from Baudrillard: Symbolic Exchange & Death (1976) · 1 December 06 by Ray Crowley
Chapter 2, The Order Of Simulacra
The Three Orders of Simulacra
There are three orders of simulacra, running parallel to the successive mutations of the law of value since the Renaissance:
1. The counterfeit is the dominant schema in the ‘classical’ period, from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution.
2. Production is the dominant schema in the industrial era.
3. Simulation is the dominant schema in the current code-governed phase
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The Tactile and the Digital
[..]Digitality is among us. It haunts all the messages ans signs of our society, and we can clearly locate its most concrete form in the test, the question/answer, the stimulus/response. All content is neutralized by a continuous process of orchestrated interrogations, verdicts and ultimatums to be decoded, which this time no longer come from the depths of the genetic code but still possess the same tactical indeterminacy – the cycles of meaning become infinitely shorter in the cycle of the question/answer, the bit or the return of a minuscule quantity of energy/information to its point of departure. This cycle merely describes the perpetual reactualization of the same models. [..] Everywhere supply devours demand, the question devours the answer, either absorbing and regurgitating it in a decodable form, or inventing it and anticipating its predictable corroboration.
tags: digitality, philosophy, simulacra
IMKE course response: 5.10 Postmodernism · 11 October 06 by Ray Crowley
Mauri Kaipainen asks ‘What could follow postmodernism?’
post.postmodern worldviews might derive their absolute_truths through the swarming of individual opinions into a critical mass. The forces which give the swarms shape, direction and velocity may tend to derive energy from the corporate producers of the technologies which allow the virtual community to exist. These absolute_truths are the most efficient manifestation of the capitalist algorithm i.e. marketing & advertising become redundant because eachactant in the swarm feels empowered by making a ‘free choices’ with respect to his/her brand/tribe.
Mauri Kaipainen asks ‘What arguments are there against postmodernism?’
The question of the canon: postmodernism by its nature accepts any text or image as being worthy of equal value analysis. An analysis of Samuel Beckett’s dramatic techniques Vs. the semiotics of a McDonald’s Menu? The Aesthetics of Mondrian Vs. MTV branding. One might argue along the lines of Harold Bloom and George Steiner that the ‘public audience’ requires guidance with respect to what has cultural value in the interest of an developing of maturing society.
Mauri Kaipainen asks ‘How will interactive bottom-up media and new forms of participation change culture and philosophy?’
As can be already seen, the process of cultural production will continue to be devolved into the hands of the time-rich ‘prosumers’ (YouTube, Blogger, Flickr, YourGallery ). When this is combined with the continuing rise of internet based social-networking ( delicious , myspace) exclusive cultural worth and philosophical values may be generated solely through tribes thus making the agencies such as Public TV, National Press, Academics, Cultural Commentators, who were once perceived as semi-objective, redundant. It is worth considering that this uploaded cultural production may generate vast revenues for the providers of the distribution platforms such as Google, Microsoft & Yahoo and the soon to come Venice Project
tags: digitality, philosophy, theoryIME Course Response: 21.9. Digitality · 21 September 06 by Ray Crowley
Mauri Kaipainen asks ‘In most domains of human activity it is enough to handle the digital representation instead of the actual matter. For example, think about money, ideas, concepts, knowledge, ... What is there that cannot be modeled as a digital representation?’
The raw psycho-genetic forces which drive man to create the tools (such as transistors) under discussion might be immune from digitization. Although the human brain can be scanned and analyzed in terms of electrical waves and transmission paths one might argue that the deep psycho-genetic processes at play cannot be digitized for the very reason that it is beyond our current capabilities. In a sense our innate quest to ‘know’ will always remain one step ‘beyond’ our grasp. If this were not the case human techno-cultural development may have plateaued prior to the 15th Century BCE.
Mauri Kaipainen asks ‘In most domains of human activity it is enough to handle the digital representation instead of the actual matter. For example, think about money, ideas, concepts, knowledge, ... What is there that cannot be modeled as a digital representation?’
Communities may have always striven towards the creation of models and frameworks to enable it’s selected members to understand the ‘whole’. Astronomy being a case in point and its necessary cultural consequence; astrology. Phenology may provide us with another example; by observing and recording a sample of botonological and meteorological occurrences and comparing the current sample against prior records (transmitted orally amongst the community prior to text based records) communities may have been able to make informed predictions about the ongoing seasons. In this way simulation and modeling may have been a feature of human culture for centuries
tags: digitality, psycho-genetic