I don’t believe we believe the Simulationsof contemporary Hyperrealities and other such constructions

In terms of this sites organisation, despite enjoying the void of relative words floating in a virtual space, and playing with them for quite a while, I was initially confused as I thought they where links to new articles as opposed to a thesaurus/glossary of relative words. So although fun, I found it a little distracting from the point and slightly gimmicky, I also think it would be little use to a person actually looking for useful links/inspiration etc. on the title subject. I’d stick to the old fashioned get a thesaurus in physical book form, and read it.

In terms of presentation as research, I think its slightly simplistic and would be perhaps more useful for younger ages, e.g. as an interactive word association game for school children studying English or Media. But perhaps I’m just being harsh?

Content and it relevance to us!

Straight away the concept of simulation is relevant to me in a big way, The society of the Spectacle is a simulated reality. Not strictly a simulation, because a simulation isn’t real, it’s a test, a prototype of a given situation. The Spectacle is a simulation that cemented itself. One could see it as a capitalist/consumerist test which excelled its expectation outgrew its restriction and made a play for world domination.

This article begins by saying essentially the same hing about the media and art, whose expressions and communication of a singular perspective are now commonly mistook and accepted as a truth. These representations and opinions have as
Devin Sandoz’s article on simulation and simulacra suggests become the reality of things

As occupants of the culture industry however what does this mean for us, as artists or observers? I sincerely believe modern society raises the individual with a post-modern awareness of media slant and representation. Children now grow up hearing words like bias, editing, representation and role models and slogans ‘like it’s the medias fault’. We now grow up constantly aware of different angles, Specifically in this country where we now consider political correctness a rampant and destructive force, surely that too simply raises awareness of the simulations, the represented simulacra’s we become accustomed to and challenges us not to be swayed by them.

I think hyper-reality is becoming an outdated concept in a world were we are aware on them, we now chose identity like a cereal and after a few forays into fashion fads as teenager we come into our twenties with an awareness with how constructed these things are. The artificial simulation which dominate todays youth I think now lead to a more objective young adult a few years down the line. I chuckle to myself when thinking of the punk rock 16 yr old me with dyed hair and piercing, and I think this is a symptom of social cultural simulations that all young people now go through, an awareness of the fraud of youth culture.

I could perhaps myself being overly optimistic about contemporary awareness of the semiology and fashions of modern conditions having studied media now for almost ten years. However I don’t think so we’re now getting to the point where we have tv shows about tv shows, such as making of, etc. there is no more illusion to media and art, because we’re aware of the viral nature of marketing and franchising. I think now we’re just happy to accept these things and take them at face value rather than being swayed by the deeper meanings.

But maybe its just me?

Filed under: e-tivity04-0708, joe

E-tivity 04/ Keywords of Media Theory

I found the site Keywords to Media Theory well designed and comprehensive. It does not have any distracting graphics making navigating through it easy and seamless. Keywords within the texts are highlighted in blue and connected to definition links. Overall a very good, imformative sight. Regarding the two essays on simulation and simulacrum-in my view the first essay by Devin Sandoz, although started off interesting, contained convoluted academic speak conjuring up an image of a dog chasing its tail but never getting anywhere. Joanna Topor essay is the opposite a lot easier to understand and comprehensive. More contemporary, contextual examples would have been a bonus but the examples given served their purpose. Referencing was good although Devin’s bibliography left a lot to be desired. In both essays there was no existance to websites or links that could backup the arguments ie http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/gallery.html.

Filed under: e-tivity04-0708, sousan, tiip

Simulation/Simulacrum: Media Keywords Glossary.

As W. J. T. Mitchell explains in the home page of the Glossary of Keywords of Media Theory of the University of Chicago, “the terms are organised within the structure of the interface like tiles”, and by clicking into them you can dive into the essays written, and very well argumented and referenced by the students of the University of Chicago. What it draws the most my attention of this lay out is the clarity and the easy navegation of the site, in which, as Mitchell remarks the “keywords are hotlinked within the body of the essay as well as by a quicklinks menu. These hotlinked terms lead the reader from one essay to the next in a crawling network of terms”. Also, the terms are activated as tags and, therefore, can be easily found through the use of engine searchers as Google.

