Nowadays, technology and hyperreality are the essential parts of our everyday lives. Sometimes, it is hard to imagine the day without watching a film or playing a computer game. However, have we ever thought about the consequences of spending so much time living in hyperreality, adoring simulations?
Firstly, I would like to clarify what do I understand by the Simulation, Spectacle and Hyperreality. These terms have close connection with each other, but they are quite different.
In my opinion, simulation is the imitation of some actions in the real world. In some way, it is like the sign, when the world is replaced by some kind of image. In this case, we can not see the real situation, events, but just a copy of someone’s vision of it. Simulation can be seen as the philosophical idealism, in which the reality of everyday events is denied. Simulation is not real, it is a hypothetical event, the description of how things could be. It does not take place in a physical realm, it takes place within a space.
Simulation is widely used in different kind of teaching simulation games, in management, strategy and finance, engineering, testing and video games. Simulation can also be used when the real project or technology cannot complete some operations, because they may not be accessible, or can be dangerous.
The other interesting example is the ETC’s NASTAR Center. It is the first safety approved center in the commercial space industry. They use simulation to enable research and improve the health and safety of humans in extreme environments. (Nastar Center)
Spectacle was firstly developed by Guy Debort. It means the mass media in all its specific forms: the TV, radio and magazines, information or propaganda, advertisement or direct entertainment consumption, organized around the production and consumption. The spectacle is the present model of socially dominant life. The spectacle exists to attract attention, attract people.
Debord wrote that: “The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.” (Debord, chapter 1, page 1)
Entertainment is the key field of the spectacle, however nowadays, entertainment and spectacle have entered into the fields of the economy, politics, society, and everyday life in very new ways, transforming television, music, news, as well as producing spectacular forms of culture, such as cyberspace and virtual reality.
The simulation is something do not real, the image. With the help of spectacle provided with various specialized mediations, such as mass media, we receive our vision of simulation. So, it means, that the simulation is the wider term.
Hyperreality is the situation, when one cannot distinguish reality from a simulation.In the widest term, as it includes the Simulation and the Spectacle. In hyperreality, what is real and what is imaginary are blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where hyperreality ends and the reality begins. Today new technologies are developed and the lines between reality and hyperreality begin to blur.
Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard referred to Disneyland as an example of hyperreality. (Eco 43, Baudrillard 166-184) This dreamland with sweets, imaginary animals and attractions is like the other world and when the person is there, he or she completely forgets about everything else.
I have found the example of hyperreality in the trilogy "The Matrix", directed by the Wachowski brothers. It contains a great variety of all kinds of philosophical and theosophical images and allusions. Throughout almost the entire first part, the main character is sure that the world is only an illusion. He is trying to hold on to the hyperreality, which is presented as a tribute.
The other example of hyperreality is "The Truman Show", filmed by Peter Weir. His main character - Truman Burbank – is an ordinary person, living an ordinary life. He cannot even imagine, that his every move is filmed with the cameras and people around him are just the actors. The images of the real in the film form the structure of hyperreality.
Some time ago I have visited the restaurant, called A&W. It became famous for its "frosty mugs", where the mug is kept in the freezer before being filled with the drink. It is a fast food restaurant, which represents its cuisine as completely American.
Rooty, the Great American Root Bear is an example of spectacle, which helps to feel yourself the part of all that American culture. The Bear is a kind of mediator. Originally, the restaurant was opened in Canada, however now, Rooty is recognised worldwide.
The different kinds of burgers, French fries, cheese and drinks, orange color in the interior are very American. Even if the restaurant located in the other country, one would definitely feel himself the part of American culture. In my opinion, it is the example of hyperreality, the other world, where the person can eat and have fun.
One more interesting fact about the restaurant is, that it offers burgers for the whole family. There is personal approach to every customer: for adults and children. Their moto is: Home of the Burger Family. I see it as a spectacle, with the help of moto and special burgers the restaurant attracts attention and amplifies the hyperreality. From one point of view, the moto is not physical, but like the mass media, it helps people to perceive the restaurant’s reality.
The last thing, that I noticed there, is the Mug Club, where people can meet and discuss their interests and have some discounts. The club can be seen as the other example of the restaurant’s hyperreality.
Finally, hyperreality and spectacles created the atmosphere, which makes people feel the part of American fast food culture.
Works cited
Nastar Center. ‘Space training”. Web. Accessed 8 Jun. 2016 at <http://www.nastarcenter.com/aerospace-training/space>.
Debord. Society of the Spectacle. France. 1967. Web. Accessed 8 Jun.2016 at <https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm>.
Umberto Eco. Travels In Hyperreality, New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986. Print.
Baudrillard Jean. Simulacra and Simulations, Stanford University Press, 1988. Print.
