INTRODUCING

ChrisHorrocks and ZoranJevticEdited by Richard Appignanesi

~ICON BOOKS UK , TOTEM BOOKS USA

Thisedition published in the UK in 1999by IconBooksLtd.,Grange Road,

Duxford, Cambridge CB24QFE-mail: info@iconbooks.co.uk

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This editionpublished in Australiain 1999by Allen & UnwinPly. Ltd.,PO Box 8500,83 Alexander Street,

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Previously published in the UK andAustralia in 1996underthe title

Baudri//ard for Beginners

Reprinted 1997,1998,2000,2001,2003

Firstpublished in the USAin 1996by Totem BooksInquiries to: Icon Books Ltd.,GrangeRoad, Duxford,Cambridge CB2 40F, UK

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Distributed in CanadabyPenguin BooksCanada,10AlcornAvenue, Suite 300,Toronto, OntarioM4V 3B2

ISBN 1 84046087 3

Textcopyright © 1996Chris HorrocksIllustrations copyright © 1996Zoran Jevtic

The authorand artist have asserted their moral rights.

Originating editor: Richard Appignanesi

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means,withoutprior permission in writingfrom the publisher.

Printed and bound in Australiaby McPherson's Printing Group,Victoria

Jean Baudrillard - Con? Icon?Iconoclast?

Asthe Marxist critic Douglas Kellner said,"ThewholeBaudrillard affairis rapidly mutating intoa new idolatry of anewmasterthinker, and Is indangerof givingriseto a neworthodoxy".

His theoretical positionhas radically altered over

thlettme...

...from earlyMarxist critiques of modern consumer culture

and society, through a succession of skirmishes withpsychoanalysis, socloloSY, semioiosy and Mandemitaelf, to his rejection of theory and its replacement

with an extreme "fatal" vlelonof the world.

Jean Baudrillard'senormousoutput on mass

consumptiohedia and societystretches from the political turbulenceof1960s France to the global vertigo

of the 1990s.

3

Baudrillard isacontradictory character. The"real" Baudrillard iselusive- almostsecretive. Inseminars heseems passive anduncertain.Yet the''virtual'' Baudrillardisferociously uncompromising- andhisvirulent style ismetwith equal force bycritics whoaccuse himofintolerance, banality, generalization andfacetiousness.

Itls notjust his stylethey find irksome.

4

Sowho isJean Baudrillard -and

what has hedone toupset people7

5

Background...Algeria, Existentialism, Marxism

Theyoung Jeanstudied hardatthe Lycee, thentaughtGermanbeforetaking upsociology.Hewentto university late,as an assistantat Nanterre, Paris. In 1966, hecompleted his thesis in sociology.

His interestin politics camewiththe left'sopposition to theAlgerianWarandhisassociation withExistentialist Jean PaulSartre's(1905-80) journal LesTempsModernes in 1962-63, forwhich hewroteliterary reviews.

Only lived andexperienced existence provides

a phlloeophlcal platform tovercome thle - not appeals to

human eeeencee,

Modern60ciBty produce6Inauthentic relattone between

it6 members,

6

7

Revolution in Everyday Life

8

Capitalism r~pr~ss~s

the free d~v~lopment andexercise of physical and

mental faculties.

Inthe modern world,everyday life has ceased to bea "eubject" rich in subjectivity;it has becomean lI obj ect ll of

social organization.

Mass Consumption

Inthe 1960s, Baudrillard and his contemporaries saw a new Franceemerging: modernization, technological development, monopoly capitalismand a developing information society ofmassconsumption.

But could traditional Marxism account for orincorporate these upheavals?Was capitalism extending itself beyond theworkplace orwas this aradical departure?

Identify contradictionsbetween classes in relations of

produ(;tion byeconomic analysisof the commodityf

9

No,Marx's theoriesof the modeof production

have stalled.Consumption- not production

- is the basis of thesocial order.

Structuralism

But what methodology could heuse?Fashionable Structuralism - a method which emphasizes "deep"permanent structures oflanguages and cultures, which contends that the"subjecf' isnot derived from existence but from language.-----,

No...I eee a etructuralayatem at work in

conaumption - andetructurallem could be

u6ed to expoae itadynamical

From MaytoJune1968, theoreticalcrisis was eclipsedbysocial revolt.

10

1969 Situationisln

/

Whowasresponsible?Students known as the Enrages- maniacs - andsomeweretaughtby Baudrillard. Buttheydrewinspiration fromtheSituationist International.

TheSituationists werea groupof radical writersand artistswhodemanded theoverthrow of allbureaucratic regimes.

Theycombined subversive artandtheoryto encouragespontaneous actionwhichwouldcast off the enforced passivityofconsumer society. The revolutionwouldbe a festival or nothing­situations wouldact aspassageways to a newkindof life. Situationists declared waragainstmodern life.Culturewasa corpse, politicsa side-show,the mediaa limiton realcommunication.

Situationist Graffiti

Hey, I know youlI am head eltuatlonlet Guy Ernest­Debord, whocoinedthe phraeethe

II soclety of the spectaclell•

Capital accumulates until itbecomes image. TV, football matches, artgalleries, traffic... Thespectacle isnot a collection of images buta socialrelationship amongpeople, mediatedbyimages.

12

Repressive Participation

Jean was not a memberand was pessimisticabout the effectivenessof anuprisingwhichquicklyturned intonews footage.

The revolution failed. Some historiansthink it expiredbecausethe studentswent on summerholiday.

Baudrillard called this newform of repression ambience - where societybecomescontrolledthrough its inclusionin the spectacleof consumption.

Baudrillard had contemptfor the repressive code of consumption. It wasnot just a passivemomentafter goodswere producedand sold but a newphaseof capitalism...affluent society.

13

Affluent SocietyAffluent society "mutates" the human species.Weare no longersurrounded by peoplebut by objects. This is the newconsumer ambience - a newmoralitywhichsystematically structuresmodern life,andwhereuniquerelations between an object, a placeandfunction havedisappeared.

This liberation ofobjects from lifegivesus an ambientexperience ofdiffuseness and mobility­smoking, reading, entertaining, airtickets, credit cards, movies,gourmetshops, clothing are partofambient connectedness.

14

Sign Network

Department storesand malls 1magically negatescarcityandsynthesize all consumeractivities -leisure, spectacle,consumption - offeringa universalist model whichinvades all aspectsof social life.

Storedisplaysrefer theconsumernot to theobjects' function but totheircollective meaning ­a calculus or networkof signs.

15

...2 .,

~~td~~~~~

. ~~~' ,• • •..., ....

• I, t'~ .1

In the ambientorder, theconsumerobject itself isless importantthan its valuein the ambientharmonyofconsumersigns.

We are immersed inamodernworldof signs

I whichdestroytradition.Our experience of plastics,synthetics, pastel colours,lightingsystems, replaceearlier"living"materialslikewood, stuccoand cotton.

This systematization invades thedomestic interior. Take colour.In the 19thcenturycolourshadno independent valuefromtheparticular objectsthey expressed- their symbolic meanings alwaysarrivedfromtheircontext.

In the early20thcentury, coloursbecameliberated andseparatedfrom forms. They had a life oftheirown.Anything couldbe red,or blue, or green.Laterthere is a backlash - andpastelharmonizes theambientenvironment - colourdisappears assuchandwe areleftwithtonal systems.

16

Becausemany objects havea

functionalist logic, webecome functional.

The Critic as Consumer

Our existence is livedby the rhythm of consumer goods. Objectsare strippedof symbolism and expression. In this consumer worldeverything is "handy" ­musculareffort is replaced withcybernetic, oftenremote, control.

What'sBaudrillard'sown world

of consumption Iike7

Hispad in Parisis surrounded by restaurants, cinemas,smallshops. Baudrillard usuallywearsbrown, smokesGauloises roll-ups (peasant background?).Theapartment is unpretentious,with plaindrapesoverthefurniture, blackandwhitephotoson the wall,a mirroroverthe fireplace, aTV, videorecorderandCD. Hehasasecond homein Languedoc andtwochildren.

17

Defining the Ambient Consumer

Coneurnptlondimini6ht36 the human6pt3cit36,but howcanWt3 cha lIt3ngt3 theeattefactton of 60mt30nt3 who

bUy6 a pt3dal bin coveredwith flOWt3r67

18

19

NolWecan't caet offthle apparent "conditioning" and limit

our needa to "real" onee - it leimpoaaible to knowwhich are real needs

and which are not.

Besides, consumers never feel mystified or alienated. We"play" withneeds, substituting oneobjectforanother.

Individual choice is the ideology of the industrial system. Freedom ofchoiceis imposed on the consumer.

Baudrillard's conclusion is that individuallyneeds are nothing. Needs havenothing todowithanycorrespondence between a consumer andanobject.The system of needs is produced by the system of production.

20

Applying SemiologyThis woolly definition ofneedsand consumers was refinedwhen Baudrillard introduced hisstructural logic ofconsumption,where hesuggested that theconsumer was aneffect oftheway that consumer goodscirculate asmeanings-forget theconsumer.

I can use a basiceemioloty to extend

my argument.

It ispossible to conceive of a

science which studies the roleof eigns ae part of social life.

We shall call itsemiology.

Semiology reconstructs the systemofconventions and distinctions thatenable a group ofobjects tohaveparticular meanings for socialmembers - assigns.

Ferdinand de SaU66ure(1857-1913) - founder ofstructural Iineui6tic6.

21

Semiology of Fashion

Baudrillard followed hisassociate, Roland Barthes(1915-80), whostudied clothesasafashion system­notsimplythe outcome of technological forcesbutmainlyas carriers of information andas unitsin asystem of signs - particularly in fashion magazines.Barthes analyses the signifieds and signifiers at workin sentences like:prints winat the races.

Consumption is likea linguistic system (langue) - the relation of fashionobjects/signs to eachother (coats to jackets) - in opposition to individualeffectsof speech (parole) - the innumerable usesof clothesas signsby

. individuals andgroups.Baudrillard emphasizes the abstract code ofconsumption,whichorganizes anddifferentiates objectsassigns, ratherthan individualexpressions of needandpleasurein or for the object.

22

Classifying Consumers

Baudrillard says: "Consumption, in sofaras it ismeaningful, isa systematicactofthe manipulation ofsigns. Objects arecategories ofobjects whichquite tyrannically induce categories ofpersons."

Wedodt just consumeobjectsas signs - weconsume

relatione between objecteeThis is a recent cultural

development.

Social difference isorganizedbythe systemofobjects.

Once upon a time there were Chippendale tables and farm tables.

If you weren'tnobleyou couldn1t buy

into the style ofthe former.

Todaythough,no class chasm separatesthem. They are part of the

same system ofobjec;ts intowhichallconsumers are

inserted.

Sign Function of Objects

24

Hei6 enmeshedin an oppre66iveetructure

of 6ignification - meaning6generated from the differential

relation of6ign6.

An object is not an objectof consumption unlessit is liberated as a signcaughtup in the circulation of suchdifferences.

Baudrillard1s selectiveuseof semiology foregrounds thesign function ofthe object. This is what makesobjectscirculate as meanings.

