Hyperreality

Baudrillard discussed the idea of the "hyperreal".  By hyperreal, he means anything that represents something that is real but yet never really existed.  This is a difficult concept and it is even more difficult to adequately define or explain, so I will include a few examples below:

 

Movies With High CGI Content

Avatar is a perfect example of the hyperreality that Baudrillard was talking about.  Avatar takes place on a foreign planet ad is inhabited with blue-skinned natives.  Although the natives move like monkeys and behave like the stereotypical native-American "Indians" of Western movies, they really have no reference point.

 

Gardens

Some gardens, such as the one above, are so manicured and symmetrical that they do not represent nature at all.  Instead, they take on a hyperreality.  They are obviously real - the grass in the photo above grows and needs cut occasionally - but they do not refer to "real" nature.

    

Disney World

Disney world seems to be created out of nothing.  The architecture itself is a hyperreality.  It gives the illusion of grandeur, but it is not actually grand.  Cinderella's castle, for example, is a large facade. 

  

Fruit Stands

Fruit stands or any retail store that is artificially stocked is an example of hyperreality.  Did you know that most supermarket fruits are artificially dyed a brighter, more eye-catching color?  This is yet another example of the hyperreal.  The fruit pictured above is absolutely real and edible, yet the color and staging makes it something that it is not.  I challenge you to take a supermarket tomato to your local Farmer's Market and compare the colors.  You will be amazed! 

 

Superhuman

The men pictured above are real, but their muscles fit into the "hyperreality" category.  These muscles were not made in any natural ways.  I'm sure these men have made a career out of proper diet, steroids, and intense training.  These men did not come to look like this in any "real" or "natural" way.

Dolls

In a recent House MD episode, House's patient is in love with a high-end sex doll.  This is both a representation of hyperreality - though the doll may look very real, it obviously is not - and it represents the dangers that Baudrillard mentions.  If we allow ourselves to be subject to too much hyperreality, it will actually become our reality and we will live in an illusion.

This hyperreality is fun and pleasant, but we must be careful not to fall into the trap of believing that the hyperreal is the real.  We could easily find ourselves fooled by the hyperrealities that flood the media.