Jean Baudrillard

SOURCE: Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories IV

THERE ARE A FEW KEY IDEAS THAT WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND BEFORE

YOU CAN FULLY UNDERSTAND BAUDRILLARD’S THEORIES:

HYPERREALITY

SIMULACRA

SYMBOLIC EXCHANGE

WHAT IS HYPERREALITY?

A reality that isn’t real!

Symbols are meant to symbolise something else.

Think - what do these symbolise:

SYMBOLS ARE NOT THEMSELVES REAL, BUT ARE MEANT TO SYMBOLISE SOMETHING

REAL. This is called “SYMBOLIC EXCHANGE”.

BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE FAKE SYMBOL ONLY COMES TO SYMBOLISE ITSELF

– there is nothing beyond the symbol.

What would this look like?

Hyperreality is the inability to distinguish the ‘real’ from the ‘simulated’.

It only has a ‘surface reality’ – there Is no longer an original thing left for it to

represent.

‘Disneyland’ is the example that Baudrillard uses for this: a real, physical

space that is also clearly a fictional, representational world.

This ‘simulated imagery’ (i.e. simulated symbols) are called

simulacra.

They are symbols stripped of meaning. Stripped of any reference point.

They are not real, but we treat them as if they are real.

THERE IS NO LONGER A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REALITY AND ITS PRESEPRESENTING IMAGE

(ITS ‘SIMULACRUM’)

BAUDRILLARD DOES NOT ARGUE THAT THE MEDIA DISTORTS REALITY.

RATHER, HE ARGUES THAT IT HAS CREATED SO MANY COMPETING

REALITIES THAT THERE IS NO LONGER A ‘REAL’ REALITY – MEANING HAS BEEN

LOST AMONGST A PLURALITY OF IMAGES AND INFINITE SYMBOLS.

SOURCE: Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place