The website constitutes an interactive matrix of key terms in Media, researched by the students of Chicago University, which can be used like a first step to fully understand contemporary concepts of Media practice, and from which following the links of the chain you can find the bibliography, and therefore gain access to the original sources in which the arguments of the essays are based on. Therefore, this site is a good point of reference for researchers and learners in general that aim to understand Media theories, and to develop a personal point of view.

D.Sandoz and J. Topor in their definitions of Simulation/simulacrum, draw an historical journey of the evolution of these concepts, starting from the Greek Classics, Plato and Aristotle,until the Contemporary thinkers and authors, such as, Gilles Deleuze and Jean Baudrillard.

Devin Sandoz starts his argument giving to us the offcial definitions of these terms from the Oxford English On-line Dicitionary:

Simulation is defined as “the action or practice for simulating, with an intent to deceive”, whereas Simulacrum is defined as “ something having merely the appearance of a certain thing, without possessing its substance or proper qualities” and as a mere image, a specious imitation or likeness, of something”.

D.Sandoz carries on defining theses terms analysing the article written by Michael Camille
“Simulacrum” in the “Critical terms of the Simulacrum” depicting Plato’s theories. In this paper, M. Camille exposes Plato’s ideas regarding simulacrum, through the analysis of the “Allegory of the Cave” (The Republic: Book VII. 360 BC), from which Sandoz concludes that, “The simulacrum uses our experience of reality against us, creating a false likeness that reproduces so exactly our visual experience with the real that we cannot discern the falseness of the imitation.”.

D. Sandoz also overviews Michael Camille’s text analysing Gilles Deleuze’s essay “Plato and the Simulacrum” in which he focuses the simulacrum as something positive within the art context”

“the simulacrum is not a degraded copy. It arbors a positive power which denies the original and the copy, the model and the reproduction” (Camille: 33).

Furthermore, Deleuze by the deniying this relationship of original and copy, highlights the identity of the simulacrum as an original in its own ends.

“The artwork, then, is neither an original, nor a copy nor a representation. It is a simulacrum a work that forms part of a series that cannot referred to be an original beginning”.

(Kelly, D Ed. (1998). Encyclopedia of the Aesthetics. Oxford:UP)

This point of view was already proposed by Plato in the “Cratylus Dialogue “
(360, BC) in which the philosopher starts developing a theory of the Semiotics exploring the nature of language and the arbitrary relationship whithin the signs between signifier and signified, as Ferdinand de Saussure theorises two millenniums after “in Course in General Linguistics” (1915).

“SOCRATES: Let us suppose the existence of two objects: one of them shall be Cratylus, and the other the image of Cratylus; and we will suppose, further, that some God makes not only a representation such as a painter would make of your outward form and colour, but also creates an inward organization like yours, having the same warmth and softness; and into this infuses motion, and soul, and mind, such as you have, in a wordcopies all your qualities, and places them by you in another form; would you say that this was Cratylus and the image of Cratylus, or that there were two Cratyluses?

CRATYLUS: I should say that there were two Cratyluses.”

http://philosophy.eserver.org/plato/cratylus.txt

In this text, Plato denies the existence and the relationship between an “original” and a “copy” admitting the existence of “two originals”. This point taken by Deleuze as something positive within the art context, has been critisized by the Simulationists, such as , Baudrillard, Humberto Eco and Jorge Luis Borges that denounce, in the social context, the lost of the contact with the reality, that has been replaced by its representation, by its hyperriality.

For Baudrillard, according to Sandoz “the signs are not exchanged for meaning, but merely for another sign”. Or, as Joanna Topor highlights regarding this author’s point, “the world, as we know it now, is constructed on the representation of the representations”.

Jorge Luis Borges in 1960 writes the short story “Rigor in Science” in which establishes a metaphor of this hyperreality in which the cartographers of one Empire draw a map of it in scale 1:1, in a way that the map, the representation, ends up substituting the real territory of the Empire.