Denotation and Connotation

25

Consumer freedom means freedom toregress and beirrational!

Individual repression has beenannulled because it's found ahome inobjects. But the socialorganization ofobjects brings itsown repression.

No. Objectsabsorb cultural anxiety (about

the loss of the past etc.) and allowregression, but it is expressed In the

system ofcultural consumption:"what man lacks is always invested

1IIIP-----0:1110",. in the object.1I

But doesn'tthis mean that my

"eubjectlve'' desire issubversive of the system

of objects andsignification?

Today taboos and neuroses don'tmake the individual a deviant oranoutlaw.

28

Regressing with Consumer Objects

Withwhichobjects?

Bygones: Signify time and past.A desperate narcissistic attemptto regressto childhood and to findMother(origins) andFather(authenticity).

Household Pets?Indicate failureof humanrelationships andnarcissism. Neutered, theyregulate castration anxiety.

Wrist-watches? Absorbanguishof death.

Whyisn'tpleasure the basis of

consumption?

Becausepleasureis not aboutenjoyment- it's about duty.It springsnot from the individualbut from socialobligation.The consumermust strive forhappiness andpleasure.

It's the inverseof the wise andthrifty Puritan ethic whichdemands financial restraint.

So what's this newethic called?

29

The Fun System

With ''funmorality" the consumermust not be passive. He must tryeverything.

TryJesus, Jacko'snewalbum,love- Japanese style!

If he becomes6ati6fied with what he hae,

he becomes aeoclal-e- and notpart of the eyetem

ofconeumptlon.

So what sort of consumerobject is it that constantlydissatisfies him?

A myth.We must treat the objectas nothing but types of relations andsignifications - and lookat the hidden(unconscious) logic which arrangestheserelations.

30

LogiC of the Consumer Object

Baudrillard's logicof theconsumer objectupdates Marx's conception of acommodity as usevalue(its utility) and economic exchange value (itsprice).The objectof consumption todayconsists of:

Symbolic exchange is crucial to Baudrillard.31

Symbolic ExchangeHappynow?Yes, the logic that organizesthese objects is ultimatelythesystemof consumption, which is determined by the systemof production.

ButhowcanBaudrillard's critiqueevadethis all-encompassing system?Whatkindof world is he defending?

Baudrillard's wholecritiqueis launched fromthe platformofsymbolicexchange.

Look...I really need that horae...Takethese three women

for it... Okay7

HedrawsfromanthropologistMarcel Mauss's (1872-1950) theorization of thegift. What is givenand returned is not necessarily a physical present,reflecting wealth, or property. It can consistof courtesies, rituals, women,dances, the recognitions of status. In primitive society, a gift has to be repaidbecause the recipient is undersocialobligation to do so - and failureto do soequalssocialcensure. Theelements of gift-exchange are related to individualsandgroupsand not just objects.

32

Symbolic exchange istherefore radically opposed to the abstraction ofeconomic andsign exchange. It isopen-ended anditdoesn't accumulatemeanings (orprofits) or alienate, because itdoesn't split people from theiridentity or their social place by inserting them into the system of objects.

Doesthis ieanBaudrillard has nostalgia for akind of naive positivism - the

suggestion that human kind once lived in"objective reality" where II reaI

meanlnge" existed beforecapitalism?

~--

33

'ftle 19109 - Baudrillard Unmasks the Sign

It wasn't longbeforeBaudrillard sawthat semiology itselfwasnota wayofdemythologizing theconsumer world- it was part of the problem.Structural linguistics andsemiology were capitalism.

Thlemanlpulatlon,that play6 on the faculty of

producing meaning and difference,le more radical than that which

plaY6 on labour power.

Arethereetructural elmllarttlee between

the commodity form -which allowsgood6to circulate in the way Marx had

claimed - and the sign formwhichallows meanings

to circulate?

34

16 therea political economy

of the slsn?

Commodity and Sign

Baudrillard thoughtthe two structures were linked in

consumption. "Consumption is the stagewhere the commodity is produced ae

a signand eigns (culture)are produced ascommodities.'1

Baudrillard'sinsight stemmed from his

destruction of the ideology ofneeds. And if needs are suspect,then so is the product's usevalue

in its equal claim to bea meaningful term.

But what isusevalue?

The Innocence of Use Value

Marx uses thefamous example ofDaniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoetoshow that themystical character ofcommodities does not originatein their use value.

So farae a commodity

hae a value in U6eJ there i6 nothingmyeterloue about it.

Man change6 the forme of the rnaterlalefurnlehed bynature in euch a waya6

to make them ueefulto him.

GOOd6 onlyhave U6evalueefor hlrn, under the

6ign of Nature.

Marx isclaiming that a product isuseful before anything else.Economic exchange harms social relations (profit =exploitation)and innocent old use value gives thecommodity a "humanity".

36

Marx has fallen into a trap. Byopposing commodity value tothesimple,''transparent'' relation ofCrusoe tohis modest wealth, Marx only underlined thebourgeois mythof primary needs, which also champions individualautonomy, man asnon-alienated labour and a moral consciousness boundtonature.

Ueevalue Isbornof economics - it does notexist beforehand. It is the ideology

of capitalism.

Besides,what on earth is ManFriday doing there?

Yourang, master?

37

The Mask of ''Use Value"

Baudrillard's radicality lies'in this statement: the utilityof objects is not apropertyprior to exchange value.Usevalue is an effectof exchange value. It is an alibi which keepsproductscirculating. Use value props up exchange value. It is producedas a sign ratherthan a fundamental truth.

Usevalue isnot outside the system - it

only integrate6 U6moreeffectively into the

sy6uml

Whenwe call goods"useful", we are making their usevaluethe first and last 'reason for their existence. Worse, we turn all objects intoan abstractfinality:everything is usefull

38

For Baudrillard, only symbolic exchange objects escape thisabstraction. Once exchanged, objects are bound up with socialobligation. "It is this gift and not another". To call it "useful" abstracts itand makes it equivalent to all other objects under the sign of "utility".This is reductive and destructive.

It was time for Baudrillard to sit back and think.

If neede werean ideology which kept

consumption going, that madethem an alibi.

39

Then we alsohaveto consider another

possibility.

len't theresomething dubious about

eienific:;ation - the way thatobjects and images circulate

as meanings~

Theideology (oralibi) ofneeds anduses extends to thesign itself - inits claims tocarry meanings.

40

Doesn'tmeaningfunction as

an alibi to allow signs tocirculate in exactly the

same wayascommodities~

The Reply of Structural Linguistics

Structural linguisticsassumed that signs can refer to an objective reality- but in a misconceived way.

the sign is an accomplice .Qt,g_~:iJ

des aod3 \t exc\U Once· . ates 'Id\Scr\m\O ."go oflers

d a s\insta\\e • tu\\va\ue -itse\t as a fona\,positive. fa: \ \e~changeab e.

This is the rationality of the sign. Its rationality does NOTlie in the signnaming someexteriorreality (a tree over there), but in itsexclusion ofambivalence or non-resolution of meaning.

43

Is the "Sun" Real?

Thesignifier(sound-image "sun") refersto a signified (the concept­meaning,"sun") and togetherthey make up a referent­

THE5UN.

NolReality Ie governed bythe elgn ­projected byit. The"referent" is the

reflection of the sign.

The"Sun" assignifier (image orword) restricts andinduces its signified (concept) and becomes a sign.Thereal sun (referent) isaneffectofthis logic.

But where isthe"sign-crime" here?44

The holidaysun signifies only a POSITIVE value- the sourceof happiness.It is opposed not to itself (asbad" sun)- which wouldmakethe signambivalent anddestructive of meaning - but to its constructed opposite:non- sun (rain).

45

Symbolic exchange loses out.Our sun is not symbolic of life anddeath, goodness and vengeance,as it was for Aztecs or AncientEgyptian cultures. It has nodestructive power orambivalence.

And so reality is in collusion withthe sign. It is a reality-effectproduced by the sign. The signalludes to reality, but inactuality excludes it.

For Baudrillard, this capitalist"control" of meaning and realityis terroristic.

Symbolic exchange - unique,ambivalent, reciprocated functionsof objects or symbols - isflattened. All repressive andreductive strategies of powersystems are already present in theintemallogic of the sign,including political economy.

46

D'construetion... against"Presence"Baudrillard owes a debt tothe poststructuralist Jacques Derrida.

Derrida questioned theprimacy ofthesignified inwestern rationalphilosophy - the repressive promotion ofthemetaphysics of presence:thedesire for a guarantee ofcertainty, immediacy, origin orfoundation formeaning. Derrida called this radical criticism deconstruction.

Similarly,I can say that use-value is

the metaphysical opposition toexchange-value, or signified/referent

to signifier, or unconscious toconscious ...

My ds(;onetru(;tfonattempts to locate the

metaphysical assumptions whichanytext - philo6ophy,semiology - hides

or represses in order toremain viable.

47

... and Diffm-ence

Exactly.Meaning (ae origin, epeech,

U6eor referent) doe6 not precedewriting or 6ign exchange. It arleee byvirtue of it. In fact, the meaning ofmeaning i61nflnlteimplication, theIrltJeflnlte referral of 6ignifier to

6ignifier. Thleproce66 I calldifference.

48

16 thereno eecapefrom thetyranny of the 6ign7

Baudrillard's Culture

Nowhere do signscarveoutandorganize realitymoreeffectivelythan in culture.

I havealwaye had a kind of

radical eueplclon toward6culture.

Baudriliardwritesof bothhighculture:"avantgarde"art, designandaesthetics,and massculture:TV,film, etc.

He has no interestin debatesabout. vulgarization (wherethecontentof high

ultureisseendegraded whenproduced for a television audience).

Culture is the production and consumption of signs. But becausesignscarveout realityfor us, in effectEVERYTHING IS NOW"CULTURAL",available as imageand"meaning".

49

Simulations

Culture isno longer a IJliving bodylJ,

the presence of a collectivity (religion,feasts, storytelling) producing signs.

Now signs producecultures.

50

Baudrillard is insisting thatcultureshould involve a symbolic function(surprise!). It shouldbe opentoargument, reciprocal exchange,and didacticprocess. It shouldcommenton and criticize itselfand so upsetthe ceremonyofmass culture.

Culture is described by dynamicsof consumption - fashioncycles, ambience, codes,No aspectof culture escapesthis.

The main exampleof this iscultural recycling-ephemeralsigns of pastculture whichareproducedassimulations.

Everything.

Healthclubsand fitness regimes ="rediscovery" and recycling of the body.

Naturereserves, greenbeltsand"countryside" =recycled Nature.

Baudrillard: "Nature isno longera primevalandoriginal presence symbolicallyopposed to culture, but a simulationmodel, a consomme of the recirculatedsignsof nature."

51

Mass Reproduction... andNon-Auratie Culture

Technologies ofmass reproduction produce cultureassigns.Theproblem here is of the originalwork of art and its infinitereproductionthrough massmedia.

