This document discusses concepts related to hyperreality, simulation, and postmodernity. It provides: 1) Explanations of key terms like hyperreality, simulacrum, and simulation, describing a blurred line between reality and representation in technologically advanced societies. 2) Examples of how certain environments, media, and technologies can create hyperreal or simulated experiences that blend reality and fiction, such as Disneyland, Dubai, and virtual reality. 3) Insights from postmodern thinkers like Baudrillard, Eco, and Lyotard on how society has moved from believing in "grand narratives" to a state of moral relativism brought on by simulations and proliferating representations of reality.

1. More pomo stuff
L/O: to gain additional information for your exam (especially current
case studies)

2. Review of hyperreality
• Hyperreality is an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality,
especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies.
• When you can’t differentiate reality from simulation of reality (esp with tech)
• Hyperreality is seen as a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly
blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other
begins.
• The condition where reality and fiction blend together and you don’t know where each one ends/begins
• It allows the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality (VR) and human
intelligence with artificial intelligence (AI).
• Allows physical reality and VR to mingle (hybridity)
• Mingling of human intelligence and AI (humans)
• Individuals may find themselves for different reasons, more in tune or involved with the hyperreal
world and less with the physical real world
• More with physical real world:
• More with hyperreal world:
•"A real without origin or reality" – Baudrillard
•"The authentic fake." – Eco
•"The virtual irreality" – Sparrow

3. Difference between hypereality and simulacrum
• A simulacrum is a representation or imitation of a person or thing.
• Image or representation of something
• Unsatisfactory imitation or substitute
• Simulacrum means that there is a virtual reality that has a similarity to other realities.
• EXAMPLE: photo of a skyscraper, an edited video
• EXAMPLE: vegan cheese
• Hyperreality means there are characteristics of the reality that make it seem like a simulation. (reality vs representation)
• Example: A fake world in a video game (like GTA)
• Example: the representation of Nikki Minaj in ‘Anaconda’ or Barbie girl
• SIMULACRUM THEN HYPEREALITY!
• Our reality has more problems than ideal states. A hyperreality is one with more flexibility, more ideal states, less suffering, shorter
distances between planets, and less laws.
• For a challenge read: In the future, we should be able to make consciousness something that can be downloaded into virtual
realities, and they we will probably do away with problems that exist in the RW (subtract the factors above). The problems we face
in the RW won't exist for very long, as progression is defined as the elimination of problems.

4. Disneyland (wiki)
• Eco believes that Disneyland with its settings such as Main Street and full sized houses has been created to look "absolutely realistic," taking visitors'
imagination to a "fantastic past.“ This false reality creates an illusion and makes it more desirable for people to buy this reality. Disneyland works in a
system that enables visitors to feel that technology and the created atmosphere "can give us more reality than nature can". The fake animals such as
alligators and hippopotamuses are all available to people in Disneyland and for everyone to see. The "fake nature" of Disneyland satisfies our
imagination and daydream fantasies in real life. Therefore, they seem more admirable and attractive. When entering Disneyland, consumers form into
lines to gain access to each attraction. Then they are ordered by people with special uniforms to follow the rules, such as where to stand or where to
sit. If the consumer follows each rule correctly, they can enjoy "the real thing" and see things that are not available to them outside of Disneyland's
doors.
• Think of propaganda or concept in the hunger games ( think of how they advertise the role of tributes – it’s heroic and admirable but in reality it’s awful)
• idealised or ‘fetishized’ realities outperform actual realities (like airbrushing)
• In his work Simulacra and Simulation, Baudrillard argues the "imaginary world" of Disneyland magnetizes people inside and has been presented as
"imaginary" to make people believe that all its surroundings are "real". But he believes that the Los Angeles area is not real; thus it is hyperreal.
Disneyland is a set of apparatuses (equipment) which tries to bring imagination and fiction to what is called "real". This concerns the American values
and way of life in a sense and "concealing the fact that the real is no longer real, and thus of saving the reality principle.“
• Reinforced in ‘American life or American dream – it’s not real, they are keeping people in ignorance so they don’t know the ‘reality’ is not ‘reality’ (Disneyland and matrix
– it is an illusion but we are blind to this)
• "The Disneyland imaginary is neither true or false: it is a deterrence machine set up in order to blur/hide the fiction from the real.
• Disneyland is true or false, it’s a deterrent designed to deter the audience from knowing what is actually real.
• The more hypereal something becomes, the more reality degenerates.
• It’s neither dream, nor reality but simulacrum
• For a challenging thought: It's meant to be an infantile world, in order to make us believe that the adults are elsewhere, in the "real" world, and to
conceal the fact that real childishness is everywhere, particularly among those adults who go there to act the child in order to foster illusions of their
real childishness."