“… In that Empire, the Art of Cartography reached such Perfection that the map of one Province alone took up the whole of a City, and the map of the empire, the whole of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps did not satisfy, and the Colleges of Cartographers set up a Map of the Empire which had the size of the Empire itself and coincided with it point by point. Less Addicted to the Study of Cartography, Succeeding Generations understood that this Widespread Map was Useless and not without Impiety they abandoned it to the Inclemencies of the Sun and of the Winters. In the deserts of the West some mangled Ruins of the Map lasted on, inhabited by animals and Beggars; in the whole Country there are no other relics of the Disciplines of Geography.”

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2005/07/-google-maps-ac.php

Therefore, for Baudrillard our experience of this hyperreal world is mediated by the media, and simulation becomes the essence of mediation. As J. Topor points out:

“Films attempt to depict reality, thereby dictation what reality should look like. In the end it becomes impossible to know what came first, the filmic depiction of reality of reality itself.”

Or as D. Sandoz exposes quoting Bautdrillard, “the dissolution of the tv into life, the dissolution of life into media.”

As matter of fact, the other day I went with my friends to a concert in central London, and I had the pleasure of finding on my way five Madonnas, three David Bowies and seven Blondies.

Filed under: e-tivity04-0708, iceberg, tiip

Simulation/Simulacrum, Keywords site

The site is an interesting concept and it is always easier to critique, however I had some issues and possibly a different opinion to some of the feedback. I think the site is more excited about the conceptual format, and it is a good concept, than the execution of it’s content and context. I explored a selection of links that I either have an interest in and have some knowledge of, as well as the two set texts. Generic to all that I examined I found that often the blue links to be followed were often not relevant or intelligent to the context they were applied to ( a question is; do the authors link the words or is it automatic within the site?) In the two simulation/simulacrum texts I found both to have a paucity of references especially compared to other entries and neither used any references that were contemporary so for me the academic content did not surprise or inform could be compared to one of Wikipedia’s better pages. Comparing the two entries S/S (1) Devin Sandoz used his references to only to paraphrase and did not contextualise to contemporary media. I felt the essay had a poor construction and I need to go to the conclusion to understand his discourse. S/S (2) for me had more clarity and more considered own thinking, also more references and annotated notes, the style however was more journalistic than academic. She did attempt to contextualise more of the material but again could have cited more examples and then discussed them in relation to the theory. Neither discussed the theory in terms of the full range of contemporary media art work or original thought. What was interesting about the site is that like wikipedia it appears to be self regulated and there was not a consistent level of understanding or research across any of the keyword entries. So as an information or research interface it would be a lucky dip.

Filed under: e-tivity04-0708, glenda, tiip , e-tivity4, glenda, tiip

simulation/simulacrum review/opinion

The pictures of bubbles of fizz on the label on the bottle are enticing but they are no subsitute for feeling the bubbles fizzing against my teeth, the sound they make felt rather more than heard.

The two appraisals of simulation, simulacrum are five years old but still seem current. Much of the information they reference is immune from date concerns such as the thinking of Aristotle. But there’s a lot of it. The writing is proper and measured. The writing is dry and not engaging.

The initial portal is compelling. It is presented as if a series of doors opening on to rooms full of knowledge. It is clear and simple. But a bit dull.

The information is presented but perhaps a list would be sufficient. Conclusions would be best succinct. And finally, for me the web is as much a place of images as it is a place of text. Some images would be nice. 

Filed under: anna, e-tivity04-0708

Simulation and Simulacrum

I think this blog introduced by W.J.T. Mitchell on the course he instructs in Theories of Media at the University of Chicago, is excellent. The process of study is being structured and revealed in an engaging way for not only his media students but for all those who happily stumble across it on the web. The design of the pages are clear, consistent and interesting, framed and headed by the simple movement of relevant moving type creating a nice visual touch. The contributions by students are extremely erudite and impressive and there is a real sense of confidence and authority to their writing. Likewise I love their referencing system which is very useful and mirrors the nature of Wikipedia, the largest open content, free encyclopedia launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. The bibliography on the side bar named as ‘works cited’ is also a very significant element  for academic and professional purposes and even the ‘keywords cross references is a nice little flourish

The philosophy of offering content that can be extremely useful for academic, personal and business research for free is a very powerful one, alluding to the ethos of cooperation rather than dog eat dog competition. It encourages us all to embrace the spirit of win/win rather than win/lose and I personally echo that sentiment. Not only that but the idea of giving something of value away for free is a major component in the psychology of Influence.  Researched and addressed in Influence – The Psychology of  Persuasion by Robert  B. Caldini, this principle of reciprocation states that ‘we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.’ He refers to sociologists such as Alvin Gouldner who reports that there is no human society on this planet that doesn’t abide by this rule or principle.

