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Simulacrum

A simulacrum (plural: simulacra from

Latin: simulacrum, which means
"likeness, similarity") is a representation
or imitation of a person or thing.[1] The
word was first recorded in the English
language in the late 16th century, used to
describe a representation, such as a
statue or a painting, especially of a god.
By the late 19th century, it had gathered a
secondary association of inferiority: an
image without the substance or qualities
of the original.[2] Literary critic Fredric
Jameson offers photorealism as an
example of artistic simulacrum, where a
painting is created by copying a
photograph that is itself a copy of the
real.[3] Other art forms that play with
simulacra include trompe-l'œil,[4] pop art,
Italian neorealism, and French New
Wave.[3]

Philosophy
Simulacra have long been of interest to
philosophers. In his Sophist, Plato speaks
of two kinds of image making. The first is
a faithful reproduction, attempted to
copy precisely the original. The second is
intentionally distorted in order to make
the copy appear correct to viewers. He
gives the example of Greek statuary,
which was crafted larger on the top than
on the bottom so that viewers on the
ground would see it correctly. If they
could view it in scale, they would realize
it was malformed. This example from the
visual arts serves as a metaphor for the
philosophical arts and the tendency of
some philosophers to distort truth so
that it appears accurate unless viewed
from the proper angle.[5] Nietzsche
addresses the concept of simulacrum
(but does not use the term) in the
Twilight of the Idols, suggesting that
most philosophers, by ignoring the
reliable input of their senses and
resorting to the constructs of language
and reason, arrive at a distorted copy of
reality.[6]

Postmodernist French social theorist

Jean Baudrillard argues that a
simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but
becomes truth in its own right: the
hyperreal. According to Baudrillard, what
the simulacrum copies either had no
original or no longer has an original
(think a copy of a copy without an
original). Where Plato saw two types of
representation—faithful and intentionally
distorted (simulacrum)—Baudrillard sees
four: (1) basic reflection of reality; (2)
perversion of reality; (3) pretence of
reality (where there is no model); and (4)
simulacrum, which "bears no relation to
any reality whatsoever".[7] In Baudrillard's
concept, like Nietzsche's, simulacra are
perceived as negative, but another
modern philosopher who addressed the
topic, Gilles Deleuze, takes a different
view, seeing simulacra as the avenue by
which an accepted ideal or "privileged
position" could be "challenged and
overturned".[8] Deleuze defines simulacra
as "those systems in which different
relates to different by means of
difference itself. What is essential is that
we find in these systems no prior identity,
no internal resemblance".[9]

Alain Badiou, in speaking with reference

to Nazism about Evil, writes,[10] "fidelity to
a simulacrum, unlike fidelity to an event,
regulates its break with the situation not
by the universality of the void, but by the
closed particularity of an abstract set ...
(the 'Germans' or the 'Aryans')".

Recreation
Recreational simulacra include
reenactments of historical events or
replicas of landmarks, such as Colonial
Williamsburg and the Eiffel Tower, and
constructions of fictional or cultural
ideas, such as Fantasyland at The Walt
Disney Company's Magic Kingdom. The
various Disney parks have by some
philosophers been regarded as the
ultimate recreational simulacra, with
Baudrillard noting that Walt Disney World
Resort is a copy of a copy, "a simulacrum
to the second power".[11] In 1975, Italian
author Umberto Eco argued that at
Disney's parks, "we not only enjoy a
perfect imitation, we also enjoy the
conviction that imitation has reached its
apex and afterwards reality will always
be inferior to it".[12] This is for some an
ongoing concern. Examining the impact
of Disney's simulacrum of national parks,
Disney's Wilderness Lodge,
environmentalist Jennifer Cypher and
anthropologist Eric Higgs expressed
worry that "the boundary between
artificiality and reality will become so thin
that the artificial will become the centre
of moral value".[13] Eco also refers to
commentary on watching sports as
sports to the power of three, or sports
cubed. First, there are the players who
participate in the sport (the real), then the
onlookers merely witnessing it, and
finally the commentary on the act of
witnessing the sport. Visual artist Paul
McCarthy has created entire installations
based on Pirates of the Caribbean and
theme park simulacra, with videos
playing inside the installation.

Caricature
An interesting example of simulacrum is
caricature. When an artist produces a
line drawing that closely approximates
the facial features of a real person, the
subject of the sketch cannot be easily
identified by a random observer; it can be
taken for a likeness of any individual.
However, a caricaturist exaggerates
prominent facial features, and a viewer
will pick up on these features and be able
to identify the subject, even though the
caricature bears far less actual
resemblance to the subject.

Iconography
Beer (1999: p. 11) employs the term
"simulacrum" to denote the formation of
a sign or iconographic image, whether
iconic or aniconic, in the landscape or
greater field of Thangka art and Tantric
Buddhist iconography. For example, an
iconographic representation of a cloud
formation sheltering a deity in a thanka
or covering the auspice of a sacred
mountain in the natural environment may
be discerned as a simulacrum of an
"auspicious canopy" (Sanskrit: Chhatra)
of the Ashtamangala.[14] Perceptions of
religious imagery in natural phenomena
approach a cultural universal and may be
proffered as evidence of the natural
creative spiritual engagement of the
experienced environment endemic to the
human psychology.

