The digital realm is an interesting paradigm, at once trying to represent any given thing that exists physically in the material world; where notions of original and imitation can be clearly defined, though the internet itself is little more than light and pixels on a screen. What is manifest through the light and pixels, however, is simulacrum; a convincing stand-in for an original, at times straying into the hyperreal. I am interested in the internet as both a site of discourse surrounding notions of reality/representation: where any and all content is equally weighted, and as a formal medium, available for use and interpretation through parody, self-reflexivity and appropriation. Any of these qualities perfectly articulate the hub of activity generated by a specific internet venue: the blog. The blog is where simulacrum takes its ideal form; an ambitious but ultimately false or falsified representation of reality. “Simulacra” is an ongoing, thematic curatorial blog site, that exists solely within this widely accessible digital milieu. The works, which take varied shapes in their finished states, each have distinct online origins, and allude to critical notions of self-referentiality and appropriation. Suns from Flickr, and 15 Copyrighted Suns from the Internet (Screen Grabs), by New York-based artist Penelope Umbrico, are based around ideas surrounding the ubiquity of online image hosting communities, and the most heavily searched image-turned-icon. Umbrico employs strategies of appropriation, by “grabbing” photos directly from sources such as Flickr, further questioning the legitimacy and entitlement to online domain. Both pieces exist within the material world as installations; therefore, by presenting the simulacrum of the work within an online forum, the work is returned contextually full-circle. Without You Baby, There Ain’t No Us, and Star Wars Kid, by Swiss collaborators, Comenius Roethlisberger and Admir Jahic, immortalize the status of not only internet memes, but of the (now) iconic YouTube culture that facilitated their genesis. These works are a paradox of simulacrum in reverse; as Roethlisberger and Jahic visually represent an “original” that exists purely within the simulated parameters of the internet. These works also satirize the popular culture that is associated with internet memes (11,513,600 people + have spent valuable moments watching some kid re-enact a light saber battle...). Chris Beckman’s video, Oops, is another example of both appropriation and YouTube culture; a montage of online videos, stitched together by the moment that the camera is dropped, creating an oddly chaotic sense of voyeurism. Oops is at once an abstract narrative, and a critique on the culture of the omnipresent camera, arousing the need to document the minutiae of one’s life. Four Hundred and Seven Horizons, by London-based artist Lizzie Hughes is a composite of individual images, appropriated from photo-sharing websites, and engages notions of agency and authorship that are central within the critical discourses of digital-based work. The already-vague authorship of the photos has been further obscured, as each have been cropped and re-scaled in order to produce a median horizon line. The hyperreal takes form of a landscape, as the images function together to produce an idealized, but ultimately imaginary panorama. Ryan Barone is an artist who does not distinguish his existence within the physical world, solely maintaining an ambiguous online presence. Self-Portrait That Will Decrease in Opacity by Ten Percent for Each Time it’s Reblogged Until Vanished (After Nabokov) is a work that at once reinforces Barone’s obscure inter-dimensional presence (and possible existential crisis), while critiquing notions of blogging and posting in terms of authorship and ownership. The postmodern definition of simulacra, as proposed by Jean Baudrillard, describes the vanished distinction between reality and representation, rendering originality a meaningless concept. Thematically, these works function together to operate as the visual link between reality and representation, superseding notions of the original: through ephemera, self-reflexivity, and appropriation, the internet is simply another formal choice, a digital readymade.