That whichwither5 in the age of meehanleal

reproduatlon 15 the aura of the workof art. Thetechnique of reproductiondetaches the reproduced object from

the domain of tradition andsubetttutee a plurality of

copies for a uniqueexistence.

Van Goghis "sold"as a meaning in the sameephemeral systemwhichimposes itselfon high-street clothesorTV programming. Thus, thecodeorganizes "Van Gogh"as cultural form and its meaning stemsfrom it.Van Goghfor sale as a sign!

52

Lowest Cornmon Culture

"Culturetoday is misunderstood", said Baudrillard. He called it LCC- LowestCommon Culture. It's not about acquiring culture as knowledge, but aboutparticipation and integration inquestions andanswers: for instance, quizshows,quiz games- even schoolexams.

So le hea culture 6nobf'

Likewho?TheFrankfurt Schoolof Marxism soughtto takeaccountof thecentrality ofmasscommunication inmodemsocieties.Theculture Industrysupplies ideologies and mediates experience. Technology is its medium- it leads to an Insane rationality.

53

The Frankfurt School vs. Mass Culture

Theprogressive aimof the 18thcentury Enlightenment hasproduced itsopposite- progress hasturned intotyranny. Itsubordinates thenatural wor1d totechnical control andproducespseudo-Individuality. Here aretwovoicesfrom the Frankfurt School...

Theodor Adorno (1903-69)claimedthat thedialectic (orinternal form) ofArnoldSchoenberg's (1874-1951)atonal music revealedandcontradicted the tyrannicalharmony ofbourgeois musicalnaturalness. But laterhe saw nohopefor a criticalculture.

Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979): "Today's novelfeature is the flattening out oftheantagonism between cultureandsocialrealitythrough the obliteration oftheoppositional, alien,andtranscendent elements in the higherculturebyvirtueof which it constituted anotherdimension of reality."

r

54

s

Like the sign system of objects, the signs of culture integrate everyone.

So is Baudrillard critical of high culture or of mass culture?

Both. All aspects of culture are ephemeral signs . They are not produced tolast, except as an ideal or metaphysical reference -like "Nature", after ithas been destroyed.

Why? Because high and mass culture are both organized by the code ofconsumption - the fashion cycle .

Cultural prizes -like the Tate Gallery's Turner Prize - are awarded to oneartist per year and are adapted to the functional cycle of modern culture.Once such a prize would have meant the art was reserved for posterity.Now it's singled it out as the latest trend .

55

The Techno Culture...

::11~1 ~:±fllf . . • •_.,.......,..... , ...... . .&.L.,.

56

Astechno-culture.

Objects aresigns of technology.ThecodehereisDESIGN, whichreplaces the 19thcentury concernwith style.

Thiscommences withtheGermanBauhaus(1919-33), directed byWalterGroplus (1883-1969).Priorto this,products wereajumbleof singular styles.

TheBauhaus inaugurated theuniversal semantlzatlon ofthe environment. It projected aunilateral Industrial aestheticontotheentire environmentasa meaning.

Everyobjectbecomes a signoffunctionalism andtechnology.Noweverything is a design object- lamps, buildings, cities, people...

In cyberblitz, questions ofbeautyand ugliness are irrelevant.Traditional aesthetics - theoriesof forms of beautyalwaysunfolding andambivalent - giveway to cold systematic orderwhich artificiallycreates,separatesand unitesthefunctional with the aesthetic.

... or Cyberblitz

This extension of theindustrial revolutionintothesuperstructureof formand meaning,Baudrillard callsCYBERBLITZ.Theenvironment isnow asignifier whichcreatesa newsignified:functionalism!

Functionalism is analibi usedby theBauhaus to championthe "purity"of objectsand to attackthe "hell"of connotation (''false''or "added" meaning,suchas ornamentordecoration).

Fashion Alibis

It is onlyan after-effect of the nuanced differences between functionalistobjects. Theyonly really"function" as signsof function. And, of course,functionalism entersthe codeof fashion as just one signamongstothers­postmodem, kitsch, retro...

Kitsch?Another pseudo-object. Trashy simulations andoverworking of signs-like clichesin language. Theyexist not because of people's badtasteormanufacturers' profitmotive. Theyare tied to social mobility - partof ahierarchy whichseparates the abundance of kitsch fromthe restrictednumberof high-class goods. Theyare signs in a codeof socialdistinction.

58

AndGadgets?

Same logic. They're seen as uselessobjects (a five-speed toothbrush), but infact they have a purpose - as adistinctive sign whose signified istechnology. Gadgets are like games.They play with the idea of function (byadding more knobs or functions), but likeall design they are caught in the codesof fashion and sign exchange.

/.(p..•:r ,: ? )..: t'~=

Signs of design circulate everywhere:designer bodies and sex, designer drugs,designer politics. The culture of designreplaces reality - its code is triumphant.

59

Is thereno escape fromthe sign? Whataboutart - doesn't thatevadethecocle?

Baudrillard admires art for itsstruggle torepresent the object- butnot as a practice.

Ironically, his ideas havehad their greatestinfluencein fine art, particularly in NewYork.

The "reluctant prophet" delivered the grimmessagethat art is finished- it's simply a consumption of signs.

Art was initiallya sign of prestige.

The art marketand its signexchange valuedoesnotstemfrom economicprofitsor accumulation. It comesfrom exhibiting signs ofexpenditure.

60

TheAmerican socialtheoristThorstein Veblen (1857-1929) thoughtthat thecapitalistprofitmotivemeantthatconsumption was determined byproduction of uselessgoods, culminating in the desireof the leisure classtochallenge, emulate and impress othersbyconspicuous wastefulsignsofwealthsignifying economic expenditure, or by inconspicuous consumptionwhenthe lowerclassesstartedto consume conspicuously.

Baudrillard's reaction: "Today it'snot just aboutbuyingsignsof power, it's aboutcontrolling thecode- the processof signification. The elitearenotseparated fromthe rabblebypurchasingpoweralone, but bytheirexclusive and privilegedaccessto signs- and by beingat the top end."

61

Moneyis notoffered for the use-value of the painting. It is wagered for signexchange value. Thereis nofixedprice, and it is moreaboutoutbidding thanbartering. Artauctions are"sign-wars".

So what is an art lover? Asocial groupie whoexists in relation to theobsessions of all otherart lovers with signsof privilege, just as the paintingis related to all otherpaintings of statusin reference to its pedigree - whosigned it andwhopossessed it.

Theart lover promotes culture asuniversal value, because hecannever ownit.62

Banking on Galleries

So galleries and museums arelike banks - they both circulatesigns. Banks guarantee theuniversality of money. Galleriesmake paintings "democratically"available. But only the elite canpossess either.

So art is just a sign?Yes, but one which does not referto a reality. In the past, paintedcopies had value because theytook inspiration from an original,transcendent Natural reality ororder, not the "original" painting.So the authenticity of art was notan issue. Forgeries did not exist.

"£!3~;;~:J1l~~: ;~ >: ":;:to-·~;: ·)":r:. :~;;~;:5~"

What is a ''True'' Work ofArt?Today, however, the world no longer guarantees the meaning of thepainting. Only the unique gesture and signature of the absent artist can dothat, no matter how "impersonal".

A fake Soulages work throws suspicion on all Soulages, because theauthenticity of the sign is then in question. That is why the art worldhates forgery.

This is all art is. It tries to represent the world and be authentic, gesturalor emotional. Artists are "naive and pious" - the structure of art as signexchange undermines "avantgarde" attempts to throw pots of paint at thesystematized world.

64

Butcan art represent the worldof massconsumption - of systemsofobjects? No,art hasbeenplaying out its owndisappearance overthelast century. It no longer represents - it simulates.

Art has always beena discourse on the objects it represents. The statusoftheseobjects in art has changed in the 20th century. Art has increasinglyabstracted objectsfromtheirsocialspaceand turnedthem intosignswhichno longerreferbackto moral, psychological or symbolic valuesthat usedtobe tied to the socialorder.

evolution of Mondrlan'e"tree",

'nle Genealogy ofArt's Disappearance

WithCubism, objectsbecome autonomous elements in the analysisofspace. As images/signs they are fragmented to the pointof abstraction.

Then DadaandSurrealism parodically revived objectsto showthemasIrrationally split from modern, functionalist culture. Theyattempted to revoltagainstthis "reality" of objects, but only perpetuated the elevation of objectsto the artistic code.

Abstraction ­expressive orgeometrical­represents objectsindecomposition andexpresses thesystematization ofthe rational order,not the world.

66

Andthencomes PopArt, which pretends toreconcile images ofobjects withconsumer objectsthemselves. Imagesclaim to represent theorderofconsumption intheindustrial andserialproduction ofart andtheconsumer objects.

So can Pop Art Culture representconsumer life?

Baudrillard says no,because it's integrated with it.

Pop Art comes off the sameassembly line. It claims toreflect on Americanness-as­ideology. But Pop Art is itself

one of its trademarks.

But surely pop artistsenjoy this complicity?

Maybe, but they see it ata different level.

Pop artists assume a realityto objects which they"discover" in itseverydayness.

I take theL out of PLAY, t he R outof FREE. I am not t he

Burger King of painting.I am indisputably a

genius.

Butlthink Warhol succeeded

in extorting from seriality andbanality a "genial" element ofshock and surprise. Hewas

"Ironic" to his objects.

But don't postmodern artists like Jeff KoonsandMark Kostabl expose andcelebrate theloss ofauthenticity and critical representation, andthetriumphoftheartas commodity andsign?

MarkKostabi (b.1964) isshunned bytheartworld because he pays artstudents $7 anhour toproduce his paintings sold at$20,000 - all signedKOSTAB!...

69

Kostabi ironizes the artist-as-sign by playing the artist-as-creator.

;'~~ - ~ -

. _ r , -. - '''; " ; #....- - ,. :;.... .1ft" ..~~

I have noresponse to postmodern art.

Mywritings can justify anything.But to represent them in art ismisguided. Painting can never

represent simulation becauseitslogic Ie simulation.

71

The Beaubourg EffectThe Pompidou Centre in Paris is attackedby Baudrillardas the worstsignifierof modernculture.

The interior triesto present cultural memory(museum), but it looksmorelikeasupermarket.Thewholebuilding signifies thedisappearance ofculture.

The mass publicwant to challengesterile culture with itsphysicaldestruction. Over30,000people insideand thebuildingmightfall down! In the Beaubourg the massesdon'treflect on culture, but touch, eat and steal it.This culturalviolence is aboutoverloadand implosionratherthantranscendence.

··... ··'iV'·;,··,'t·M

i Baudrillard however,is an amateurphotographer - andwas a contributingeditor ofArtforum.

1973 - Baudrillard Destroys Marxism

Just as culture replaces itself with emptysigns which hide its disappearance,capitalism turns into hypercapitalism andsignsofproduction aremirrored throughwestern society - and beyond.

In1973,Baudrillard wrote a scathingattack onMarxism. Itwas responsible formaintaining themirrorof production­and exporting it.

TheMarxistmodel projects its notion of the

mode/code of production onto othersoc ial systems. Baudrillard claimsthat it tyrannizes earlier or futuresocieties becauseit absorbs them

into its own likeness.