Word usage
The Latinised plural simulacra is
interchangeable with the anglicised
version simulacrums.[15]

Simulacrum as artificial
beings
Simulacra often appear in speculative
fiction. Examples of simulacra in the
sense of artificial or supernaturally or
scientifically created artificial life forms
include:

Automaton – A self-operating robot.

Artificial animals and replicants in Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by
Philip K Dick and its film adaptation
Blade Runner.
Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio – A puppet
that comes to life.
Feathertop – A scarecrow created and
brought to life by a witch.
Frankenstein's Monster from
Frankenstein – A creation of Victor
Frankenstein made from various body
parts. Frankenstein's Monster was also
adapted in DC Comics and Marvel
Comics.
The Universal Pictures film Bride
of Frankenstein featured the titular
monster.
Fritz Lang's Metropolis – Featuring
"Maria" the robotrix.
Galatea from Metamorphoses – A
statue of a female created by
Pygmalion and brought to life by
Aphrodite.
Gargoyles – Statues sculpted to
resemble monsters.
Hatsune Miku – A virtual idol
VOCALOID known well among the
otaku culture.
Holograms – Computerized images of
anything.
Homunculus – Small miniature
humanoids created through alchemy.
Karel Čapek's RUR – Originated the
word robot.
Neutrinos from Solaris – A race of
creatures made from the memories of
humans.
Pintosmalto – A statue of a man
brought to life by a Goddess of Love.
Robots
Simulacrum – An illusion spell from
Dungeons & Dragons that creates a
partially real duplicate of someone,
though it only has half the power and
abilities of the original.
Snegurochka – A little girl made of
snow.
Squadron Supreme of America - In
Marvel Comics, the Squadron Supreme
of America are revealed to be
simulacrums created by Mephisto and
programmed by the Power Elite so that
Phil Coulson can have them be a
United States-sponsored superhero
team.
Terracotta Army – Terracotta
sculptures of the armies of Qin Shi
Huang.
The Gingerbread Man – A gingerbread
man that came to life.
 The Golem of Jewish folklore – A
creation of a rabbi.
Thumbelina – A small girl created by a
witch.
Ushabiti – Egyptian figurines.
Vasilisa the Beautiful – A doll that
came to life.

Also, the illusions of absent loved ones

created by an alien life form in Stanislaw
Lem's Solaris can be considered
simulacra.

See also
 Memetics
Simulacra and Simulation
Simulated reality

References
1. "Word of the Day" . dictionary.com. 1
May 2003. Archived from the
original on 17 February 2007.
Retrieved 2 May 2007.
2. "simulacrum" The New Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary 1993
3. Massumi, Brian. "Realer than Real:
The Simulacrum According to
 Deleuze and Guattari." Archived 23
May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
retrieved 2 May 2007
4. Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and
Simulations. transl. Sheila Faria
Glaser. "XI. Holograms." Archived
27 May 2010 at the Wayback
Machine retrieved 5 May 2010
5. Plato. The Sophist . Translated by
Benjamin Jowett. Archived from the
original on 30 December 2005.
Retrieved 2 May 2007.
6. Nietzsche, Friedrich (1888). "Reason
in Philosophy". Twilight of the Idols .
Translated by Walter Kaufmann and
R. J. Hollingdale. Archived from the
original on 26 April 2007. Retrieved
2 May 2007.
7. Baudrillard Simulacra retrieved 2
May 2007. Archived 9 February
2004 at the Wayback Machine
8. Deleuze, Gilles (1968). Difference
and Repetition. Translated by Paul
Patton. Columbia: Columbia
University Press. p. 69.
 9. p. 299.
10. Badiou, Alain (2001). Ethics - An
Essay on the Understanding of Evil.
Translated by Peter Hallward.
London: Verso. p. 74.
11. Baudrillard, Jean. transl. Francois
Debrix. Liberation. 4 March 1996.
"Disneyworld Company." Archived
27 May 2010 at the Wayback
Machine retrieved 5 May 2010.
12. Eco, Umberto. Travels in
Hyperreality. Reproduced in relevant
portion at "The City of Robots"
 Archived 12 September 2006 at the
Wayback Machine retrieved 2 May
2007
13. Cypher, Jennifer and Eric Higgs.
"Colonizing the Imagination: Disney's
Wilderness Lodge". Archived 4 July
2007 at the Wayback Machine
retrieved 2 May 2007
14. Beer, Robert (1999). The
Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols
and Motifs . Shambhala
Publications. p. 11 . ISBN 978-1-
57062-416-2.
15. "simulacrum" . Merriam-Webster.
Archived from the original on 12
July 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2015.

External links

Look up simulacrum in Wiktionary,

the free dictionary.

"Two Essays: Simulacra and Science

Fiction; Ballard’s Crash" Baudrillard,
Jean
"The Simulacrum's Revenge," sec 3.2 of
Flatline Constructs: Gothic and
 Cybernetic-Theory Fiction Fisher, Mark

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