Internet Paradigm IV (Wk8)

In this weeks lecture and classes, we discussed the concepts of simulation, simulacra and hyperreality. The characteristics and effects of a totally mediated and controlled reality, and if this can be resisted. So is our reality actually a reality? This is an important question to ask in a world so build on technology and reliant on online personas.

I found myself specifically drawn into the whole concept behind simulacra and simulation. Basically here is the main ideas and points of simulacra and simulation :

• Modern reality is mediated by images
• The real is perceived by audiences as a string of images
• Media images slowly but surely start forming a reality of their own, independent from any underlying reality

The phases that exist in simulacra and simulation are 4 points, they create this idea together and help form the theory of simulacra and simulation. These points are;

1. Reflection – reflection represents a basic reality that we see in our everyday lives
2. Mask – a mask covers up our basic reality, it almost makes a demented version of the reality we live in
3. Illusion – an illusion substitutes the absence of a basic reality, it is something that is artificial and pretends to be a copy of something that isn’t their
4. Simulacrum – the simulacrum is something that doesn’t exist, it bears no relation to any reality, it simulates a reality that is not our own

Below is a small graph that describes some actual examples of the 4 parts that make simulacra and simulation. They are some base examples that incorporate our modern day media and the things that is in our everyday lives.

Overall, these are some points that can lead us to the question of, how much in our lives is actually real? and are we just living in a world full of attempts to live a real life?

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