Men begintodistinguish themselvesfrom animals as soon

as they begin toproduce their means of

subsistence.

Baudrillard undermines all the Marxianproductivist metaphysics in tum...

First, the concept ofman aslabour.

74

HereBaudrillard follows thesociologist MaxWeber (1864-1920).

I drewattention to the role

of religious thought in shaping economicbehaviour,and the nature of modern

bureaucratic organization. It's inCalvinism that the roots of

capitalism are tobefound.

The Marxist sign ofproduction extends totheworld."History" equals thehistory of the modesof production.Marxism thus becomes imperialistic. All possible societieshave to account for themselves inrelation totheproductivist model. Thus, traditional societies areseen asnon-productivist orunderdeveloped.

75

And Psychoanalysis? And Nature?

Even the western rationalistproductivist discourse ofpsychoanalysis iscaughtup inthis code.Suddenly, all cultureshavea moreor less"developed"unconscious, a repressivemechanism.

And nature dancesto the tuneofproduction...

SoNature issemiologically reduced and split into...

Goodnature: dominated and a source ofwealth.Badnature: hostile and polluted.

Like Freud'eunconscious, Nature exists as arepressed wealth waiting to be

liberated in all its "truth".This conceptual

violence is more destructivethan missionaries or venereal

disease ...

"The Accursed Share"

For Baudrillard, traditional andprimitive "societies" do notrestrict production of goods.Their symbolic exchange isbased on non-production, eventualdestruction and a proces••funlimited reciprocity betweenpersons, and on limitation ofexchanged goods. Produetienhas no meaning.

Baudrillard is drawing on GeorgesBataille's vision of excess - the"accursed share" which is morefundamental than the accumulativedrive of production.

The symbolic coherence ofthegroup with gods andnatureinvolves excess but not surplus.Partof the harvest will bereturned as first-fruits intheprocess of sacrifice andconsumption topreserve thissymbolic movement. Nothing isevertaken from nature withoutbeing returned to it.THIS IS NOTPRODUCTIONOFVALUE- thefinal product isnever aimed for.

....#'

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-,~.....

'-':,i'"~'\" "

~\:# !I •

./

J~/ ' '"

Baudrillard stepsupa gearnow. ~,He sees that Marx'spolitical / j/., ~.t )p' , ·economyand Freud's libidinal ~ . ,, 'economy must bereversed. /7/ " .{f ~

J~

/ ?I

1/

~

The Myths of "Primitivism"

Theproduction ofvalue leads towestern myths of"primitivism".

of.ONTINENT

NolThat's our obsession with

accumulating goods.

Another reflectionOf political economy- as thoughthese societies are refusing to

play our gameof surplus and as ifthey stop "producingll when they've

satisfied needs.~5!===~~

2. Theyproduce things tosatisfy needs,not

rnakeprofits.

3. Primitive"art" has a magical and

religious function.

Ifonly anthropologists had seen this, then itwould have thrown a radicalperspective on our assumptions about art.

AnthropoloeY corrtrtbuteeto a better under6tandine of objectified

thoueht and it6 mechanleme, It doe6n1t matterwhoee mind6 weexamine,a610ne ae we recoenize

that cultures' mind6 di6play an intellieibleetructure,

The Slave and Wage Worker

Marxprojects capitalism ontoslavery:

Siave/mae;ter ie; noteconomic domination but a reciprocal relation ­

not between two separate e;ubjects. but in terms ofsymbolic otllieatfon. The ealarled labourer's "liberation"

is juet western humanlet rationality conceivingall earlier forms of domination as irrational.

Weehould lookat our own society asan exploited one.

82

LacanS MirrorBaudrillard thinksit's morelikeLacan's mirror stage: through the mirrorofproduction, human comes to consciousness in the imagination. He identifiesandobjectifies himselfin his idealasproductlvlst ego.

Thissounds likesimulated labour.

Weno longer''work'' inthe classic sense­we keepourselvesoccupied in the ritualof the signs of labour.

Production hasmutatedintoa tyrannical codeorganizing everythingfromroad building, bodybuilding, working onatan,andretraining. Wearenotdragged awayfrom daily life tosurrender to machines- weareintegratedwith"flexi-time","home working" or"unemploymentbenefit'.

83

Today production doesn'tproduce consumption, consumption produces signsof productionl

Wages cango upor down.Bossesdon't worry, aslongas theworkersholdon to themeaning of work.

Unionsenterthe signofpay-bargaining.Theyarethe accomplices

of workers andbosses- they keep

the signsof exploitationandliberation insuspense.

Strikeswereonceorganizedviolence againstviolence ofcapital to extractsomesurplusvalue: theworkersseizingprofits.

Nowstriking for strike'ssake is the absurdcirculation of a systemwhereoneonlyworksto reproduce workas meaning. Everyone is still productive butonlyto reproduce signsI

Bythe mid-1970s, Baudrillard sawthat this modelhadthrowneverythingintodoubt. If production is a puresign with no basis in reality, whataboutothercodeswhichuseproduction as an alibiof meaning?

84

Baudrillard - A Ladies' Man?

A 1977 Baudrillard critique ofMichel Foucault (1926-84)was his launchpad for anassault on the other mirrorsof production - of power,sexuality and desire.

It led to Baudrillard's exclusionfrom the academic influenceenjoyed under the wing of thebald historian of ideas.Baudrillard was now anintellectual outlaw!

Forget Foucaultl

Iwould havemoreprobleme; remembering

Baudrillard.

85

FoucaultS Idea of Power

Foucault's mission was toaskhow discourses and practicesare implicated intheexercise ofpower. Thehistoryof sexualitycan be described not simply interms ofwho has power and whoisdominated orrepressed, but interms ofpower as a densetransfer point forrelations ofpower - from psychiatric textstothe religious confession orto gay rights.

86

My conclusionis that powerdoes not censor

discourses of sex. This repressivehypothesis of "ceneorehlp'' conceals

the fact that society and powerproduoe discourses

of sexuality.

Foucault ie;the laet great dinoe;aur of the

claeelcal age. He tracks down power to ite;meet minute detail, but can't eee that

power, eexuallty and the bodyare dead.

He means thatalthough poweroperates onthe body, foucault aeeurneethat the exletence of power

hae a truth and reality.It doee;n't - it'e; a

pure sign.

Foucault can only seethePRODUCTION ofsex asdiscourse.Foucault assumes thebody has no other reality than that ofthesexualand productive model.This circulation ofthepsychic, sexual and thebody isa replica oftheforceofmarket value. Sexuality isan ideal means tomake usmanage a type ofcapital- sexual, unconscious, psychic and libidinal.

87

Male vs, Female

Baudrillard thoughtthis "sexcapital"rationality hadproduced a radicaldistinction betweenmaleandfemale lJ.·. J ""which produced ~ N

the sexualobjectification ofthe feminine.All symbolic exchange- ambivalence - hadbeenliquidated to theprofitof the functionalbinarymale/female.

88

Instead, it is a long process of seduction in which sexuality is one serviceamong others, a long procedure of gifts and countergifts. Love-making is onlythe eventual outcome of this reciprocity.

The traditional woman's sexuality was neither repressed norforbidden. She was not defeated, not passive, nor did she

dream of sexual liberation. To talk about sexuality in feudal,rural, and primitive societies is foolish - there has never

truly been any sexuality.It is a simulacrum.

89

Against Peminism

Feminism is trappedin the sexualorderdominated byphallic values.Thewomen's movement participates in the alreadyobsolete depthmodelsof sexualtruthand profundity. With liberation, emancipation andstruggletheyacceptthe essentially masculine in orderto supplyopposing signs.

Psychoanalysis is also party to this conspiracy.

The shroudofpaychoanalyaia haefallen

overaeduction- the shroud ofhidden meaninga and of

a hiddenexceee ofmeaning.

Women werenowbeingtaughtto demand everything inorderto desirenothing, to produce the femaleas a sexwithequal rightsand pleasures andfemaleas value.

91

Feminists want tomake everything speak, and they layclaims totruthand theprofundity ofsex - the signified ofsex - sexas meaningand sexas visibility:

You've {:iotasexualnature and youmuatfind out howto

use it well.

You've{:iotan unconecloue and

you muet learn howtoliberate it.

Sextoday is lost inits overproductionof signs. Sex iseverywhere exceptinsexuality. There isnomore prohibition.

Baudrillard thoughtwomenshouldescapethe positiveand productivesignof sexualas ''truth'''.They must be seductivel

93

Seductiontealwaya oppoaed to production.

Seduction withdrawa aomethine fromthe vlelble order and eo rune counter to

production, whoee project le to aeteverythine up in clear view, whether

it be an object, a number;or a concept.

Baudrillard's theory ofseduction pushed symbolic exchange and Bataille'sdestruction into new territory.

Seduction isessentially a game ofappearances between a subject and object(usually people, but itdescribes other subject-object relations). Seduction isacircular process ofchallenge, one-upmanship, and death.

94

Objects seduce by appearances. Wearecharmed by theirseductive secrecy,mystery andartifice, andtheir signschallenge our claimsto truth, meaningandpower. Butseduction doesnotsubvert power. It is a reversible gamewhich the objectplaysagainst the subject. It is the radical ironyof objects toreverse, divert, seduce, displace, recuperate all desires of the subject.

Andwomen do this best:

Woman le butappearance. She thwarte

rnaecullne depth. Seductionnever accede6 to truth

or meaning.

The feminine is not just seduction - it's a challenge to the maleto be thesex, to monopolize sex and take it untodeath.

95

The End ofPhallocracy?

Phallocracy iscollapsing underthe pressure of thischallenge.Power wants to be real. Seduction doesn't. Butbehind power thereis a void.Inject reversibility intooureconomical, political, institutional or sexualmachinery andeverything collapses - including malepower.

Thewornen'emovement, ia aaham~d of a~duction.

It aesumee itla an artificial preeentatlonofth~body-a mleapproprlatlon of

women's J1tru~J1 b~ine.

Let's takesome seduction scenarios:a man pursues ahooker...

What doyou want? Doyou want to

jump m~?Then chane~ yourapproachl Say, I want to

jumpyoul

Th~n

eo r*k youra~lfI ... 1111

make coffee, and thenyou canjump me,

96

Games of Seduction

Say. IITel1 mewho Iam." Become a blank.

The manthen loeee hlepowerbyanewerlng,

97

Appearances vs. Reality

Signs of appearance are preferable to signs which try to take hold of reality.

Take gambling. In gambling, money is seduced, deflected from its truthand meaning. Once transformed into a stake, it's no longer a sign - it's achallenge, not an investment.

O f!--_.--J--

/ --~- -~\-- ~\

Drag queens with moustaches from Barcelona: a counter-challenge to thefemale model by female games. But parody doesn't mean hostility. Its playinvalidates masculinity - it too enters the game. Here signs are separatedfrom biological signifieds and become a game of appearances.

