Summary - The Precession of Simulacra (Simulacra and Simulation)

Title of the book: Simulacra and Simulation
Title of the chapter: The Precession of Simulacra
Author: Jean Baudrillard
Publisher:  University of Michigan Press
Date published: April 1985

Theme: Hyperreality
Politics
Simulacra and Simulation
Society

Summary of text:

Jean Baudrillard within the first chapter of his book "Simulacra and Simulation" argues that that boundaries between the real and unreal have be come blurred and have created a new state that he defined as being hyperreal.

He uses an example from a Borges fable where an empire and a map of the empire has the same scale as each other, and as the empire reduces in scale and size so does the map reduced in size and becomes frayed at the edges with the remains being left in the deserts. Baudrillard argues that this is a perfect example of a simulation. However today the representation is no longer that of the map or the mirror and the simulation is no longer the territorial. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.

He goes on further to argue that the real and unreel or simulation have now lost the difference between one and the other and simulation has become real and the real has become the simulation. As Baudrillard puts it "in fact, it is no longer really the real, because no imaginary envelops it anymore. It is a hyperreal… It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real…perfectly descriptive machine that offers all the signs of the real and short- circuits all its vicissitudes." Baudrillard argued that the hyperreal therefore is sheltered from any imaginary and from any distance between the real and the imaginary, the simulation is the generation of differences.

Baudrillard put forth's the debate that dissemination is to pretend not to have what one has when simulation is to feign to have what one doesn't have. However simulation is not pretending. When one thinks of being ill one can simply stay in bed however when one is a simulation of illness they produce themselves the symptoms of the illness. Therefore the simulation transcends the difference between the "true" and "false" the "real" and "imaginary". He also argues at this point the known and understood is lost. For example if someone is a simulation of illness, medicine loses its meaning as it only knows how to treat the real illness instead of the simulated illness.

Baudrillard then argues that when this state is reached a new model is introduced entitled "simulacrum". A simulacrum is not unreal, that is to say it never exchanges from the real but exchanges from itself in an uninterrupted circuit without reference or circumference. Whereas representation attempts to absorb simulation by interpreting it as a false representation, simulation envelops the whole edifice of representation itself as a simulacrum.

He goes on to argue that Disneyland is a perfect model of all the entangled order of simulacra, will all the illusions and phantasms that exist in the theme park. He proposes that Disneyland exists in order to hide that it is the "real" country, all the "real" America that is Disneyland. Disneyland is presented as being imaginary in order to make us believe that it is real, where as all of Los Angeles and the rest of America is no longer real but belong to the hyperreal order and to the order of simulation. The imaginary of Disneyland is neither true nor false, it is a deterrence machine set up in order to rejuvenate the fiction of the real in the opposite camp.

Baudrillard compared the Watergate scandal to that in Disneyland and he said that they are perfect to society in the same way. According to Baudrillard Watergate is not a scandal, because it is what everyone is busy concealing, this dissimulation masking a strengthening of morality, of a moral panic as one approaches the primitive mise-en-scène of capital: its instantaneous cruelty, its incomprehensible ferocity, its fundamental immorality - that is what is scandalous, unacceptable to the system of moral and economic equivalence. Watergate was thus nothing but a lure held out by the system to catch its adversaries - a simulation of scandal for regenerative ends.

Baudrillard goes a step further in his argument to consider people in power whether that be heads of state or politicians. He argues that for a long time now the people in power - no matter which one is nothing but a simulacrum of themselves, and only that gives him the power and the quality to govern. No one would grant the least consent, the least devotion to a real person. It is to his double, he being always already dead, to which allegiance is given.

The Loud family is one of Baudrillard's examples of a simulation. The Loud family in 1971 where exposed to 7 months of uninterrupted shooting, 300 hours of non-stop broadcasting, with out the script or a screenplay. The audience was exposed to the dramas, enjoys and unexpected events - in short a non-stop raw historical document. Baudrillard calls this a "TV vérité" (vérité is a French word which means truth and is used to define a genre in which realism and naturalism is portrayed within TV, film and radio.) He concludes by saying that "you are no longer watching television it is television that is watching you (live). You are the model, you are the majority. Such is the watershed of the hyperreal society in which the real is confused with the model…TV is watching us, TV alienates us, TV manipulates us and TV informs us." At this point is where the simulation begins where the two poles can no longer be maintained between passive and active, real and unreal, to inform and to entertain - is where the lines are blurred between difference - one enters into a simulation.


Key points of the text:

• It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.
• Simulation has become real and the real has become the simulation.
• Dissemination is to pretend not to have what one has when simulation is to feign to have what one doesn't have.
• A simulacrum is not unreal, that is to say it never exchanges from the real but exchanges from itself in an uninterrupted circuit without reference or circumference.
• Whereas representation attempts to absorb simulation by interpreting it as a false representation, simulation envelops the whole edifice of representation itself as a simulacrum.
• Disneyland is a perfect model of a simulacra.
• Watergate is not a scandal, it was a simulation of scandal for regenerative ends.
• You are no longer watching television it is television that is watching you (live). You are the model, you are the majority. Such is the watershed of the hyperreal society in which the real is confused with the model…TV is watching us, TV alienates us, TV manipulates us and TV informs us.

Key Quote 2-3:
"To dissimulate is to pretend not to have what one has. To simulate is to feign to have what one doesn't have."

"A hyperreal henceforth sheltered from the imaginary, and from any distinctin between the real and the imaginary, leaving room only for the orbital recurrence of models and for the simulated generation of differences."

"Whereas representation attempts to absorb simulation by interpreting it as a false representation, simulation envelops the whole edifice of representation itself as a simulacrum."

My Response:

Baudrillard's theory, is an intriguing and thought-provoking one that has inspired many other theorists and critics who have developed and based there work around he is philosophy. It is also a key theory within post-modernism however throughout the opening chapter of his book he doesn't provide any evidence for his assumptions and judgement and states his ideas as just been factual truth. He does propose his ideas on to reality in the form of Disneyland, Watergate and the Loud family and suggests that these are examples of his theory that he still doesn't give primary or secondary references throughout his chapter. Which leads me to question whether or not he's theory is just that a combination of ideas or if it does have any practical sense with in the world itself.

I think this is a good starting point for further investigation into Baudrillard's theory. And I would like to do more research into the idea of hyperreality with the use of both simulacra and simulation, refocus may be on Facebook in social Internet but also investigating further into the television programme with a Loud family. I also have decided to read other chapters of Baudrillard book to gain more and understanding and receive any other ideas are applicable.