Perspectives Part 2

 Travels into Hyper Reality

This seminar deconstructed the term Hyperreality; a reality beyond the real. This interesting discourse explored outcomes to human nature as technology has evolved over the last century, using references such as Disneyland as examples of Hyperreal commodities. Humans are moving away from the life in front of them, as their TV persona is more desirable. The hyperreal is a consumer product. 

Seminar Notes

·         Book suggestion: Narrative of virtual reality v2 Marie-Laure Ryan

·        Postmodernism has an undefined start and end.

·        Nihilism – There is no point to anything, everything we are today is random events. We are making meaning all the time to safeguard against meaningless of everything. Leading to depression and anxiety. Everything we do is subjective, personal and irrelevant. The movement found its crest in the 90’s, portrayed as negative and childish forces. They were destructive. Some think it seeks to move away from ideas of meaning and try to destroy all of that to see other structures. Baudrillard is a self-confessed nihilist. He is apocalyptic.

·        Potentials of reality. He talks of tv. He’s being harrowing. What we want is the version of the world on tv. We seek that world now more than ever. Baudrillard foresaw the future, he could see we headed for a reality on the screen.

·        you have the life of your own, and the one presented on the TV. Hyperreal – more real than real, beyond reality. A hyperreal object is a representation of a real reality but has no basis. Its moving away from reality and is an example of reality. Baudrillard has a problem with this.

·        we begin to believe the hyperreality, rather than the reality in front of us. The hyperreal is a consumer product.

·        Truman lives inside a hyperreality.

·        Baudrillard throughout Disneyland was the paragon of hyperreality. He has written books about Disneyland. In books, he accounts experiences travelling through America. He thinks Disneyland is the land of the hyperreal. Disneyland – an idea created into a physical place. Hyperreal and a simulacrum. Disneyland lacks a distinct past of history in contemporary American culture.

·        Disneyland is a part of American culture. A way to hide from the fact that they no longer live. La exists within deserts, Disneyland and la shouldn’t be there, its force fed to create a reality. It shouldn’t exist in these conditions. We tend to prefer the idea of the perfect.

·        Umberto Eco believed that Disneyland creates ideas of things that we want to see. We have a version of something in our heads, when reality doesn’t conform to this, we get upset and disappointed.

·        Las Vegas is a resistance to the slow geological death of the desert surroundings.

·        Disney’s celebration town – a town creates by Disney as a version of a culture or community. All of it is manufactured. If you choose to leave, you had to sign a disclaimer saying you wouldn’t mention why you left.

·        The Stepford wives 1975

·        They live 1998

·        Coca cola has made its way to the tribes of the amazon rainforest.

·        Three stages of simulacra and fight club.

·        The depiction of food in Japanese anime. – the hyperreal.

Hyperreal kills the real

Presentation slide discussing Jean Baudrillard

Presentation Slide discussing hyperreality

Disneyland as a consumer product and creation of hyperreality

Disneyland as a consumer product and creation of hyperreality, especially in American culture.

Deconstructing Hyperreality with Umbero Eco