topics:  | semiotics | postmodern | language | philosophy

In semiotics and postmodern philosophy, Hyperrealism (not to be confused with
surrealism) is a symptom of postmodern culture, a way of describing the
information to which the consciousness is subject.  Hyperreality does not
"exist" or "not exist;" it can be thought of as "reality by proxy."  The most
famous hyperrealists include Jean Baudrillard, Daniel Boorstin, and Umberto
Eco.
Baudrillard in particular suggests that the world we live in has been
replaced by a copy world, where we seek simulated stimuli and nothing more.

Baudrillard borrows, from Borges, the example of a society whose
cartographers create a map so detailed that it covers the very things it was
designed to represent. When the empire declines, the map fades into the
landscape and there is neither the representation nor the real remaining –
just the hyperreal.

Fundamentally, sign exchange values have no inherent meaning or value beyond
what is agreed upon. As sign exchange values become more numerous,
interaction becomes increasingly based upon things with no inherent
meaning. Thus, reality becomes less and less important, as sign exchange
takes precedence.
If grains of sand are dropped one by one onto a table, at some arbitrary
moment the grains become a heap of sand. Similarly, at some arbitrary point
as sign exchange becomes more complex, reality shifts into hyperreality.

Significance of hyperreality

Hyperreality is significant as a paradigm to explain the American cultural
condition. Consumerism, because of its reliance on sign exchange value
(e.g. brand X shows that one is fashionable, car Y indicates one's wealth),
is the contributing factor in creating hyperreality. Hyperreality tricks the
consciousness into detaching from any real emotional engagement, instead
opting for artificial simulation, and endless reproductions of fundamentally
empty appearance. Essentially, (although Baudrillard himself would perhaps
balk at the usage of this word) fulfillment or happiness is found through
simulation and imitation of a transient simulacrum of reality, rather than
any interaction with any "real" reality.

Interacting in a hyperreal place like a Las Vegas casino gives the subject
the impression that one is walking through a fantasy world where everyone is
playing along. The decor isn't authentic, everything is a copy, and the whole
thing feels like a dream. What isn't a dream, of course, is that the casino
takes your money, which you are more apt to give them when your consciousness
doesn't really understand what's going on. In other words, although you may
intellectually understand what happens at a casino, your consciousness thinks
that gambling money in the casino is part of the "not real" world. It is in
the interest of the decorators to emphasise that everything is fake, to make
the entire experience seem fake. Of course, money itself is an object with no
inherent value or reality in-itself.

Note: Many postmodern philosophers, including Baudrillard, do not talk about
hyperreality in terms of a subject/object
dichotomy. --http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperreality [Apr 2006]

Faith in Fakes: Travels in Hyperreality (1987) Umberto Eco

By the author of "The Name of the Rose", these essays, written over the last
20 years and culled from newspapers and magazines, explore the rag-bag of
modern consciousness. Eco considers a wide range of topics, from "Superman"
and "Casablanca", Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni, Jim Jones and
mass suicide, and Woody Allen, to holography and waxworks, pop festivals and
football, and not least the social and personal implications of tight jeans.