Hyperreality culture : An exploration into how the very definition of “real” is becoming blurred by the ongoing advances computer technology.
Today, computer generated images, or C.G.I for short, flood our modern urban landscape. We see it every day on our TVs and Cinema screens. We see it in our shop windows and in our magazines. We are completely saturated by it. CGI has allowed us to create images and situations that would simply not be feasible using any other technological means. So it’s hard to imagine that little over 30 years ago, none of it existed. The creation of fictional images was a time consuming and often expensive affair. Elaborate and expensive set pieces and props dominated film stages. Teams of artists would spend days painting backgrounds while others toiled away in workshops creating scale models and costumes from whatever they could find.
The introduction of the CGI has allowed all of this to be done by a much smaller work force. It has even allowed for a single person to produce vast amounts of content without the need for set pieces, props or even actors present. As the technology has become more mainstream, with many professional software packages available to consumers, vast online communities have arisen. These communities, have changed CGI from a professional tool into an art form of sorts. These CG artists as they are called have revealed the huge potential of the technology just as the first internet pioneers did with the world wide web less than twenty years ago. Moreover, CGI technology has begun to blur the lines between what is real and what is not, creating truly believable words, or recreating historically accurate moments that would otherwise be impossible to re-create.
But this power to create believable worlds has started to reach a critical turning point, as our very perceptions of reality have become increasingly blurred. This inability for our consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy has begun to create a kind of Hyperreality. A reality where the real and fantastical become so indistinguishable from each other, that their merger has created a new state of perception. A perception that leaves neither the fantasy nor reality remaining, only the Hyperreal. The Hyperreal should not be confused with virtual reality however. While virtual reality creates a world that merely seems “convincing” to the person who experiences it, Hyperreality takes the real world and merges it with that of the virtual, creating something that appears “natural”.
This relates strongly to my MA as it has been concerned with striving to create my own perception of the future and using CGI software and techniques to bring this vision of the future to life through a series of detailed and believable images depicting the city of London thirty years hence. Like Hyperreality, the MA has been taking elements from the real world and merging them with that of the virtual to create a Hyperreality of sorts. While the has been very visual, this dissertation however will seek to uncover the potential of CGI as it continues to shift our perceptions towards the Hyperreal. Moreover, it will delve into some of the dark potential of the technology and how it could be used as a dangerous tool to control the masses.
Chapter 1: Humble beginnings
“A look into the humble beginnings of special effects which bore fruit not from movies, but from magicians in the 1700s”
Chapter 2: Lights Camera Action
“A look into how cinema was an early attempt to create a virtual reality and how the special effect industry was born.”
Chapter 3: The digital revolution
“How the introduction of the computer revolutionised special effects”
Chapter 4: the difference between physical & virtually Hyperrealitys.
“a look into the differences between physically created hyperralitys like themed casinos and theme parks and virtual ones.
Chapter 5: the potential of hypereality
“A look at some of the potential benefits of Hyperreality and some of the technology which is currently being developed.”
Chapter 6: Dangerous potential
“A look into some of the theoretical situations increasingly advanced CGI and Hyperreality could spawn.”
No comments:
Post a Comment