Simulating Truth

Jean Baudrillard expresses an interesting perspective in the article “Simulacra and Simulations: Disneyland.” It begins with a quotation from Ecclesiastes that reads “the simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth – it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true” (471). What does this mean exactly? Doesn’t it go against itself in a way?

Baudrillard writes that “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” (474). She goes on to say that there are four phases of an image that applies to this concept. First, an image reflects reality. Second, the image masks a basic reality. Third, it masks the absence of reality. Finally, the image has no relation to reality at all. It is simply a simulacrum. Images are not appearances, therefore, but instead simulations of what is real.

Disneyland is used as an example by Baudrillard to prove this point. It is a territory filled with illusions such as pirates and the future world and characters from television shows. Disneyland is presented as something that is imaginary to make Americans believe that the rest of the world is real. It conceals the fact that it itself is real. Los Angeles is no longer real, but instead the hyperreal. It is simulated.

This concept has really got me thinking about life in general. In class Avatar was mentioned as something that has given the illusion of reality. There was even a rumor that went around about people getting depressed after seeing it. In the movie, there were brilliant plants and trees that illuminated unbelievable beauty and splendor to the viewers. After people see the movie, they leave and compare the images to the real plants that exist in the world. They compare fictional plants to real plants but hold them on equal terms. The ones in the movie are simply simulated though.

So it comes back to the original quote stated above. Is there any truth? We surround ourselves with images everyday so what exactly separates the illusions from the real? What distinguishes a 3D movie from a play or from actual life? It seems like with the advancement of technology we are closing the gap more and more with each passing day.