99

Thenthereare screen idols.All starsare feminine. Starsdazzle in theirabsence, in the coldness and non-sense of a face purged of all expressionwhichplaysouta ritualized appearance.Stars mustdie, or alreadybe dead,so that they can be perfect. In fact, deathitself is pureappearance.

Feminists strike back!

Crlttclem:Baudrillard protecte

6eduction bymaking it a game that neverthreatens the maecullne, It'6 arletocratlc,

a farrtaey for rnen'e continualdomination.

Baudrillardi6 the pimp of

p06tmoderni6ml

",

Sheturnedpowerinto a game byII rapingll me

via him.She had promoted herfemini6memerdiou« by brilliantly and cruelly inverting

the eltuation - the object outwittedthe e;ubject.

Baudrillardlete it all hang out.

Nocompaeelon for e;ufferingor willingnee;e; to engage in

dialoguewithfemlnlern,

Evenfernlnlete e;educe. Ina

eernlnar; a woman attackedmy ideae; on e;eduction while

helping a disabled manemokea cigarette.

101

Sentimental Cannibalism

Baudrillard's anti-humanism goesto extremes...

1981:Japanese manIsseiSagawahasdinnerwith a Dutch girl. Heshootsheras she reads to him.Thenhe eats her, whileprofessing undying love. '

Baudrillard seesthis "sacrifice" as the cruel seduction by the woman as object- whomthe subjecttakes literallyby effacing poeticmetaphors of love andsending the gameto a fatefulconclusion.

102

Baudrillard and Simulation

In 1981,Jeanpublished his infamous death-blow to reality.Hisclaimwas that realityno longeremittedsignswhichguarantee itsexistence. Signsnowconstruct the realas SIMULATIONS.

Where is realitybehind all the signsof production of culture, sexuality,need, use,desire?

Baudrlllard'sorders of simulacra (images, semblances) charttheincreasing circulation of signs,theirdomination andthen replacement ofthe real. But this view mustbe plotted against hisnostalgia for thesymbolic order. Aphase(feudal, medieval, primitive) whensignshadan unproblematic statusand realitywas not in question.

Let'sseehowthese"orders" work...

103

1. Symbolic Order in cultures of scarcity...

Hierarchical system (caste,ranketc.). Signsare limitedand fixedby rank, dutyandobligation. Nofashion systemhere.Social mobility andwrongful useof signs(beingaboveorbelowone'sstation)is punished.

Reality status- reality notanissue. Signs donotyetplaywithsocial "reality". Signs aredominated byunbreakableandreciprocal symbolic order.

I recognizeyour place in society.

Look at you r filthystateI

104

I know my place.Nice horse. Can I

have one~

•..-0

2. First Order of Simulacra

Dominated byCounterfeitsand false images.From Renaissance (15th-16thcenturies) upto IndustrialRevolution (late18thcentury).

Bourgeois order, relativelymobile society. Fashion isborn. Competition oversignssucceeds statutoryorder. Signis freedand refersnot toobligation butto producedsignifieds (meanings likestatus, wealth, prestige). Mostclasses enter this signexchange.

Whycounterfeit? When signsareemancipated fromduty,theycan pretend to beanything. Theydreamof thesymbolic orderbut can onlyfeign it or falsify it. Nowsignstake over all aspectsof sociallifeand provide a schematicequivalent for it.

Examples of the Counterfeit

Stuccodispelsthe confusion of realnatureand insertsa generalformalscheme. Stuccocoatsthe worldand represents everythinglThe false is everywhere - fake limbs (forks), fakeshirt fronts, baroquearchitecture, theatre, political intrigue, trompe l'oeil, imaginary islandutopias.

Reality status: signsmovefromreflecting a basic reality tomasking or perverting a basic reality. Butbecausetheyare false,a difference can be detectedbetween semblance andreality.

Thle lethe natural law of

value.

Reality status - signs mask theabsence of a basic reality andcouldnot presentit otherthanunderthe signof(re)production.In the industrial series, the sign isnot a counterfeit of an original, butrefersinstead indifferently to othersigns in the series. Origin is nota concern. This is the commerciallaw of value. Marx, ideology, andusevaluebelong here.

g. Second Order of Simulacra

Dominated byProduction and the series: Industrial period- 19thcentury.

Signsmass-produced all at onceon giganticscale by factorytechnology. Signsare repetitive,systematic, operational andmakeindividuals the same (as in thesystem of objects). Signsnowreferto serialdifferentiation, not toreality. Toaccumulate signs, oneneedsmoney, not socialpower.

As doesscience fiction: imaginaryprojections of production,speed, power,energy and

invention.

107

4. 'nUrd Order of Simulacra

Dominated bySimulation: current20thcenturyphase.

Extensive advances in scienceand informationtechnology. Digitality, geneticsand cybernetics arekey sites of simulation. Increased use of models inall areasof cultureand society.

DNA, binarycode, opinionpolls,referenda, marketing.

ScienceFiction? No.Novels like J.G. Ballard's.. ~: , (b. 1 930) Crash (1973) - the firstgreatnovel

of the universeof simulation - showthatthe currentmodelof sciencefiction isno longersciencefiction. It is ourworld- nothing is·invented.

-tn Crash there is neitherfiction'nor realityanymore- hyperrealityabolishes both.

"':Aeality status- signs bear norelation to any reality whatsoever.They are pure slmulacra­s ulations.

Simulation is the collapseof the realwith the imaginary, the true with thefalse. Simulation does not provideequivalentsfor the real, nor does itreproduceit- it reduplicates and generatesit.

The very definitionof the real becomesthat of which it is possible to give anequivalentreproduction. The real is not just whatcan be reproduced, but whatis alwaysalready reproduced. This is the hyperreal- the more real than real.

Hereare somecomparative examplesof the mutationof a sign throughtheordersof simulacra.

1. Counterfeit - theautomaton.Playswith reality- questionshumanness, soul, mortality.An obviousbut theatricalfake.

109

2. Production - the robot.Equivalent to man but only asabstractoperational process.No interrogation of humanityorappearance. It'sorigin or "real"ismechanical efficiency- a triumphof deadwork over real labour.

... ...

When thereal is no long6rwhat It usedto

be, n06talgia aeeumee it6 fullmeaning.

Simulation is a panic-strickenproduction of the real.

Changing skincolourdemonstratesthetechnological progression ofsimulacra.Tanning, forexample,wasonceachieved withan artificialuseof the natural sun,thenp~oduced by lamps, andlaterbypills, hormones andchemicals.Soonwewill intervene atthe genetic levelto get thatbronzed lookl

Cloning is the laststageof thehistoryandmodelling of the body.Reduced to itsabstract andgeneticformula, the individual is destinedtoserial propagation.

Simulation resurrects mythsqf originandauthenticity - and"lived" experience. It threatensthe realby simulating it.

Michael Jackson - geneticallybaroque gender-benderormutantly postracial?

3. Simulation - the clone,android or replicant.Notequivalent to man, butthegeneration of the real by itsmodel (DNA, digital andelectronic technologies).Collapse ofdifference betweenthe trueandthe false,replacement byhyperreal­more humanthanhuman.

The Real - SimulationS Alibi?

1971:The Philippine government return a few dozen Tasadaytribespeople discovered deep in the jungle - to protect them fromtheir "decomposition" by contact with the modern world. The Tasaday,"frozen" in their environment, were a perfect alibi to hide the fact thatwe are all Tasadays -living specimens under science. The irony isthat the object dies in its simulation, and so kills the science thatattempts to preserve signs of the real.

111

Disneyland or Baudrillard?

It'seasyto readthe ideology of Disneyland - a perfectrepresentationof the American way of life.But this hides a third-order simulation.

Disneyland camouflages the factthat "real"America is itselfDisneyland. LosAngelesandtheAmerica surrounding it arenolonger real- just simulated.So childishbehaviouris notconfinedto MagicMountain.Infantile degeneration is theU.S.A. Disneyland and other"imaginary stations"concealthis.

Simulation is not a questionof thetruth or falsity of signs likeDisneyland. Its purpose is to maskthe fact that real is not real - toensurethat the reality principleis not.threatened. This is thealibi of simulation.

112

Watergate

113

When anobject te exactlylike another, it le

not exactly like it,it ie; a bit more

exact.

And,of course, because the realis no longerpossible - illusion isimpossible. The polesof trueandfalsecollapseintooneanother.

Itwaeonly ajokel

It'e; not a real gunlI'm not an allenl

It wouldbedifficultanddangerousto fakea hold-up, not onlybecause yourphoneyfire-arm andartificial demands will be met withthe violence of the law, butbecause youaresuggesting thatlawandordermightbe nothingmorethansimulation! The lawreplies by treatingyour robberyasreal, andshooting you.

The real devoursany attemptat simulation. It can't dealwith it assimulation, just as the armyprefersto take a personsimulating madness fora realmadman. Because the realcannot isolateor identifysimulation, wecan no longerisolateor definethe real itself!

115

The Panic Crash

Because the economy issimulated, there will never befinancial collapse. Simulationacts as deterrence.

In 1987, the stock marketcollapsed, but nothing realhappened. Capitalism today is in"orbit" as simulation, and leavesthe world intact. If it came backdown to earth, economicexchange would freeze.Its circulation stops moneybecoming real again and soprevents catastrophe. This isvirtual capitalisml

Deterrencei6 what caueee something

not to take place.

A SimulatedEducation.

Universities wereformerly sites of

challenge to power.Knowledge - or its

destruction by radicalstudents - had meaning. Today,

universities are simulacra - worthless diplomas circulate likeEurodollars without any real equivalence in work or knowledge.All squabbles between tutors and students are nostalgicyearnings for a time when knowledge was a real stake.

116

No Nukes

The ultimate in simulation isnuclearweaponry. Themenace ofdestruction is not the real issue­it is the precession of the realwarby a system of signs ofdestruction whichmakestheir usemeaningless. Nuclearwarwill nottake place. Deterrence iscirculated among protestersandgovernments likemoneyor signsputting an endtoreal war.Thesimulation modelofnuclear deterrence turnsreallife intoephemeralscenarios of survivalandpointless violence.Entirely neutralized, thewholeplanetis madeuseless by this"hypermodel" ofinternational security.

117

Nuclearweapons - the bestsystem of control thatneverexisted!

Whataboutnuclearaccidents suchasChernobyl andHarrisburg?

Baudrillard saysthat simulations ofnuclearcatastrophe and films like

the China Syndrome precedeandcontaminate incidents

likeHarrisburg. In'-"_,.. fact, the film is the

realeventandHarrisburg is thesimulacrum.

Catastrophe isdeterred anddistilled.

Theonlychain reactiontaking place is theimplosive spectacle ofthe media.

onTV, he claimedhe was right - the GulfWarhad not happened! His pointis not that nothingtook place, but that what took place wasn't a war. It wasnon-war- a deterrence to war. Here'swhy...

There wasnoenemy - Saddam Hussein wasan accomplice to the USA'sintervention intheMiddle East. Hissoftterrorism helped thewestdispel thehardterrorism of Palestinians, etc.Hewasalready beholden to outside forces.

Therewerenowarriors involved, onlyhostages: Saddam1s "guests" andCNN's audience -us.

