Andreas J. Pratama

The philosophers have always been fascinated by the production of copies and the faithful exact copy. Plato once thought of the realm of idea, the highest of them all is the perfect of idea of something (e.g. a chair) where almost everything we created in this world become its second copy and shall never be perfectly accurate and functioning along the attributes of the ideal. In this sense that there is always dualism between the idea of what is happening in reality currently and something that goes on in the realm of idea, most of which consist of wishes, hopes, and higher form of knowledge (logos).

The world that we live in today is no different, under the distress that is corona virus, the battles are fought on two different fronts. One on the rush for scientific cure to conquer the virus, while another is on the media front where most of the things taken are on idea, perception, and on abstract level. In this case, I would like to pay attention directly to the media.

In 1980 Jean Baudrillard, a French linguist, thinker, and cultural theorist, thought of the social spectacle consisted within the simulation. Most of the media at the time (newspaper, radio, television) was all reality-producing machine in its own right. Despite trying to implicate and project exact condition of the real, these media are, without a doubt, creating a different reality according to its whim – thus the term a simulation of reality.

This simulated reality can either be both calming and alarming. The problem with the simulation today is that messages can be made to calm through white lies or to create panic by the way of hoaxes. With the inclusion of internet and various online sources our media become so saturated with information that it is extremely difficult to single out one that is realistically real. This poses the problem of Hyperreality where people are no longer capable of distinguishing realities, more than one reality, where the real one and the projected ones have their own version.

It is our duty in these trying times to be aware of the existence of such a thing such as hyperreality and simulacra so that we may not get pulled into the whirlpool of exaggerated information. Most of the hoaxes created may not be created on purpose, rather they are exaggerated form of fears. Designers know very well that in each every one of their designs they are creating a simulation one that either stays true to the information as close as possible and one that may steer people away biasing their perception of reality.