Postmodernism: Part 2
The word ‘simulacra’ to me always conjures images of virtual realities: Virtual Boy, Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, The Power Glove, ViewMaster, Tron, The Cell, etc. Growing up, I considered all computer games with immersive 3D worlds open for exploration, especially 1st person shooters (like Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem) to be simulators, some kind of battle-simulators. MechWarrior was especially simulator-like, because of the HUD and its complex controls. Thinking back on how I related to those games, I’m reminded of Baudrillard’s points about the elimination of all referentials, and the description of simulacra as “an uninterrupted circuit without reference or circumference” (456), because I often tried to match my first-person reality with my video games. For instance, in the South Park game for N64, the standard weapon is the snowball, and the character tosses it up and down in his hand when idle. During my snowfights with my friends, I started imitating this action, trying to match the hand movements precisely.
Recently, with multimedia artists like Cory Arcangel, modified video games have arisen as a postmodern artform. Arcangel directly alters the connections inside old game cartridges to reprogram them, and his simplistic works have been on display at The New Museum, The MoMa, and the Whitney. Here is an example of his work called “I Shot Andy Warhol.”
More PoMo than Arcangel’s 8-bit popculture salad, is the plethora of game modders all over the internet. Many of these unrecognized artists produce much more interesting and poignant work, but their forum of choice is YouTube, not a gallery. This video of a modded version of Doom seems really postmodern to me, as there is the simulacrum element, as well as the ironic combination of Doom’s extreme violence with Super Mario Bros’ childish sounds and visuals.
Durham, Meenakshi G., and Douglas Kellner. Media and cultural studies keyworks. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006