Therewas rarely directconflict, and its outcomewas predictable. Themethods andtechnologies of eachsidewerenot opposed but radicallydifferent, resulting in a pre-programmed act of policingin response to aThirdWorlddictatorwhofoughtlike it was stillWorldWar II!

Thlemeanewad

As simulation, the invasion of Kuwaitand its "liberation" couldbe representedin any way- as the ambition of a local dictator, or the plot by Americatolegitimize its intervention in the region.

It wasa virtual war of information, electronics and images- not primarilyofforce. The morewe had accessto "live" war events, the more the realitybecame information - whichquicklyaffected howthe eventwas conducted.Mostof the journalists at the "front" got their information from CNN.

The "enemy" was not challenged or annihilated. Saddam was left in place toensureUSAinterests were intact.Hewasallowed to crushKurdsand Shiites.

It le thebelllcoee equivalent of eafe

eex: make war like love with acondoml

Oneofthe two adverearlee le a rugealeernan, the other an arrne

ealeernan, They are bothcrooke,

Baudrillard wasoffered a job of covering theGulfWar, but refused, saying,"I live in the virtual. Sendme intothe realand I don't knowwhat to do.AndanywaywhatwouldI haveseen?Thosewhowenttheresawnothing,onlyoddsandends... Non-war is the absence of politics continued byothermeans."

Andno principle wassaved, otherthandeterrence. Thesubsequent "peace" isalsoa simulation.

HisbookThe Gulf WarDidNotTakePlace- andperhaps theconflict itself- was theculmination of tenyears'workonsimulation.

120

Baudrillard and the Media

I'm trulyincapable of recording

anything in a tete-a-"tBtewith a machine.

Baudrillard - the French McLuhan?

Herbert Marshall McLuhan(1911- 80),theCanadianculturologist, hashada greatinfluence onBaudrillard. Hisinvestigations of thepsychological and socialeffectsof mediapoint toa simpleconclusion ­THE MEDIUM ISTHE MESSAGE.

Thepersonaland social consequences of

any medium result from the newscale that is introduced into our

affairs byeach extension ofourselves, or byany new

technology.

Baudrillard startedto demolish socialist theoriesof media whileavoidingMcLuhan's delirious''tribal optimism" - his "global village".

121

NolThemedia do not communicate

a prior dominant ideology as falsemessages to the masses. The ideology is inthe form of the media itself in the socialdivision it establishes. The mass media

fabricate non-communication.

Manyneo-Marxlet theories,

such as Hans MagnusEnzenbsrgsr'e, see productive

forces and technology as holdingthe promise of human fulfilment

which capitalism hasconfiscated.

Baudrillard reverts to symbolic exchange. Real communication existswhenthereisa reciprocal space for speech andresponse, anda personalresponsibility or duty.

In the massmediathiscannot exist, despite all the "transmission-reception"models communication theorists use. Noresponse is possible.

122

Take thelinguist Roman Jakobson's (1896-1982) theoretical model.

Baudrillard argues that thefirst and last terms areseparated and reunitedartificially. There isnoreciprocal relation. Only one person communicateswhile theother receives the message. There's no ambivalence, just asimulation model ofcommunication.

But aren'tphone-ins, polls, letters to

the editor reciprocalexamplesf

123

The Medium is the Model

So, is thereanyliberating potential in themad' ?'8,

No.Take May'68 in

France,

The maeemedia chain-reacted and sent

out the revolutionary me66age6.But the form of the media made

the contente abetract andunlvereal,

Reciprocity - realcommunication ratherthancodes- will onlyhappenwith the destruction of the media.

People meet their neighbours for the first time while watching theirapartments burn down.

Whataboutthe contents of the media?

Let's take advertising. Advertising doesn't fool us or lie. It's beyond this,because its arguments are neithertrue nor false. It wouldbe impossible togaugetheir accuracy, sincetheir originsdo not lie in reality. Advertising isits own truth - a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is all reality is these days!

125

Television

Baudrillard prefers cinema toTV.He only recently invested in a set.Here'swhy... "Mypointof view isthatof the screen..."

TV is endless play. Constantchannel-surfing ispurefascination.Oneisneverseduced andthere'sno fun in it - just function.

Compare a realfootball match to atelevized one.The first is "hot",emotional and"choreographed".Thesecond is modulated - a montageof play-backs andclose-ups.

Television's cold light is no longeranimage- unlikethe imaginary offilm with its mythand fantasy.

"RealityTV' exhumes the real in its fundamental banality. LiketheAmerican 1971 documentary on the Loudfamily- seven months ofuninterrupted shooting, 300hoursof non-stop broadcasting.Thishyperrealfamilyfell apart,begging the question: whatwouldhavehappened if theTVcamerashadn'tbeenthere? Didtheycausethis reality?

Reality TV callscausality intoquestion!

128

In ''tele-space'' thereareno fixedpositions. Unlike discourse, the digitalworldhas no poles- onlyprocessing of data. Each person is his or herownterminal. TV is notcommunication, onlyconnection - electronic narcosis.TV converses with itself- andwe are integrated as a man-machine circuit.

TheTV movieHoloCBust- Hitler'sFinal Solution on thebox.

It conducts neithergoodnorbad intentions. Extermination is replayed, butis itselfcold.TV Itself is the final solution, exterminating all meaning,origin, symbolism. TheJewsthis time arevictims of the videotape andsoundtrack. But the event is exorcised cheaply, for a few tears.

129

Reality Served Cold

To"reheat" a historical event(theHolocaust, the ColdWar, V.E. Day) is tobeama coldeventvia a cold medium to a cold mass.The horror is madeinoffensive in the posthumous shudderofTV- a "pathologicalreactualization of a past". TV immunizes the real.

Baudrillard is harshon"instanthistory"TV.

His essayin Liberation(7.1.94) attacksthe hypeofa television link-upwithSarajevo...

Computers come in for similarcriticism. Virtualman is a "spastic".Intelligence conferred oncomputers indicates realthoughthasdisappeared.The screen is both closeand distant- too true and too false. But thesemachines haveno artifice, no irony- exceptperhapsfor electronic virusesby whichcomputers mightbe said to parodytheir artificial intelligence.

130

The Silent Majority - Baudrillard and the Masses

1978saw Baudrillard's inevitable abandonment of firm leftism andanapparent"bleakfatalism" in relation to his view of society- and sociology.

What's atstake here is the function

of the social as a meaningful term,bound up with its signs offreedorn,

repression andrevolution.

HisearlierMarxistcritiquehadassessed the relationship betweenconsumerobjectsas signsand strategies of class logic - the potentialdiscriminatory organization of consumer objectsby a socialgroup.

Hisworkshadowed thatof rival sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (b.1930). Bothtended to reduce consumption toclassantagonism. Classwasdifference.

131

TV and Class

Thetelevision objectdemonstrated Baudrillard's interestin classas a meaningful agent in socialmeaning.

It is usedby upperclassesrarelyand kepthidden.Usedby middleclassesfor its educational value(documentaries, news). TheTV is usuallyintegrated butnotcentral.

Usedby lowerclassesfor the pleasure its imagesbring.Their infinitepatience inwatching is usuallyconfused with bovinepassivity. They disguise theircultural inferiority bycriticizing the boring(superior)natureof someprogrammes. TheTV is coveredwithknick-knacks andthe wholeroomis organizedaround it.

132

Otheractivities - polishing, cleaning, varnishing and othersignsofover-abundance or sparsity- depictclassstrategies of discriminationanddifferentiation, usuallyembodying the "rhetoric of despair": a lowerclass'sdesperate attemptto aspireto signsof dominant classes.

Butby 1978Baudrillard rejected this two-step reading as a ruse. Classesdo notdecodea dominant group'smessages or meanings of objectsorimagesaccording to their own class logic, like primitive natives recyclingwestern moneyin theirownsymbolic circulation.

This is offensive and only salvagesthe material disseminated by thedominant culture.

Baudrillard - then Professor of Sociologyat Nanterre - turnedhis attackonsociology fromthe perspective of its objectof study- the social.

133

Anti-Sociology

Sociology hadsurvived on a definitive and positive hypothesis of the social­but its concepts weremysterious. Class, social relations, power, status,institutions andthe social itselfweremuddled but usedto preserve the codeof sociology.

Baudrillard replaced thewordsocial withtheterm"mass".What's thedifference?That's thewrong question, because itwould mean defining themass ormasses.

Thernaeelewithout attribute,

predicate, quality orreference.

Yet Baudrillard doesseekto represent something:LBmBsse--canreferdirectlyto substance or matter-canmeanthe majority - as in the massof workers-canconnote aspects of physics - the electrical usage of an "earth"-canalludeto astrophysics - the massas a blackholeor "opaque nebula".

134

What has happened to society?

Since the18th century, the social was evoked as meaning bytherepresentation made ofitbypolitics. Before then, politics wasMachiavellian - a cunning game which did not pretend torepresentsocial truth.

/

/

WithMarxist thought, the political

has been concernedto emphasizethehistorical destiny of the social­

plotting its path toemancipation.

Although the system continues, itnolonger represents anything orhasanequivalent in reality. Theclassical Marxist orbourgeois order ofrepresentation (a people, a class, a proletariat, relations ofproduction)nolongeroperates.

135

The Neutral Mass

In fact, the masses resistrepresentation by anyone. Theyabsorball radiationfromthe outlyingconstellations of State, History, Culture, Meaning. Theyareinertia- thestrength of the neutral.

Attempts by the mediato get meaning acrossto the masses- to inform,socialize or educate - are resisted.

Wedon'twantmee;e;agee;,

jue;te;igne;.

136

Take a French scenario. ActivistKlausCroissant is extradited. On the night,20,000,000 people aregluedto theirTVswatching France wina World Cupqualifier. The pressthoughtthis wasdisgraceful. The massesshouldn'tbeindifferent to a political crisis!

Baudrillard: Whatcontempt in this reading. Whyarethereso many"pacified"peoplewho,withoutevenaskingthemselves why, franklyprefera footballmatchto a human andpolitical drama?

Themasstreat political elections as

theatrical performance - and thefootball match serves as the model to

gaugetheir enjoyment of politicalstruggles.

137

The Silent Majority

Sowhat's left?

The silent majority - astati~tical beacon placed at thehorizon ofa "disappearedsocial".Theirrepresentation isno longerpossible. Theydo notexpress a reality - theyarenowsurveyed, tested, polled.Thesocial is nowa model. Dialogue or dialecticbetween "class" and itsrepresentation by"politics"is over- nowthere is onlyconfusion of thesepoles.

Then who's winning?Thesimulation ofpowerwhich employsthemasses to meansomething?Or the simulation of the socialwhich the masses useagainstpower?

No-one knows - andthemassesdon'tcare...

Statistics "produces" the massasananticipated response. Weallknowhowstatistics can bemanipulated andconclusionsinterchanged, butwhatabout thehyperconformity to statistics thatthe masssimulates -thesamesignals andthesame responses?

This is the irony of the mass asobject. It is faithful to that whichtries to represent it - yet it annulswhat represents it - destroysmeaning andthepowerthatsurviveson it. This is a seductiveobject- which repliesto realitywithappearance.