Lest I digress I shall address the content of the keywords glossary, in particular my response to the definitions given to the words simulacra and simulation. In the first extract (1) Simulation defined variously as a process and technique of imitation or imitative behaviour with an intent to deceive. While simulacrum is described as a static entity which is a mere surface representation of the original with no actual possession of substance or proper quality of that original entity.  The article refers to the historical notion of these concepts and cites Plato’s analyis and criticism in The Republic using the example of the creation of a statue to typify and represent a likeness of its human subject. Camille writes of Plato’s concern that this reproduced  image is a deviation and perversion, a false likeness.

Likewise Jean Baudrillard was apprehensive and believed that the activity of simulation not only created a false reality but was at once even more devious because it destroyed the original by replacing it. He was deeply disturbed by the potential artifice and superficiality of the process of simulation and its resulting product or simulacrum, as if the very substance or truth of reality was removed. He appeared to be concerned  that with the production of an ever more simulated reality with the advent of technologies such as photography, tv and film, the people of a society would lose  a sense of reality and instead be wrapped and held rapt by the surface and superficial in life, mesmerised by the tokens of life. The philosopher and social critic Walter Benjamin termed the missing quality from the original as ‘the aura’ but congruent with his knowledge of Marxism’s materialistic conception of history, believed that the  disappearance of the aura was no bad thing if mass reproduction  of images, moving or still, promoted new modes of critical perception in its audience. In her book, ‘But is it art?’ Cynthia Freeland also presents Benjamin’s ideas that cinema for example created a distance between its narrative and its audience that the viewer recognised compared to  the dynamics and so called ‘reality’ of theatre which he believed was more engrossing. However  Benjamin died in 1940 before cinema photography, radio, tv and game programming had reached its technological and creative simulation heights, par excellence. These technologies are so powerful, so financially resourced and employ the greatest of talent to produce seductive and sophisticated representations of reality. They are deemed ‘hyperreal’ and as discussed in the resource article, are all embracing and pervasive. Information presented by these media are dispersed around us with a mixture of such subtlety and blatancy, that we are no longer able to distinguish the precise medium let alone the origins and integrity of the message. As the author says that life is now ‘spectralised…the event filtered by the medium – the dissolution of TV into life, the dissolution of life into TV? We only have to scan the dominant strain of ‘Reality TV programming’

The writing also very ably describes the concept of simulation in David Cronenbergy’s film eXistenZ which is now on my list of films to see. I think it’s a particularly relevant and current example with the description that the virtual reality videogames that are the the film’s focus, are raised to deific proportions. Working with secondary school pupils I am constantly amazed and disheartened that so many of them play video games on their Playstations for up to 12 hours at a time…and that’s without the tricks of virtual reality. It seems to me that more and more of our youth and adult population are being diverted  from making adventurous decisions about reality through the escape of simulated reality that appears so more fascinating and alluring.

In the second article (2) by Joanna Topor, which is also beautifully written, she concludes that the media itself is responsible for the breakdown of reality because it provides society with simulated events and the reproduction of signs that supposedly constitute reality. She refers to Baudrillard’s concept that the medium for presentation of a message/information is not in fact a mediator or bridge of communication but instead is the message itself and outlines Marashall McLuhan’s (1911-1980) belief that ‘the medium is the message’. It was his belief that the newer media could restore aspects of right-brain creative functioning suppressed by literacy in the sense that new media could promote connectedness and community, ‘the global village’. Older technologies such as ships, printing, railways, carriages, bicycles and cars all catalysed movements of people, their goods and their ideas and experience of reality. Today tv, radio, the telephone and the internet can do the same with no physical movement on our part at all. Of course there are profound advantages and disadvantages to such a development  but I am continually struck by the miracle of it all. I suppose the question for me is how we navigate and temper both the miraculous access to information and other’s experience  of reality with the distortion and intrusion into our own sense of reality. One thing I am sure about is that electronic means of communication stimulate visual and auditory senses but what remains out of the picture is the kinaesthetic awareness of reality. By being passive recipients of  ‘so called’ reality we are disconnecting from our bodies, stimulating the mind but not the body. By being passive recipients of a simulated ‘aspirational society’ we lock ourselves into the theatre of comparison. As differences or perceived differences are heightened we lose touch with our own values and sense of self at home in reality. So I am inclined to disagree with McLuhan that the media is the message in that it ignores content. My sense is that we must demand more inspirational, empowering content that breathes resourcefulness, inventiveness and the goodness of human nature.
Blessings esther

