It was quite unnerving to read Baudrillard I found, especially his notion of the “hyperreal” (366) which would lend itself well to explorations of films such as The Matrix. Baudrillard claims that symbols and signs have come to replace reality and meaning within our current society, and that human experience is now a ‘simulation’ of reality. I find his claims resonate entirely with a film I saw by Chris Marker entitled Sans Soleil. The film addresses issues concerning memory and what our memories actually consist of and whether the death of ‘real’ memory has come about because of the invention of new technologies such as film and the photograph. In the film, the narrator recounts:
“Brooding at the end of the world on my island of Sal in the company of my prancing dogs I remember that month of January in Tokyo, or rather I remember the images I filmed of the month of January in Tokyo. They have substituted themselves for my memory. They are my memory. I wonder how people remember things who don’t film, don’t photograph, don’t tape. How has mankind managed to remember? I know: it wrote the Bible. The new Bible will be an eternal magnetic tape of a time that will have to reread itself constantly just to know it existed.”
I think Baudrillard’s ideas relate entirely to the reader of the twenty-first century as we live in a society where so much emphasis is placed upon the importance of the aesthetic, and we tend to live so vicariously through film or image that our perception of the boundaries of our own reality can often become blurred and we find ourselves living a sort ‘simulation’ of ‘real’ life via a montage of borrowed realities from the media. We “consume signs of status” (365) such as cars and the latest technologies. Baudrillard’s idea of the automobile as the single gadget of solitude (360) also reminds me of another film; Weekend by Jean-Luc Godard, which is about a road trip undertaken by a couple who, on the way experience never ending traffic jams and car accidents. The road is often strewn with wreckages and bodies which they merely pass by, unnoticed and unfazed by the sight. At one point one of the protagonists asks another driver if this is a film or real life, and when he replies that it is a film, he doesn’t believe him. This illuminates the idea that the media of the twenty first century has constructed a perceived reality and distorted the consumer’s perception of it.
I would like to finish with another line from Sans Soleil, which also always chills me as I think it reflects how intrusive and powerful the media has become, perhaps even without society realizing. The narrator is talking of the comic book heroes painted on the walls in Japan: “And the giant faces with eyes that weigh down on the comic book readers, pictures bigger than people, voyeurizing the voyeurs.”
The media has indeed become very powerful. Unfortunately, it is us who have placed it on this pedestal. We look to it to tell us what is good and bad and what is acceptable or not. And now, many of us are so used to it that not having it seems like a dream.
Take the news on TV for example, if you were to take a poll of the good news versus the bad news mentioned, the bad will always outway the good. Why? Because it sells.
Even Facebook has taken the world like a virus feeding upon everyone. People don’t “waste time” trying to reach out to their friends like they used to, now it’s all via Facebook chat, messages, events….face to face contact is almost lost In sense. I can say that I have been off Facebook for almost two years now and I have survived. I have actually reached out to people, picked up my phone, set up events all on my own with out the pressure of this social media.
Sadly though, I think the media is a beast that cannot be tamed…
I agree that not having media or technology would seem a daunting prospect to some, and I think that it is interesting that you say it seems like a dream without it. Imagine forgetting your phone one day, it actually feels surreal being so out of contact with the world but then it is also liberating at the same time. The idea of the map of the Empire becoming reality is a bit like what is happening in society today. Nothing is ‘real’ or has meaning unless we are Tweeting it, posting it on Facebook or emailing someone about it.
Hi Sinead,
Your blog post was a super interesting read, very enjoyable and thought-provoking! I definitely agree with you that Baudrillard’s notion of the “hyperreal” is very interesting to think of in conjunction with films like The Matrix. I have heard of Sans Soleil but I have not seen it yet – however, I will now after reading this blog post, it’s made me so curious!
I also really enjoyed your discussion of how Baudrillard’s ideas are very applicable to the aesthetics-oriented twenty-first century. I think it’s undeniable that the power of film and images can have such an effect on individuals; we would only have to look at cases of horrible mass murders that seem to be happening every week or so in the United States lately. While every industry is quick to blame another (the NRA blames the video game industry, the video game industry blames the movie industry, etc.), several perpetrators of such mass murders have themselves declared that the overwhelming sensory experience of increasingly “realistic” video games was indeed a very big contributing factor – a recent example being a shooter referring to actually, The Matrix! I think it’s definitely a new facet of growing up in today’s world, just like you and Liza are discussing above- the dominating preoccupation with living a reality online or in the world of video games; and I think that we are recently starting to see that, when combined with other very serious factors, this can also be a dangerous tendency as it can blur an awareness of fact vs. fiction.