Describe Jean Baudrillard's concept of the orders of simulacra in relation to design in a modern / post modern age. Assess the influence of Baudrillard's ideas on the film The Matrix (or a film of your choice).

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Describe Jean Baudrillard’s concept of the orders of simulacra in relation to design in a modern / post modern age. Assess the influence of Baudrillard’s ideas on the film The Matrix (or a film of your choice).

Adam Coward

Bachelor of Arts degree (Hons) Design

Goldsmiths, University of London, Department of Design

29/04/2004

‘A commodity appears at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily understood. Its analysis shows that it is in reality, a very queer thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties’ (Marx).

It has long been a condition of western culture to act for the accumulation of material objects. This is in part due to the capitalist nature of the world within which we live. Marx identifies in ‘The Critique of Capitalism’ the emergence of two new classes of people, namely ‘capitalists’ and ‘labourers’. The term ‘capitalist’ describes any person who has personal ownership of capital, which ‘consists of raw materials, instruments of labour and means of subsistence’ (Marx). In contrast a ‘labourer’ has only the value of his labour (life activity), which he exchanges with the capitalist for a wage and as such ‘the worker sinks to the level of commodity’ (Marx). Because the labourer produces for the capitalist a commodity of greater value than that of his wages and in addition those wages are paid back to the capitalist in return for subsistence, therefore social control in exerted over the working class, whilst providing the capitalist with excess commodity. The labourer consentingly becomes a slave to the system on which he depends. In addition Marx states that as the relation between capitalist and labourer (manufacturer and consumer) develops, so competition between rival capitalists becomes apparent. In effect the capitalist is forced to capture more of the market by selling goods more cheaply by the consolidation and exploitation of labour power e.g. by machinery. Such a strategy ultimately limits the demand for labour and so new industries must be developed for exploitation. These new industries are necessary because capital exists only in relation to its ability to command labour and social control and as such ‘they reciprocally condition the existence of each other’ (Marx). These forced increases in demand and therefore production are evident in the contemporary world market.

Important to the development of Capitalism is the use of money which abstracts labour and commodity values to a common unit for the purpose of trade. In effect the labourer discovers that ‘the product of his activity is not the object of his activity’ (Marx) thus a level of abstraction occurs, which was consistent with the modernist values of the time.

Karl Marx and early capitalism were mainly concerned with production which remains important but it was Situationist, Guy Debord, who gave the first insights into late capitalism and the theories that best apply to today’s world economics and culture of commodities. Debord, in his book ‘The Society of the Spectacle’, bases his examination of commodities around consumption, media, information and technology. As such Debord suggests that ‘in societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation.’ By this he means to describe the world and its products as mere appearances, where the real meanings and values of commodities are translated into signs. Essentially ‘it is a world vision that has been objectified’ (Debord). Debord explains the phenomenon of the spectacle as resulting from the ever increasing production of capitalism. Because competition between capitalists inevitably leads to an excess of produce, so consumer demand must be increased. Such an increase is controllable by the spectacle as ‘the real consumer becomes a consumer of illusions,’ (Debord) so he can be manipulated to believe he must consume beyond the basic necessity for survival e.g. leisure products. Therefore ‘the spectacle’s form and content are identically the total justification of the existing system’s conditions and goals’ (Debord). The spectacle is mediated in society ‘as information or propaganda, as advertisement or direct entertainment consumption,’ (Debord). The effects of the mediated spectacle tend to lead the consumer to an experience of alienation as the consumers’ want for commodities is dictated to serve and maintain capitalism. In addition the spectacle constantly reinforces itself, for example the television, which is in itself a product of the spectacle that is then used by the capitalist to implement the advertisement of other spectacles.

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Essentially the ‘spectacle is the nightmare of imprisoned modern society’ (Debord) and explains the transition from the ‘degradation of being into having’ to ‘having into appearing’ (Debord).

Jean Baudrillard took Marx’s ‘Critique of Capitalism’ and Debord’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’ to their conclusions with his own theory of simulation and simulacra. Similar to the idea of the spectacle, Baudrillard describes a world where the subject of everything has been replaced by a semiological value that has become more important than the original, ‘real’ meaning of the object. This object he calls a ‘simulacra’. In ‘Simulacra and ...

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