Thespongy referent ofthemassesabsorbsit all.

A World ofResidues?

TheRemainder is Baudrillard's termforwhatis excluded or "residue", suchas the nonsocialized groups in society like the crazy, or waste in art,pollution, or repression. Buttodaythisaccumulation of weak, marginalremainders·is beingsponged upand usedbythe social system.

Conclusion?Nowthe realIs a remainder or a residue ­andwhen the remainder iseverywhere thereis no longerevena remainder!

142

So where is politics today?

Revolution, class misfortune and the curse of capitalism havebeensuperseded by love,care,togetherness, compassion, selflessness.

The new"look"generation - successful in everything, religiously andcasuallysupports human rights, dissidence, anti-racism, anti-nuclear movement andtheenvironment. Their insipid"remakes" includeliberal Marxism - the "divine" leftof socialism, greenpoliticsand soft feminism. European yuppiescan supportLiveAid, shedtears, andstill turn up for work on Mondaymorning.

MonetrouelExploitation, Third World

Debt and claee conflict 6tillexlet...

ButBaudrillard is ironic: "I don'tbelieve in theecological movement, but I do it.

Andhe provides stronganalyses of the present European NewOrder.Whyhasultra-right Le Pendisappeared fromthe political scene?Becausehis racist ideashave infiltrated the political system.:It's no good lookingatBosniaandwarning thatethniccleansing couldhappen elsewhere. White"integrism", protectionism, discrimination andcontrolarealreadywithus...

143

Baudrillard's Fatal Decision

Baudrillard's destruction of the social lefta question.

Howcouldtheoryrepresent theworldwhenrepresentation wasimpossible?The masses hadtaughthimthat theycouldoutstripany representation madeof them.Andsocialtheorywouldbe implicated.

Theory in the ageof the objectmustforgetaboutrepresenting the world.It mustassume the form of a worldwheretruth hasreceded.

144

Baudrillard notesthat theobject­events, society, information etc. ­takesa diabolical revenge on allattempts to turn it into a realsubject of technology, science andrationalism. Causes areno longerimportant - the effectsof theobjectrule!

His newfatal theory takesthe sideof the object in its "monstrousobjective irony" andtotalindifference to theories andreason.

Fatalstrategies are notsimplyresistances to poweror meaning. Theirstrategies areto exacerbate, redouble, escalate, ironizeandthus escapethewill of the subject. This is the evil genius of the object.

145

Fatal Extremes

Here'showfatal strategies moveto extremes.

Don'tforget"extreme revulsions":"Allergies" suchas terrorism, drugsanddelinquency speakof rejection andnegation - a kindof exorcism and a form of disgust.Buta formwhichfindsnothing unacceptable. Nowadays you seducea womanwith the words, "I am interested in yourc**t."The samewith art, which is reduced to the remark: 'What we want fromyouis stupidityand badtaste."

146

Holidaymakers seeka fatal strategy. As subjects resisting the boredom ofeveryday life,you wouldexpectthemobediently to follow''voluntaryservitude" with thebanal strategy of happiness anddistraction. Butno­onvacation in theirhyper-banality theyredouble their boredom. Theywantsomething excessive - and boredom ironizes everyday life.

The objectalwaysavoidswhat'sgoodfor itl

Adaptsidewalks to allowaccessto motorized disabled people. Theblindwho usedthe curbas a guideget runover. So handrails are installed for theblind.Thenhandicapped people gettheirwheelchairs caughton theserails.

147

Baudrillard's vocabulary of the 1980sdescribes the way in whichthe subject'smodern alienation hasbeensucceeded bytheobject'secstasy ofcommunication.

Objects in the universe of information are ecstatic. Ecstasy is the qualityofany bodythat spins until all its sensedisappears, until it shinesout as a pureandemptyform in a vertiginous universe.

Fashion: an ecstaticversion of beautywhichspellsbeauty's disappearance.If clothesweretruly beautiful, therewouldbe no fashion.Fashion's beautyabsorbs its opposite - ugliness - in theecstaticexchange of oneseason'swardrobe for the next.

More Ecstasy ...

The Americangovernmentasks the multinational Exxonfor a general reporton its activitiesworldwide. The companydeliverstwelve volumesof athousandpageseach,whichwould take years to read and longer to analyze.

In the ecstaticworld, meaningis not lacking. There is toomuch of it. Information engorgesthe world.

,.:. ,

C,~i/ ~\

149

The Obscene

Theobscene begins when illusion orspectacle disappears andeverythingbecomes exposed to the raw, inescapable lightof information.Theobscene isthemore visible than visible. Butthe obscene is notconfined to sexor porn,andnotalways "hot", organic, carnal or visceral. Thecool obscenity of theworldissuperficial, fascinating andsaturated withinformation.When everything isonshow, there arenomore secrets or ambiguities - just information exposed byscience, media andtechnology inrituals of transparency.

Baudrillard gives usaneye-full in hisexample of theJapanese vaginalcyclorama. This is nota seductive strip-tease. Prostitutes sit with legsopenontheedgeofa platform. Japanese workers arepermitted to shove theirfaces intothe . l iQ~d~~I? <v~g~l'l~s . to ~~~.:~~n~r..~M!t9..g::.wh~t1·· ·· ·

~;' . " ;: " ; : ' : ::': _ -~: :;' ·~<·h><·t<!t::::

150

LikeDuane Hanson's hyperrealist sculpture. People peerat theskinofthesefigures, the totalvisibility of realness, andwantto ''test'' them.

Go away,11m not a eculpture,

I am the realthingl

151

Trans-Sverything

We no longerknowwhowe are.Graffitiartistsknowthis. Oncethey wrote:

"Iexist, mynameisSo-and-So, I livein NewYork." Signspregnant withmeaning.

Today ''tagging'' is indecipherable: "I existbut I havenoname andnothing to say."

The transpolitical entersthe fray. This describes the breaking up and mixingofall categories of culturewhichnowflauntthemselves in a universe which iswithoutstructure.

Thetransexual breaks downtheboundary between maleandfemale.Thetransaesthetic: theboundary between artandanti-art.

Wheneverything that meantsomething hasgone- politics, body, sex- thetranspolitical remains, just to showall this hasdisappeared.

152

Sio-Terminology: Hypertelia

Thetranspolitical definesthe routefromgrowth to tumorous replication.Baudrillard usesterminology whichalludesto biologyandneurology.Hypertelia - a process of something surpassing its function or objective, likecancercells reproducing too quickly. Our daily livesare cancerous - alleffectsof communication, information, production anddestruction haveturnedfromtheirallotted courseanddestination.

Maybenot...Perhaps this ecstaticproliferation keepssomething safe­the realityprinciple.

AIDSdoes this.It's the loss ofantibodies, but isalsoan antibodytosociety. It thwartsthecatastrophiclogicof globalsystemsby providinganacceleratedcatastrophe - thuskeeping the"bodysocial" meaningful.

AIDS, computer virusesandterrorism are examples of superconductiveevents- excessive phenomena whichaffectnot just countries, individuals orinstitutions but entirestructures: sex, money, information, communications...AIDS is certainlya sort of crash in sexualvalues, while computers playeda"virulent" rolein the WallStreetCrash of 1987.

153

Metastasis: whena bodyisdeprived of meaning, soulandmetaphor and isanorganization of excitable circuits, neurons andchromosomes ­programmes in excitable suspense waiting to switch on- waiting for theecstatic moment of mutation.

Thisanticipation is present in physical handicaps. Disabled people are liketheadvance guardwhoexperiment withthe body, brainandsenses inpreparation forthe inhuman andabnormal universe weareall plunging into.

Blindpeople playa ballgamecalled''torball'' in whichtheyexhibitposthuman sci-fitelepathic reflexes.

154

Anomaly

Anomaly - a lossof faith in the normand its proliferation in mutation...

~Cha~

The obese put an endto sex by absorbing it.Theywantonlyto divideintotwo,to makesex lookredundant.

Likeclones, they'reproduced as sexual beings, but of course theirsex issuperfluous. Sexbecomes a deaddifference - pureexcess.

155

Terrorism

Terrorism is an ecstaticform of violence- as spectacle. It doesn'toppose Stateviolence withmeaning (it makesridiculous demands andneverwinsat this level). Terrorism can onlywork if it exterminates meaning- whichsustainsthe State- by producing senseless acts whichaccelerate thesenselessness of power.Thestruggle shouldbefoughtagainstmeaning by providing avirulentexcessof reality.

No meaning is necessary. In fact there is no needfor terroriststo doanything. Thereareterrorists whodo no morethanclaimresponsibilityfor aeroplane accidents fromthe comfortof theirarmchairs. Themediadoes the rest. ..

156

So today the world is sworn to extremes. It does not opposemeanings, ithypesthem.This radical antagonism does not reconcile the objectand thesubject. Baudrillard calls this the principle of Evil - the object in itsecstatic form destroysthe subject.

Like?The ultimate"evil"negation of all westernvalues:theAyatollahISsymbolicutterance of the fate of SalmanRushdie.

Scary!Baudrillard is buildinga theorywhich is ironic. It represents nothing,but hypersimulates the world'sextreme strategies.

If the worldis fatal, let us be more fatal than it.

If it is indifferent, let us be more indifferent.We must conquerthe worldand seduce itthrough an indifference that is at least

equalto the world's.

By 1990Baudrillard had refinedthese ideas,and published themas acollection: The Transparency ofEvil- Essays in Extreme Phenomena.Whichextremes? Ex pornstar and ItalianMP La Cicciolina- the idealwomanof a telephone chat-line.

157

Baudrillard and Nietzsche's Superman?

Fatalstrategies consistin sendingthe oldworldtowardsitsdestruction."To pushthat whichwantsto fall",saidthe maverick philosopherFriedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900).Heshareswith Baudrillard a styleof extremes whichdestroys theimmoral basisof morality,dispenses withmetaphysicalexplanations, andshowsthe irrational tendencyof rationalism.

This "aristocratic radicalism" chartsa darker, morenihilisticpathofmodernity, wherethe will of theNietzschean "superman" wouldforcethe world to realize itself inan apocalyptic momentto a"revaluation of all values".

Simulacra6ugge6t a destructive truth.

There has never been any God.God is not dead, he has become~ hyperreal,

But not the dark, Nietzschean variety, nor the destructive, dandifiedRomantic kind, nor the Surrealist, Dadaist, terroristicor political nihilismof the 20thcentury. Jean's nihilism Is not about the destruction of.mea~ing, but of Its disappearance.

I

Butthe spiritof Nietzsche hoversover Baudrillard's recentwork,pa~icularly his style and aphorisms.

158

Baudrillard began towrite in fragments. Disconnected writing isindifferent toits truth and purpose - and it isdisruptive ofclaims offinding a central point.

Examples...

Baudrillard's style alters radically.from the late 1970s asheproducesa poetic wrltinqto give form tothedisappearance ofreal.

I writea kind of "theory-ftctton'' where

things in the end simply fall apartbythemselves.

