Task 4 - HYPEREALITY - Las Vegas

Las Vegas is a classic example of Hyper Reality. For example you can see the eiffel tower of Paris, France, take a few steps and instantly be transported to the Sphynx of Egypt without boarding a single plane. In reality these recreated monuments would never co-exist. Vegas aspires to be a simulation of the world and offers minuture versions of monuments that someone would normally have to take many trips to see. The Venition in Las vegas is a copy of Venice with enhancements. It's Venice that's better than Venice in certain ways and is with it's clean and clear canals is a replacement of the real deal. However you may find that most of the people who have visited The Venition,  have not been to Venice and are often disappointed by what they see when they do go to the locations that they're are supposed to represent.  The hyperreal conceals the fact that the real is no longer real, by making the no-longer-real look real when one leaves the hyperreal and re-enters the “real” world. Let us not forget that Las Vegas is situated in the middle of the desert and has built it's reputation and gained it's wealth from visitors who pour their money into the state by gambling in one of their many casinos. The whole idea of Las Vegas can arguably be seen as plastic. With the flashing flights and frenzy of Vegas people get into a trance and believe that they are in fantasy land. Why be satisfied with reality, when you can experience hyperreality which is “better” than the real thing?

Another example of hyperreality. TASK 4

The hyperreality lecture/seminar has given me a whole different outlook on everything from holiday destinations to watching television, so I've decided to give another example of hyperreality.

TV EDITING.

Today's television can be seen as perfectly innocent and when we watch something that provokes us in one way or another, we automatically take what we see or hear to be the truth.

It's going back to the idea of Plot's cave. We are almost metaphorically chained to our sofas watching tv or "the shadows" and accepting it as reality when behind the scenes there are puppet masters controlling everything that we see and manipulating it in a way that provides us with the best,gripping entertainment.

Reality shows such as Big Brother are a socking example of this.
Big Brother claims to be a "What you see is what you get" show, but in a world of editing, it is now possible to condense 24 hours of footage into an hour long highlight show. However, with the pressure of telling a story in only one hour a lot of footage is filtered, leaving us with a crude caricature of real life which can easily manipulated to tell a whatever story the editors desire.

In May 2007, Danielle Lloyd threatened to sue the reality show over the way she was edited in the show. Lloyd was infamously involved in a race war alongside two other celebrities who supposedly racially harassed fellow contestant, Shilpa Shetty.
Footage shows Lloyd and co mimicking the bollywood star's accent, questioning her Indian customs and telling her to go home. What the show didn't broadcast however, was Lloyd apparently making up with Shilpa.

I accept that some of my behaviour in relation to Shilpa Shetty, which was broadcast on Celebrity Big Brother, was unkind. While I was still in the Celebrity Big brother house I apologised to Shilpa.

"However, footage which further demonstrated my good relationship with Shilpa, and the concerns I aired to Big Brother in the diary room about what was going on in the house was never screened."
Danielle Lloyd's statement to The Guardian -

Despite the statement Lloyd was still labeled as a racist in the public eye as this footage shows.



If you listen carefully at 00.36, you can hear someone calling Lloyd "the racist one"
So it's obvious that the public still think of her as a racist. Although the comments she made were textbook racism, the editing of Big Brother only exaggerated the effect and we, the viewers, accept that as reality.

Jean Baudrillard (1927 - 2007)

Plato allegory of the cave (see post below)

What we understand of the world isn't real

It's hyper real.

Marx commodity
Trying to be about the impenstipafion of the working class.

Understanding of the world isn't real. Corporate consumer images in the developed world
Images that we invest our lives in.

Commodity culture feeds us images that we believe to be true.

Santa Clause

The representation of Santa; this representation produced by mass media.
Starting in 1931, magazine ads for Coca-Cola featured St. Nick as a kind, jolly man in a red suit. Because magazines were so widely viewed, and because this image of Santa appeared for more than three decades, the image of Santa most people have today is largely based on our advertising.

Our idea of Santa clause is the one that was created by corporate culture
It is the repetition of this image that is embedded in our minds and
makes us believe that Santa Claus has always been red fat and jolly.

This folk tale illustration dates back to before Coca Cola's re branding of St Nicholous. This image of Santa appears to show him more sinister and has a striking contrast in comparison to the jolly version we know today.

The pepsi challenge

The power of a brand is shown during the pepsi challenge. Two clear, label-less bottles are shown to a random member of the public. One bottle contains Coca Cola and in another, Pepsi. After the taste test, results show that people preferred the taste of Pepsi. But had the labels been shown the winner would undoubtedly be Coca Cola



"even better than the real thing"

Structarialsm


Was about analyzing the language of structure to other things"


We live in a world of hyper reality. We invest ourselves in these signs and logos.

Start to inform our reality.

RIBENA.
Doesn't taste like blackberry
But it's a simulation.

The copies of reality
Cause a real concrete change in the real world.

Hyperealism.

Plato's cave.
The above image show a group of people chained to a wall facing a blank wall. They have been chained up all their lives so the blank wall is all they know. Their necks have also been chained disabling them to turn their heads and see a glimpse of reality. Above and behind them, a fire blazez and is the only source of light in the cave.The only light shining through the cave allows shadows to be cast onto the wall. These shadows are of themselves also things moving in front of the fire. Puppet shows are performed for the prisoners by showmen. These shadows are the closest views of reality for the prisoners so accept this as life.  The truth is literally nothing but the shadows.

Plot then presents the case in which one of the prisoners is released from the chains. The prisoner then stands up and turns around seeing the puppets which were casting the shadows and the puppetteres themselves. The prisoner would be amazed at what he was seeing sure, however he may start to question what is real and what is fiction.


Plato also presents the case in which the prisoner is dragged out of the cave. Again , he is thrown into a world where there is more truth than before. He is introduced to real sunlight for the first time in his live, which has been always been in the darkeness of the cave. If this were the case, he's eyes would adjust to the intensity of the sun's rays.

With this new found truth, the prisoner would most likely feel bad for his former companions in the gave. The prisoner returns to the cave and sits amongst the prisoners.
Because the shadow puppets were all the prisoners knew, they grew familiar with the sequencing and movements of the puppets. After returning to the cave the man's eyesight has not yet adjusted to the darkness and is laughed at by his former equals. So, leaving the cave, or turning around, would be viewed as a detrimental pursuit because it dulls the eyes.