ATH 390Z Pokemon: Global and Local Cultures

Mark Allen Peterson, PhD

simulacra

Is Pokémon real?

Plato wondered about the

essence of images.

The notion of painting

as an attempt to

capture reality

reached its peak in

trompe l’oeil

REPRODUCTION

The shift to technologies of

mechanical reproduction

made looking at images a mass

cultural activity.

MODERN ARTModern art is

defined in part by its effort to distance itself

from reproduction in

the wake of these new

technologies.

MECHANICAL REPRODUCTI

ONchanges the

meaning and value of the

image, and the roles it plays in

society

MECHANICAL REPRODUCTI

ONmakes

animation possible

Representation Counterfeit Simulation Simulacrum

Jean Baudrillard described a sequence of representations becoming ever more distant from their original sources

Here’s an example of

how that works in

media

ORIGINAL

The novel The Curse of

Capistrano by Johnston

McCulley was published in

1919 in All Story Weekly

magazine.

REPRESENTATION

The image is a reflection of a

basic reality

Example: The 1920 Douglas Fairbanks film “based on the

novel by Johnston

McCulley.”

COUNTERFEIT

The image masks a basic

reality

Borrowing signs from the original

and its representations, new stories are

created that imply earlier stories but

do not seek consistency

SIMULATION

The image masks the

absence of a basic reality

There is no Zorro in Zorro’s Black

Whip (1940), Don Daredevil

Rides Again (1951) or Queen of Swords (2000)

but the signs of Zorro are present

SIMULACRUM

The image bears no relation to

any reality

Detached from contexts of time and space Zorro can wear armor,

wield a light saber, battle Dracula,

Hercules or fight alongside the

Three Musketeers.

But Baudrillard argues that this process

is also part of the condition

of postmodern

life.

SIMULATIONThe active process of

the replacement

of the real with

simulations of reality

1• REALITY

2

• REPRESENTATION• A serious effort to capture the essence of the real

3

• COUNTERFEIT• Media change reality to make it more visual and fun

4

• SIMULATION• Idealized representation becomes more real than reality

5

• SIMULACRUM• Relationship between representation and reality breaks down

HYPERREALITY

A world of simulacra,

where nothing is

unmediated. Everything is

a representation

of a representation

.

Baudrillard’s ultimate

example of simulation:

Walt Disney World

“We not only enjoy a perfect

imitation, we also enjoy the

conviction that imitation has

reached its apex, and afterward

reality will always be inferior to it.”

Jean Baudrillard

“Welcome to the Hollywood

that never was, and will always be.”

Michael Eisner 1989Disney Hollywood Studios

SIMULACRA:

Identical copies for which there is no original

So is Pokémon

real?

Pokémon is hyperreal!

WAIT!

Baudrillard’s theory of

simulation has a lot of

compelling elements

BUT

Baudrillard’s theory of

simulation has a lot of

compelling elements

Baudrillard is known for:Aphoristic writing Hyperbolic statements Politically charged examples

BUT

Let’s try a quick

anthropological corrective

THE NUERA.E. Evans-

Pritchard1940

“No high barriers of culture divide men from beasts in their common

homes. The stark nakedness of the Nuer

amid their cattle and the intimacy of their

contact with them present a classic picture

of savagery”

The Nuer fit the classic stereotype

of the savage: low technology

BUT…

No people is really

“closer to nature” than

any other

WHY?

Because our relationship

to the environment

is always mediated by

culture.

“Their lifestyle is consonant with their

environment”

“Their lifestyle is consonant with their

environment”

Consonant: Being in agreement or harmony with. Resonating.

The Cultural Environment

“The inner world is constructed from the outer world…”

The Natural Environment

Given by nature

All human beings are “born into

two worlds”

The Cultural Environment

“The inner world is constructed from the outer world…”

The Natural Environment

Given by nature

The domesticate

d environment is limited by the natural

environment, but it is not determined

by it.

The Cultural Environment

“The inner world is constructed from the outer world…”

The Natural Environment

Given by nature

And we transform

nature using the

technologies we derive

through our cultural

systems.

Real Life?

Simulation?

In other words,

maybe there never was a

real reality to be

simulated.

Culturally shaped

perceptions always

intercede between

reality and ourselves.

“Material objects are chains along which

social relations run, and the more simple is the

material culture, the more numerous are the relationships expressed

by it.”

People create their

material culture, and

they also build up

their relationships

through it.

All phenomena experienced by humans

are “simultaneously real, like nature,

narrated, like discourse, and collective, like

society.”Bruno Latour 1993: 6

REAL

NARRATED

HUMAN EXPERIENCE

COLLECTIVE

Reality exists but

we only experience it through

social relations

and cultural models.

Latour, Bruno. 1993. We Have Never Been Modern. Harvard University Press.Peterson, Mark Allen. 2005. Simulacra. The Encyclopedia of Anthropology, James Birx, ed.  Pp. 2088-2089.  Sage Books.

Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. University of Michigan Press.Benjamin, Walter. 1936 (1968) The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Illuminations. London: Fontana.Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1969.The Nuer. Oxford University Press.

References