159

Baudrillard on Tour...

He startedto keepa diary from about 1980and travelled extensively,lecturing, drivingandtakingsnaps. Nowhe hadnewobjectsto writeabout­entire countries!

America, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Thailand...

Demands for interviews reached paniclevelswhenhe published his"diary"Cool Memories (1987) andtravelogue Amerique (1986).

CoolMemories encapsulated hismusings onthe women inhis life,his indifference to a StevieWonderconcert, thewestern contamination of Aboriginals by the deadlyvirusoforiginsandthe stupidityof OAPson a jetplane.

Thebooksbroughthima newaudience. TheGuardian (21.9.88)asked, 'Who isJeanBaudrillard?"

JournalistBrianRotman: "Aprophetof theapocalypse?Hysterical lyricistof panic?"

Andsamples of his aphorismsappeared in the first edition ofTheEuropean(11.5.90).

-.,.,.",.

USA

Withtravel, appearances andwritingBaudrillard retired fromteachingsociologyat the University of Nanterre in 1987.

Nihilist for hire...

ike a travellingobilewhere

ground

''The Desert of the Real"A touristwith no sightsto visit and no destination...What's his strategy?To gaugethe superficiality of America against the depthof Europe.

To treat the Statesas the "last primitive societyof the future" ­beyond history. To use the desertas a metaphor for thedisappearance of thesocialandculture. It preserves

insignificance and indifference, is magical andbanal.Desert includes the citiesas well as salt flats.

Sowhat is Baudrillard's America like?

America for Baudrillard is utopia­a worldpresent andcomplete.America is a woman, unfamiliar and

disappearing. America iscinematic. America is the end

of the worldandthecatastrophe - theextermination and

disappearance ofmeaning.

Let'stake some snapshots ofBaudrillard's "desertof the real".

Salt LakeCity - whereall theChristslook like BjornBorg.NewYork - wherepeoplesmile- but only tothemselves.Grand Canyon -a geologicallymetaphysical slow­motioncatastrophe.SantaCruz­paradise - butavery slightmodificationwouldsufficeto makeit seem like hell.LosAngeles - as soonas you start walking, youarea threatto publicorder.

Breakdancers - digginga holefor themselves withintheirown bodies- theposeof the dead.Jogging- a newform of voluntary servitude anda newform of adultery.DeathValley - a placeof sacrifice, secrecy. If something has to disappearhere, to match the desert for its beauty, whynot a woman?

Criticsenjoyed his book. For instance, DougKellner: "Ludicrous, banal, racist,cliche, condescending, and aggressively sexist- a projection ofBaudrillard's ownfantasies:' America maybe"symptomaticof the declineof Baudrillard's theoretical powers andthecollapse of socialanalysis andcritique- as well as politics:'

Kellner: "Andyouprobably wroteit aftera fewscotches:'

Another critic: "A reactionary approach to race, a kindof environmentaldeterminism - naive neo-primlnvlsm"

Baudrillard Accusedl

\\\--4

VIIIII

\'V\

\V\

\\\

Baudrillard at The End of the World

Not really, thoughour millenniumpanic is a sign that eventsandlivinghistoryare overandthatwe haveonly artificialmemoryofthe past to face up to the absenceof the future.

Butcheer up. If there is no longera future, there is no longeranend either. So this is not even theend of history. It's the illusion ofthe end.

\

'\./'\\\\\;/1,,,,

Whatare we left with?

1. Repentance as a postmodern recycling of past forms, like...

Contemporary artwhich plundersprevious styles.

Thesamewarsbreaking outbetween thesamepeoples.

The reunification ofGermany - showing atopsy-turvy rewritingof the 20th century.

169

3. And eclecticsentimentality•..

"Charity cannibalism"-the caring exploitation ~~of poverty recycled asnewenergy sources.Weenjoythe moving spectacle ~~of our efforts to helpothers. Other ~~?people's miseryisouradventureplayground. This is the last phase ofcolonialism, theNew Sentimental Order.

Oursentimentality towards animals is a suresignof thedisdain in which weholdthem. Thetrajectory animals have followed, fromdivinesacrifice to dogcemeteries withatmospheric music, fromsacred defiance to ecologicalsentimentality, speaks loudlyenough of the vulgarization of the status ofmanhimself.

From experimentation, throughbreeding andAfrican reserves,animals havepreceded usonthepathof liberal extermination.

Posttnodern Guru?

Baudrillard hasbeencalledthe "highpriestof postmodernism". Is he?

Postmodern theoryputsmodernity and modernism intoquestion; chartsthedisappearance of thesubject, authenticity anddepth; foregrounds theproblemof representation; sees realityas an effectof language; notesthedisappearance of "grand narratives" suchas Marxism, anddescribes thefragmentation or pluralism of the social.ButBaudrillard rejected the pomolabelat a lecturein NewYorkin 1986.

"He is treadingthe well-worn pathsof onetype of modernist eceptlclsm andexcess. Hismessage of Inafuture'does not transcend the political dllemmaof modernism, it exemplifies it."ChrisRojek

But is Baudrillard reallys.aying, "Nofuture"? Notquite.

171

Forget Baudrillard?

Sothis isBaLidriliard's world - simulated, obscene, seductive, ecstatic, aworld without hope because hope implies a future, which isnow only anewscast. But thequestion remains: Isthis a world wecan accept? Ifnot,what should wedoabout it?

If you wereto eee written ona door panel:

"Thle open6 onto the void",wouldn't you 6till want

to open it7

Bibliography

Jean Baudrillard - Selected Texts

(1975) The Mirror of Production,St Louis: Telos Press

(1981) For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign,St Louis: Telos Press

(1983) In the"Shadow of the Silent Majorities,NewYork: Semiotext(e)

(1987) Forget Foucault,NewYork: Semiotext(e)

(1988) America,London: Verso

(1988) The Ecstasy of Communication,NewYork: Semiotext(e)

(1990) Seduction,London: Macmillan

(1990) Cool Memories I,London: Verso

(1990) Fatal Strategies,NewYork: Semiotext(e)

(1993) The Transparency of Evil,London: Verso

(1993) Symbolic Exchange and Death,London: Sage Publications

(1994) Simulacra and Simulation,University of Michigan

(1994) The Illusion of the End,Cambridge: PolityPress

(1995) The Gulf War Did Not Take Place,Sydney: PowerPublications

AcIcIIcJIMd,....Chriswould like to thank:Jean Baudrillard, Toby Clark, Cristina Mateo, Corinne Thomas, Liberationand John Dutton.Zoran is grateful to Mila & Michel in Paris, Maura, Spiraand everybody whohad patience, while he ignored themduringthe work on this book ...

BIotraplll-Chris Horrocks trained as a fine artistat BathAcademy, then studied CulturalHistoryat the Royal College of Art, London. He is currently SeniorLecturer inArt History at Kingston University, Surrey. He is also the authorof IntroducingFoucault.ZoranJevtic is an illustrator and multimedia author, currently involved incomputer animation, designand musicprojects. He is also the illustratorof Introducing Foucault.

174

Index

Adorno, Theodor 54advertising 125-6AIDS 153ambience 13Amerique 160anthropology 81art 52, 55, 60-71, 89

disappearance 66

Barthes, Roland 22Bataille, Georges 78Baudrillard, Jean

in America 161-5anti-humanism 102born 6domestic environment 17and society131-45travels160who is he? 4-5

Bauhaus 56

Calvinism 75cannibalism 102capitalism 8-10, 12-13, 113

linguistics and semiology 34sign as accomplice of 43as simulation 116and slavery82see alsohypercapitalism

choice20class23consumer defined18-19consumption 9,14-15,17-32,61

and art 65and culture50and need39

CoolMemories 160counterfeit 105-6, 109Critique of Everyday Life7culture49-62

and anthropology 81of design59

cyberblitz 57

death79, 94Debord, Guy Ernest 12deconstruction 47Derrida, Jacques 47design 56, 59destruction 78discourses 86-7

ecstasy 148-9

education 116Enzenberger, HansMagnus 122exploitation 82, 100extremes 146, 157

false imageseecounterfeitfatal strategies 145-7feminism 91-2,100-1films 126-7forgery in art 63-4,69Foucault, Michel 85Frankfurt School of Marxism 53-5freedom 167Freud, Sigmund 27fun system, the 30functionalism 16,57--8

Galbraith, John Kenneth 19gambling 99God 158Gropius, Walter 56Gulf War, the 118-20

Halley, Peter70history, deconstruction 167hypercapitalism 73-6hyperreality 108-9hypertelia 153

ideology defined 41illusion 115industrial society 107Irigaray, Luce93

Jakobson, Roman 123

Kellner, Douglas 3, 164Koons, Jeff 69-71Kostabi, Mark69-70

labour, concept of 74Lacan's Mirror83language 22, 43Lefebvre, Henri7

Marcuse, Herbert 54Marx, Karl 7-9, 37Marxism 53-5, 73-5

slavery82mass

consumption seeconsumptionreproduction 52

masses, the 136-9Mauss, Marcel 32McLuhan, Herbert Marshall 121

175

media, the 121-5see also films; television

metastasis 154millennium, the 165-6money 62-3music54

nature 51, 76-7needs 18-21,37,39NewSentimental Order170Nietzsche, Friedrich 158nuclear war 117

objects 16-23,28,31, 145consumer 29function of 24-6, 36regressing with 29

obscenity 150-1orders of simulacra 103-8

phallocracy 96pleasure 29politics 143postmodernism 171power86-7, 96, 137primitivism 78-81principle of Evil,the 157productivist ego 83production 83-4, 107

andMarxism 73-9vs. seduction 93-8

psychoanalysis 27,76,91

reality 99,103-8,144, 156and films 126-7and ideology 41andsigns43-6and television 128-9see alsosimulations

regression 27-9representation 144repression 13Requiem for the Media 125riots in Paris 10-13Rojek, Chris171

Sartre, Jean-Paul 6-7satisfaction 26, 30Saussure, Ferdinand de 21-2schizophrenia 151semiology 21, 25, 34-5sex

liberation 90-1malevs. female 88-9andobesity 155andpower86-7, 96

seduction 93-8and signs92

sign, labouras 74signification seesignssignifier, environment as 57signs15, 31, 4Q-8, 52

appearance and reality 99and art 60-71andcapitalism 43andculture 49anddesign 59the elite 61functionalism 58and linguistics 42and nature 76-7and production 83-4and reality 43-6, 103-8simulation 108-18and sex 92see alsosemiology

silentmajority 136, 138simulations 50-1, 103, 108-18simulacra 158

see alsoorders of simulacrasituationism 11-12slavery 82social

difference 23theory144

society and affluence 13-14statistics 139strikes 10, 84structural linguistics 43structuralism 10superconductive events 153symbolic exchange

lossof 46-7objectof consumption 31-3and production 78and seduction 94usevalue39

television 128-30, 132-3terrorism 114, 156trans-everything 152Transparency of Evil, The157

usevalue36-9

Veblen, Thorstein 61

Warhol, Andy68Watergate 113Weber, Max75women's movement 96

see also feminism