Semiotics and Simulacra

Semiotics is the study of signs and sign processes, which are just anything that involves signs. A sign is anything that represents anything else. This means that a sign communicates something that is not itself to an interpreter of the sign. Some of these might have very agreed-upon interpretations, such as sounds that come out our mouths that we use to communicate, but some may not, for example, ‘ emojis’ are often used in conflicting ways that create misunderstanding between users.

An important concept within Semiotics is the Simulacra, which is “never what hides the truth- but the truth that hides the fact that there is none” (Baudrillard). To understand the simulacra, one must think of how signs come into existence. A sign is a representation of reality that is created with the intent to communicate something. This could be called a simulation of reality.

This creates the first stage of representation, the simulation, which is a faithful image/copy of reality and which we believe is a “reflection of a profound reality (Baudrillard).

Then in the second stage of representation, the simulation becomes a perversion of reality. The significance of the perversion of reality is that no longer do signs and simulations create a faithful copy of a profound reality, rather they hint at an obscure reality that the sign can no longer express any essential features of.

In the third stage of representation, the sign can now be thought of as more of a simulacrum because it masks the absence of reality, it pretends to be a faithful copy of some feature of reality, but it works to deceive. In essence, this is now a copy without an original, which creates an “order of sorcery” where signs and images claim to represent something real but in fact, reality is no longer being represented, and we are left with the sign masking the absence of a basic reality.

Then in stage four, we have a pure simulacrum, where the simulacrum no longer has any relation to reality. At this stage, we have complete and total equality between signs, because cultural signs and products no longer have to pretend to be real because the experiences of consumers and interpreters of the signs are so artificial that even claims to reality are expected to be made in artificial terms. Any naive claim to reality is perceived as complete deprivation of critical self-awareness, and thus becomes excessively emotional.

This may seem to be the crazy work of a philosopher who has too much time on his hands, but this has very real implications. In the postmodern condition, the human experience is more a simulation of being human than the human reality itself. Things like Reality TV don’t even pretend to reflect the real, and only serve as a reference for other signs, which shows how society is increasingly being controlled by the regime of the sign-economy. The increasing alienation of humans to reality is something to be concerned with as we move into the future.

Author Brandon Seff

Editor Suhh Yeon Kim

Bibliography

Baudrillard, Jean, and Sheila Faria Glaser. Simulacra and Simulation. Univ. of Michigan

Press, 2019. https://0ducks.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/simulacra-and-

simulation-by-jean-baudrillard.pdf

Kellner, Douglas. “Jean Baudrillard.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford

University, 18 Dec. 2019. plato.stanford.edu/entries/baudrillard/