I can't help but noticing how simulation reflects sociocultural and
technological tendencies that we can observe in almost all human
transactions today. this, I find, happens in a very subtle,
imperceptible way.
here are some examples to get us thinking about simulation in everyday
life:
1) the process of choosing a piece of technology: we are drawn to a
Mac or a Ipod or a Iphone, not a computer, a portable music device, or
a cellular phone. aspects concerning the design, the aesthetics, or
the coolness that these tools symbolize usually take the front seat.
2) thinking about sound, I am drawn to the idea behind the MP3 format:
substantially, it is a simulation of the original sound, compressed,
re-packaged and brought to us according to psychoacustic principles
that eliminate "useless" noise, or frequency that our ear can't
normally perceive. (see the work of Jonathan Sterne on Media Culture
and Society - 2006- on MP3 for a more comprehensive discussion. I can
send the specific article to those who are interested)
3) the fantastic worlds we see in blockbusters movies such as the very
recent Avatar exhibits an imagery that is simultaneously
photorealistic (that is, it shows some "serial" resemblance to objects
and landscapes that we can find in the real world) and hyperreal (all
objects exhibit literally some "extra" elements that make them more
real than real and yet imagined). In particular, I have to thanks Pier
Luigi for directing my attention to the Pandorapedia (http://networkedblogs.com/p23720729)I
was surprised to see how the whole ecosystem articulated in the
movie has been imagined and constructed according to ethological/
anthropological/botanical principles, carefully classified and
taxonomized in a "Linnaean" style, and in its smallest details. In
this regard, I would be interested in knowing some commentaries: is
this a way to legitimize this hyperreal world?
rb
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