Exam Prep 1

Plan

1. Define post-modernism
2. Define hyperreality
3. Define simulation (mention Baudrillard)
4. Analyse text
5. Link to post-modernism terms
6. Conclude (link back to Baudrillard ‘simulacrum’?)

Practice Answer

• Post-modernism is the idea that society is a bricolage or pastiche of a time of ‘modernity’ (following the Industrial Revolution).
• The current post-modern era is characterised by alienation and cultural fragmentation due to uncertainty around authenticity.
• Baudrillard theorises that the separation between ‘reality‘ and ‘representation‘ is almost indistinguishable. He says that mass consumerism and the media promote a hybrid existence: an “illusion of an actuality.”
• He coins the term hyperreality: the idea that we live in a world that is “beyond reality”, an illusion or simulation far from the truth.
• The mise-en-scene of the games cover alludes to a hyper-real version of reality. The signifiers of war, conflict and destruction such as fire, weapons and body armour create a dystopian image that is “superficial”. It is evident that the games-cover follows many codes and conventions of a typical survival video game. The cover is a pastiche, a copy of many previous works. This “chain of replication” and development of new versions of old creations causes implosion (a loss of clarity and confusion on what was the original ‘reality’)
• The representations of the armed characters, “gears”, presents an other-wordly, fictional simulation of similar figures we would see in ‘real life’. This generates a lack of distinction between what is real and what is constructed – not only for the players of the game but the population in general who are passively ‘fed’ by the general mass media.

Ideas on Post-Modernism

• Hyper-Reality = The idea that we live in a world that is a heightened version of the reality we once knew. It poses the question: do we know what is ‘real’ and what is a simulation: a constructed ‘reality’ that we can become immersed/dependent on.

“Hyperreality is seen as a condition of what is real and what is fiction are blended together so there is no clear distinction to where one ends and the other begins.”

• Jean Baudrillard looks at how, in post-modern culture, reality is becoming fragmented the separation between reality and representation is less distinguishable. He says that mass consumerism, the media and a mass desire for ‘something’ other than the ‘real’ world means we are living in a hybrid existence: an  “illusion of an actuality”

“Hyperreality is an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in advanced postmodern societies.”