Simulation (art)

Simulation is a process of painting arising out of Postmodern ideas, particulary those of Jean Baudrillard. In his treatise on Simulacra, Baudrillard grapples with the notion of representation as an empty signifier. He examines cases of historical ethnography, political morality -- particularly in reference to the Watergate scandal -- cultural phenomena such as Disneyland and museum preservation and religious iconography to illuminate the preoccupation with preserving and validating representations of reality. However he explains that representations are more a means to conceal the anxiety of the absence of reality: that the representation has nothing behind it; it is a simulacrum.

Baudrillard questions the results of divinity represented through icons. He suggests that the threat of reducing the idea of God to a mere representation was anticipated by iconographers.

"Fiction" or fantasy becomes a "deterrence machine set up in order to rejuvenate in reverse the fiction of the real." Fiction and fantasy in this context function to affirm "truths" and the "real" by proclaiming themselves as nonreal. Through this reversal the categories of nonreality set themselves in binary opposition to the proclaimed "real."

Thus, Baudrillard asserts that a more accurate way to describe representation is through the simulacrum: "the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal." This article presents several ideas that resonate with those of others we have read in this class. Borges' representation of the maps which precede the actual territory, the maps which in fact construct the terrain it presumes to reflect is Baudrillard's beginning example. Heidegger's concern with technology is echoed in Baudrillard's suspicions regarding the use of science and technology in preserving the past ("museumification"): "the logical evolution of a science is to distance itself ever further from its object until it dispenses with it entirely." 

Starting with a re-evaluation and critique of Marx's economic theory of the object, especially as concerns the notion of 'use-value', JB develops the first major phase of his work with a semiotically based theory of production and the obejct, one that emphasises the 'sign-value' of objects.

The simulacrum is never what hides the truth-- it is truth that hides the fact that there is none. The simulacrum is true. --Ecclesiastes

"In the first case, the image is a good appearance--representation is of the sacramental order. In the second, it is an evil appearance--it is of the order of maleficence. In the third, it plays at being an appearance--it is of the order of sorcery. In the fourth, it is no longer of the order of appearances, but of simulation." Baudrillard, "The Precession of Simulacra," Simulacra and Simulation , p. 6

The Examples of Simulation: A. the biological and scientific -- 1. simulation of symptoms; 10. DNA model reproduction; 11. Nuclear deterrence B. the religious -- 2. the simulacrum of divinity; C. museumification of culture -- 3. the return of the Tasaday; 4. the salvage of Rameses' mummy, 5. return of part of a Cloister to its origin, D. popular culture -- 6. Disney; 9. the filming of the Louds E. the political -- 7. Watergate; 12. Vietnam war, Algerian war F. social crimes -- 8. all holdups, hijacks,

Painters of this method utilized a melange of images and signs appropriated from the outside world, particularly within mass consumer culture and either collaged/painted/printed these images into an integrated system of painted color and various referents.  Its antecedents could be exemplified in the work of the Pop artists, particuarly the work of Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol.  A later and more appropos example of the Simulation style of painting would be David Salle, Ashley Bickerton and others from the 80's.