Simulacrum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Some information in this article or section is not attributed to sources and may not be reliable.
Please check for inaccuracies, and modify and cite sources as needed.

Simulacrum (plural: simulacra), from the Latin simulare, "to make like, to put on an appearance of", originally meaning a material object representing something (such as a cult image representing a deity, or a painted still-life of a bowl of fruit). By the 1800s it developed a sense of a "mere" image, an empty form devoid of spirit, and descended to connote a specious or fallow representation.

In Difference and Repetition (1968 / 1994) French philosopher Gilles Deleuze argued that "simulacra and simulacra alone" are the content of Friedrich Nietzsche's Doctrine of the Eternal Return. In the book Simulacra and Simulation (1981/1995), the French social theorist Jean Baudrillard gave the term a specific meaning in the context of semiotics, extended from its common one: a copy of a copy which has been so dissipated in its relation to the original that it can no longer be said to be a copy. The simulacrum, therefore, stands on its own as a copy without a model. For example, the cartoon Betty Boop was based on singer Helen Kane. Kane, however, rose to fame imitating Annette Hanshaw. Hanshaw and Kane have fallen into relative obscurity, while Betty Boop remains an icon of the flapper.

Fredric Jameson uses the example of photorealism to describe simulacra. The painting is a copy of a photograph, not of reality. The photograph itself is a copy of the original. Therefore, the painting is a copy of a copy. Other art forms that play with simulacra include Pop Art, Trompe l'oeil, Italian neorealism and the French New Wave. Jean Baudrillard puts forth God as an example.

Contents

[edit] Simulacra in literature, film and television

? This article or section may contain original research or unattributed claims.
Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.

Simulacra often make appearances in Fantasy and Science Fiction literature. In science fiction Simulacra are often either artificial life forms that are designed to mimic the characteristics of a naturally occurring species, or they can be simulated worlds/planes of existence designed to fool regular people into believing that the simulated world they are in is real. When it comes to artificial beings, simulacra can be seen as a modern day adaptation of the Golem myth.[citation needed]

Many stories that include Simulacra share several common themes:[citation needed]

  • Simulacra are always imperfect copies.
  • Simulacra are distinguishable from the original, because they are based on an idealized original of that which was copied.
  • There is a desire (be it implicit or by design) on the part of the Simulacrum either to be more like the original (i.e. Pinocchio or The Truman Show's staged world), or to replace the original (i.e. Doppelgänger or the Matrix in The Matrix)
  • The Simulacra may be hostile or threatening to those whom they copy (i.e., the aliens in Invasion of the Body Snatchers and V (TV series), or Agent Smith in The Matrix) either in a direct manner or by mere abjection (on the part of the observer).

Despite the many instances when simulacra are described as androids, the two are not to be confused; simulacra go far beyond the concept of an android. While all androids are simulacra, not all simulacra are androids.[citation needed] As mentioned above, the aliens from Invasion of the Body Snatchers and even the Matrix from The Matrix are examples that are not machine-based copies of humans.

Philip K. Dick often explored the concept of the Simulacrum. Two of his more famous works include the novel "The Simulacra" (published in 1969) and the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", which was later adapted into the Ridley Scott film "Blade Runner".

In the film Blade Runner, androids built in imitation of humans are banned from the planet Earth, yet return to Earth in search of their creator. In hopes of having their pre-programmed termination undone, one of the androids meets the engineer who designed his artificial eyes and says to him, "If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes." In Blade Runner, the androids are not copies of actual humans - all of whom, in the film, have physical defects - but of idealized, perfect versions of humans. Therefore, the replicants are imitations not of reality but of another imitation - ergo, they are simulacra.

The novel on which Blade Runner is based is Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". Dick's stories often blend the lines between reality and the perception of reality. The electro-mechanical 'Andies' in the novel became bio-engineered 'Replicants' in the movie. And despite the Androids/Replicants being hunted by a character named Deckard and being detectable by the special test, the two story lines have almost nothing in common. So in a fitting bit of irony, a movie about Simulacra is in fact a Simulacrum itself.

Commander Data, in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation also represents an example of the post-modern sense of Simulacrum. Data is Sci-Fi adaptation of Walt Disney's character Pinocchio. Disney's character, in turn, was based on Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. The Collodi Pinocchio has more in common with Data's Evil twin Lore than with the innocent character depicted in the Disney film.[citation needed]

Other examples of simulacra in film and television include the anthropoid Cylons from the new Battlestar Galactica, the apparations in Andrei Tarkovsky's film Solaris, and the world Christof created for Truman in The Truman Show.

[edit] Simulacra in recreation

Disneyland and all of its related theme parks are examples of simulacra. A description of a simulacra is 'an imperfect copy' and each Disney theme park is a combination of reality (simulated squares and streets in mimesis of real city streets) and fantasy (castles, old west settings, the future, etc.). Everything there seems real, but again, it is an imperfect copy. Worlds and scenes from Disney films and specials were recreated for tourists to experience them. Employees roam the parks under the pretence of their job being their real life.

Epcot's microcosmic World Showcase is multiple small simulated bites of what the real countries it represents; many simulacra within a larger simulacrum.

Each of these parks are perfectly real, yet most visitors (at least the adults) are aware that they are not visiting a real princess' castle, or the real future, Wild West, etc. A person wandering into Mexico in Epcot does not fool themselves by believing that they are on Mexican soil. It's imperfections like emergency exits in said castles, wild west saloons, etc. that reveal the falsities of the supposed reality.

Historic places such as Colonial Williamsburg, however, are simulacra presented in a way that can be misperceived by the general public. Colonial Willamsburg presents itself as frozen-in-time in AD 1699-1780. This is all well and good, as it present to the interested public the way things may have been during the formation of the United States of America. Many of the public who visit Colonial Williamsburg think it was a real colonial place, as it certainly appears to be. While it does contain components of a real historical place, it is not a real historical place in its totality. They are not generally aware (and Colonial Williamsburg does not go out if its way to reveal) that Colonial Williamsburg is a built environment stemming not from AD 1699-1780 but from AD 1926 and later, when John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and others sought to and did create an American historical park. They proceeded to move many historic buildings from the vicinity to Williamsburg and replace non-historic buildings which were torn down prior to and because of the move to create the park. The public is also generally unaware that one cannot freeze a time period of 81 years in a single place and have that place be very real; things change over months, years, decades, and generations, and Williamsburg was not exempt from changes over time. Colonial Williamsburg is an amalgam of disparate buildings and places and people and times, and is thus a simulacrum, a copy of something which has never existed.

[edit] Simulacra in Occult

In occult literature, the word simulacrum is often used to designate an object intended as a representation of a whole, according to Magic principles. For instance, a nail or hair can be used to represent the whole person it belongs to, believed to trap part of the essence of that individual and used for rituals to represent the person. Simulacra can be inserted into a doll representing a person to cast spells upon, to establish the binding bridge between the representation icon and the subject.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/i/m/Simulacrum.html"