Filed under: e-tivity04-0708, esther, tiip

e-tivity4 Simulation & simulacrum

Having read both texts I am surprised at the differences in writing style and content considering they both offer possible definitions of the same thing: Simulation and simulacrum. Whilst the second text by Joanna Topor referenced its text sources very thoroughly I found it generalised the theory it examined, Baudrillard’s in particular. This meant that it came across merely as description of other peoples theories which raised them to a state of fact. Where as, I found that the first text by Devin Sandoz offered a clear analysis of other theorists texts, which developed into an interesting argument. For instance, he begins a paragraph with “Jean Baudrillard writes in Simulations that…” which is then developed in the next paragraph starting, ”If for Baudrillard the simulation is the process through which…” in his own voice. However, the texts and sources have, disappointingly, not been referenced well, leaving me unsure as where to investigate to read more. I found that both texts only skirt around the notion of Simulation and simulacrum in relation to the media ‘artwork’. I felt the first text addressed the artwork most directly when considering Deleuze’s writing on the subject; a theorist who has also studied previous theory (Baudrillard) and developed his own voice regarding the subject. Where as the second text focused more directly upon either the various dictionary definitions of the terms, or Baudrillard’s philosophical framework for the terms. For me this, again, made the text too closed and dry. As with the first text, narrative films were used as examples that contextualised the definitions, but I was frustrated by the question/fact posed at the end of the second text: “In the end it becomes impossible to know what came first, the filmic depiction of reality or reality itself.” For, whilst the notion of narrative film as simulation of reality is an interesting one, it is easy to trace the linear progression of the filmic depiction of reality; following a brief period of experimentation of the new medium at the turn of last century, film became a means to depict reality, to tell a story, which has be established as the ‘mainstream’ of film; conceived for the cinema, ever since. This typified this text for me and highlights a need to thoroughly research theory, and consider it from more than one or two positions, particularly when attempting to define a comlex theory. Although, in criticism of the first text, which was open to a number of texts on the matter, any sources need to be referenced when presenting research online (or anywhere for that matter.)
Jim

Filed under: e-tivity04-0708, jim

e-tivity 04

I found this online glossary Keywords of Media Theory in the website for the course Theories of Media. It is relevant that the site began life as an assignment for the course taught by W. J. T. Mitchell at the University of Chicago. “The online form of the project, in allowing us to teach and publish with new media, has proven an exciting pedagogical arena. In relation to our subject, media theory, it has prompted us to think about the interface as a mediating element, whether it is the tiled interface presented here for the Keywords Glossary, or the form of books themselves as in the case of our printed forbears. The project has offered students a rare opportunity to test out the world of publishing, and to consider how academic study gets transformed into textual and visual forms that can teach others. ” Not so different from our own project, isnt’it?

Purpose: To study the organisation of the site, the use of individual pages for keywords, the keywords selected, the use of referencing and the bibliographic research, the use of tags and the form the students collaborated in the project.

Task: Read the following keywords simulation/simulacrum (1) and simulation/simulacrum (2) . Post in this blog about the way the terms are presented and contextualised in relation to concerns specific to the media artwork. What lessons can be learnt about the way the research is done and presented online?

Respond: Come back to the tiip’s blog, read your classmates posts and leave a comment with your feedback.

Timeline
Task: Friday, January 18th
Respond: Tuesday, January 22th

Thank you and have fun with the keywords!
paula

Filed under: e-tivity04-0708, paula