Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Basic Reality: Can You Say Simulacra?

Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007): French postmodernist
sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist,
political commentator, and photographer.
He is the author of our text this term: Simluations.
From Rockabillies embracing the fashions and ethos of pre-Civil Rights America to the Olive Garden Italian Restaurant capturing the "welcoming atmosphere of a Tuscan farmhouse," contemporary American pop cultlure is built from cinematic fantasies and strip mall stucco to simulate another time and place as predicted by Jean Baudrillard in his 30-year-old book Simulations (1983).