn't be as extravagant as the UK one
New York City
Beautiful and romantic - do you feel this way because you have seen it in so many films
This is the hyper real - you approach the city through all the different versions of it
All films are simulacra of reality - represent different things in a certain way
Ribena
Flavour doesn't actually taste like blackcurrant
Society has come to accept that this is what blackcurrant actually tastes like
Love
When you say it are you saying how you actually feel or are you feeling a coded image of what society simulates as love. We invest in those images rather than de-constructing how we actually feel.
Spinal Tap - Mockumenatry
Summary of the cliche of every 80's metal band
Not a real band but asked to play at Glastonbury, now they have to practice the songs
Does this now mean they are a real band, should they start writing their own songs?
'men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at' (Berger 1972)
We don't see ourselves as individual seeing subjects,
Gaze theory emerges specifically in the 70's from a group of Marxist / feminist writers
Suggests that men are the ones that makes changes in the world and that women are the aesthetic sex
Hans Memling 'Vanity' (1485)
We are looking at her, she isn't looking back at us - first our gaze is never challenged, so were always allowed to look without knowing that we have been caught. Permanent ability to look without no one ever knowing your looking. Also when the gaze is returned you are forced to engage with someone as a person rather than an object. Vanity - insidious joke, the fact that she is staring at her self legitimises that we can look at her. Important to recognise that this painting was made by a man, at this time all paintings were bought and sold by men.
Men dominate women in relation to economics - so culture emerges that reflects that domination of men, it excuses and legitimises it. The idea of the nude in invented, more and more are created and it becomes a style. Then becomes such a popular style that it almost becomes the normal reality of women and how they are represented. Nothing sleazy because its now a study of beauty.
Took 500 years for a women's voice to be heard at differencing this mechanism.
The gaze is about power, a male fantasy of domination over women. An excuse and a reminder that they should be dominating women.
Manet - Olympia 1863
The gaze is returned, she seems unimpressed, her body is on display
Regarded as cheaper but disregarded because she's a prostitute
Faces the reality of real sexual relationships rather than the easily dominated figure of a woman
Cat at the end of the bed - represents more of a free spirit
The hand is more of a barrier
Titans Venus of Urbino 1583
Dog at the end of the bed - represents loyalty
The hand is very suggestive and has many sexual connotations
Fantasy of male domination over women
From this you get a culture that is repeated, right up until 21st century visual culture.
Vintage porn - Its as much about male domination as it is about sexual arousal, the woman as a sexual object but also taken on slightly child like tendencies, ideas of control?
These images allow other images to be created and then it becomes the norm for post modern society. Women portrayed as objects, creates a culture where women are subdued to a giant panopticon. A culture, a self regulatory culture, where women start to worry and start getting surgery etc. Feels like the gaze of an entire culture onto young women. Links between Marxism, Panopticism and Hyper-reality. Sex becomes hyper real, endless repeats of sexual scenes in films.
BEAR THIS IN MIND WHEN DESIGNING!
