This document discusses Jean Baudrillard's theory of simulacra and simulation as it relates to media and cultural representations. Baudrillard described how representations become increasingly distant from reality, moving from serious representations, to distorted media versions, to idealized simulations that seem more real than reality. As an example, he cites Disney World, which creates a hyperreal world of representations without originals. However, the document notes that Baudrillard used provocative examples and language. Other theorists like Bruno Latour argued that reality is simultaneously real, narrated through discourse, and collective through social relations and cultural models.

1. ATH 390Z Pokemon: Global and Local Cultures
Mark Allen Peterson, PhD
simulacra

3. essence

5. REPRODUCTION

6. MODERN ART

7. MECHANICAL
REPRODUCTION

8. MECHANICAL
REPRODUCTION

9. Representation Counterfeit Simulation Simulacrum
Jean Baudrillard described a sequence of
representations becoming ever more distant
from their original sources

10. Here’s an
example of how
that works in
media

11. ORIGINAL
The novel The
Curse of
Capistrano by
Johnston McCulley
was published in
1919 in All Story
Weekly magazine.

12. REPRESENTATION

13. COUNTERFEIT

14. SIMULATION

15. SIMULACRUM

16. But Baudrillard
argues that this
process is also
part of the
condition of
postmodern life.

17. SIMULATION

18. 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

19. HYPERREALITY
A world of
simulacra, where
nothing is
unmediated.
Everything is a
representation of
a representation.

20. Baudrillard’s
ultimate example
of simulation:
Walt Disney
World

23. SIMULACRA:
Identical copies for which
there is no original

25. hyper

27. BUT

28. Baudrillard is known for:
Aphoristic writing
Hyperbolic statements
Politically charged examples
BUT

29. THE NUER
A.E. Evans-Pritchard
1940

30. “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”

31. BUT…

32. WHY?

35. Consonant: Being in
agreement or harmony
with. Resonating.

36. The Cultural Environment
“The inner world is
constructed from
the outer world…”
The Natural Environment
Given by nature

37. The Cultural Environment
“The inner world is
constructed from
the outer world…”
The Natural Environment
Given by nature
limited
determined

38. The Cultural Environment
“The inner world is
constructed from
the outer world…”
The Natural Environment
Given by nature
transform
technologies

39. Real Life?
Simulation?

43. All phenomena experienced
by humans are “simultaneously
real, like nature, narrated,
like discourse, and
collective, like society.”
Bruno Latour 1993: 6

44. REAL
NARRATED
HUMAN
EXPERIENCE
COLLECTIVE
Reality exists
but we only
experience it
through social
relations and
cultural models.

45. 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