5. Reality vs media reality
• No such thing as reality as it’s all ‘media reality’ which is a
postmodern condition
• The more far away we get from reality we get, the harder we search
for reality (i.e. Donald Trump – it’s so ridiculous (hyperreal) we search
for truth/reality)

6. Simulation and simulacrum
• Simulation is characterized by a blending of ‘reality’ and representation,
where there is no clear indication of where the former stops and the latter
begins. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being, or a
substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality:
a hyperreal Baudrillard suggests that simulation no longer takes place in a
physical realm; it takes place within a space not categorized by physical
limits i.e., within ourselves, technological simulations, etc.
• The simulacrum is often defined as a copy with no original, or as Deleuze
(1990) describes it, “the simulacrum is an image without resemblance”.
• Baudrillard argues that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes
truth in its own right, aka the hyperreal. The last stage of reproduction is
simulacrum, which "bears no relation to any reality whatsoever"

7. How are these things ‘hypereal’?
• Well manicured gardens
• The film 300
• Dubai, Las Vegas
• Retail stores that have been ‘faced’
• A life that cannot be (think of celebs)
• Plastic surgery
• High end ‘sex dolls’
• New buildings or new items designed to look old
• SecondLife/sims

8. How are these things ‘hypereal’?
• Well manicured gardens (nature not like this – nature as hypereal)
• The film 300 (made to be real but was entirely simulated using green screen)
• Dubai, Las Vegas (places that are not functional in reality – simulations of things that already exist, totally artificial)
• Retail stores that have been ‘faced’ (creating illusion it’s more stocked than it is)
• A life that cannot be (think of celebs) (usually idealised – the ‘perfect life’ or a celebrities invented persona/alter ego (Lady Gaga)
• Plastic surgery (constructed face or body parts to break down the distinction of natural/artificial considering beauty standards)
• High end ‘sex dolls’ (simulacrum of an unattainable partner)
• New buildings or new items designed to look old (simulating feeling or look of age/aging)
• SecondLife/sims (distinction becomes blurred when it becomes platform for real life)

9. Lyotard
• Grand narratives = big ideas i.e. religion
• His theory is that people don’t believe in big ideas/big ‘things’
anymore because people believe in a lot of things
• This can be controversial because how do we ‘judge’ things because
there are so many things?
• Progress into nothingness
• MORAL RELATIVISM =
• How do we judge a ‘leader’?

10. Subversion
• Experiment
• Why do people create memes?
• Why do people create parodies?
• Why do teenagers send images rather than words?
(snapchat/emojis/memes etc)
• Can you think of examples?

11. Case studies that subvert
• to overthrow (something established or existing).
• 2.to cause the downfall, ruin, or destruction of.
• 3.to undermine the principles of; corrupt
• Subversion means overthrowing something, like a government or law, or it can mean corrupting someone's personal morals, like
making a vegetarian eat bacon by tricking them
• By subverting things, it helps us understand things in a different light
• Young people expect to remix as part of a cause
• Why did Seth Rogan create ‘Sausage party?’ Or why do people create offensive memes?
• <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sDyGJFzwvio" frameborder="0"
allowfullscreen></iframe> minecraft matrix
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDyGJFzwvio
• This is called a POMODALITY
• Sausage party?
• Deadpool?
• Meme’s/parodies?

12. VR
• Periscope (mediating and curating your own life?)
• Oculus Rift
• 360 videos/advertising (special K)
• What do you know about these?
• Impact on the future if VR keeps expanding and proliferates?
• Pro’s? Con’s?

13. Something that is and isn’t
• Is a ‘Pomodality’
• Modality is a particular mode in which something exists or is experienced or expressed
• Usually they are:
• Ironic
• Satirical
• Parody
• Dystopian
• Step too far
• Self referential (self reflexivity)
• It’s a 3rd space (not a theme park, not an art exhibit = it’s thinking outside of it)
• EXAMPLES:
• Dismaland
• Celebrities invented persona’s (Lady Gaga or David Bowie or Sia)
• Trump & his campaign (simulacrump? Haha)

14. Dismaland
• Check blog for details on this as a main case study
• HIGHLY recommended to do in exam!!!!!