If you're interested in Baudrillard, you might want to read up on Guy Debord, an important predecessor. Debord's most famous text was The Society of the Spectacle, which begins:
"In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation."
That's back in 1967. Not hard to see the influence on Baudrillard's later theories of simulation.
And now for the news.
Michael Jackson is in discussions about creating a 50-foot robotic replica of himself to roam the Las Vegas desert, according to reports.
The pop legend is currently understood to be living in the city, as he considers making a comeback after 2004's turbulent child sex case.
It has now been claimed that his plans include an elaborate show in Vegas, which would feature the giant Jacko striding around the desert, firing laser beams.
If built, the metal monster would apparently be visible to aircraft as they come in to land in the casino capital.
It is the centre-piece of an elaborate Jackson-inspired show in Vegas, according to Andre Van Pier, the robot's designer.
Luckman Van Pier, his partner at the company behind the proposal, claims blueprints have been drawn-up for the show and seen by the star.
"Michael's looked at the sketches and likes them", he told the New York Daily News.
On the subject of the robot, he continued: "It would be in the desert sands. Laser beams would shoot out of it so it would be the first thing people flying in would see."
And here's a video for Japanese pop singer Yuki as directed by artist Nagi Noda - interesting for the way it plays with an aesthetic similar to the "bullet time" of The Matrix, but reversed: instead of technology allowing an impossible perspective, it creates all effects in-camera, with no digital post-production. The director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the upcoming Science of Sleep) is very much at the leading edge of this style of filmmaking, too.
But is this an attempt to recover the 'real', in opposition to the excessive artifice of contemporary filmmaking technology? It's quite different to the Dogme movement, however, which attempts to do away with all unnecessary elements in the making of a film - lighting, soundtrack, script etc. Can one kind of film be more 'real' than another, or would Baudrillard argue that this is the wrong question to ask?
6 comments:
Is Michael Jackson the best living example of a simulacrum?
re: Is Michael Jackson the best living example of a simulacrum?
I read that and laughed... but then i looked at it again, and you just might be right.
God, I might sound like a dag, but that risk aside, I'm just going to have to say this. Postmodernism is such an awesome subject. Can't think of another subject where Michael Jackson can be discussed as a simulacrum...seriously.
And yes, I have to say, I fully agree with the previous comments. All laughter aside, I genuinely think he is.
I think Second Life needs a mention here. There are around 5million members, and each day more than $US1M is traded as people buy clothing and accessories for their avatars, and real estate too. If you want to own an island, you can in cyberspace. You can have new friends and family and sexual relationships with the other inhabitants. Some people see no need to engage in their own worlds at all anymore. They are all fucking insane.
How's that for the image replacing reality?
ahh so you were watching sbs on tuesday night too.
i was facinated by the real business' in asia which pay their workers to earn virtual currency that is then traded for real currency on the american market. This seemed to me like buying monopoly money with real money? and the idea of a virtual grave. I dont think they are insane though, to them the virtual worlds are just as real as your real world. who makes the decision about which one is more real. are the virtual worlds simulacrum? they are very similar to the matrix arent they.
it's clear which is more real. the one where you can make love to someone with a heartbeat instead of ejaculating onto your keyboard over an avatar with wings. yes, i think the virtual world is a simulacrum, but i don't really see a close similarity to the matrix.
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