ARCALUMIS GALLERY: Will The Real Art Please Stand Up?
Archalumis is the word simulacra written backwards. Coined by Jean Baudrillard it describes a product of a process which produces a hyper-reality found in modern technology affluent cultures. The reversal of the relationship between representation and reality creates media that constitutes a real that seems "more real than real". When the distinction between the real and the representation dissolves away, all that is left is the simulacra itself (Baudrillard).
The Archalumis Gallery is a literal example of simulacra. The gallery maybe interpreted by an observer as an original real gallery, with a real artist, and real art. The origins of the Archalumis Gallery and the art on display are far more complex. The complexity within a design of a simple concept demonstrates the "procession of the simulacra." The four stages of the procession are real, counterfeit, production, and finally simulation (Baudrillard). The Archalumis Gallery is an experiment in the acceptance of the Internet as a form of reality. It provides an opportunity to exhibit what virtual reality means by presenting the paradox as the work of art itself.
The Archalumis Gallery is a literal example of simulacra. The gallery maybe interpreted by an observer as an original real gallery, with a real artist, and real art. The origins of the Archalumis Gallery and the art on display are far more complex. The complexity within a design of a simple concept demonstrates the "procession of the simulacra." The four stages of the procession are real, counterfeit, production, and finally simulation (Baudrillard). The Archalumis Gallery is an experiment in the acceptance of the Internet as a form of reality. It provides an opportunity to exhibit what virtual reality means by presenting the paradox as the work of art itself.
"Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyper-real. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory - PRECESSION OF SIMULACRA - it is the map that engenders the territory...." (Baudrillard)
― Jean Baudrillard
Real
Davek is a 5
year old boy, son to Mrs. O'Dair & Mr. Sherman. The graphic
subjects used in the Archalumis Gallery exhibition are his own creations. Davek
calls his work art and requests they be documented with
photography. He has been creating installation art and sculpture since he was
three years old. Davek has a very strong sense of creative expression,
composition, spatial relationships, and construction. People are real, but questions of identity and origin of talent may be subject to philosophical
debates. The materials used for sculpture and installation are man-made.
The real resources they come from such as: wood, mined ore, crude, or water would
represent the real, adding layers to the origin of real art.
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Counterfeit
Photography & documentation of the creations made by Davek are the counterfeit. The counterfeit is once removed from the original real. Photographs were taken with a digital camera. The pace that digital media circulates and connects to the everyday interactions of people is increasing. Many people may see a photographic image of an object, but never in their lifetime see the real source that the image was created from. For example: Davek knows what the space shuttle looks like from photographs and movies. He has never seen the real space shuttle. He has built and launched a model rocket. The rockets he creates as sculpture are his own ideas based in information from counterfeit sources.
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Production
Evolving the digital counterfeits of the real creations
by Davek constitutes production. Production is creating in mass an
evolution two steps removed from the real. In these examples, the images are enhanced
with a digital process. Mrs. O'Dair also
groups them into another layer of composition. This interpretation adds
another layer of color selections, composition of visuals, and further
development of the ideas to be presented to an audience. The title of
the collection on exhibit, as well as, titles of the now grouped images
are all part of the production process. This process is steeped in
concepts of American marketing, which seeks to inspire consumption for making a
profit by creating a products demand.
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Simulation
Exhibiting the production results in an internationally public gallery, constitutes simulation. Mrs. O'Dair used the procession of simulacra to generate an alternate reality of original art. The profile of the artist is written using facts that pertain to both mother and son. The artist name is a hybrid of last names from the 5 year old Davek and his mother. Developing the website to include print order options also enhances the simulations acceptance. An object that can be purchased and shipped is part of commerce. Culturally commerce enhances simulation by implying validity of the objects and the gallery. This illusion is further embbeded by the sites connections via social media, The cycle of commerce and media is fuel on a fire.
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Debates of real and origin serve a purpose in our culture. Identifying origin is used to denote ownership. If something is owned it can be sold for profit. To establish ownership produces profit and such has been the fate of the natural resources. As original and real resources dwindle, new sources are conceptualized under the guise of simulation. Alternate concepts of real are established to restart and feed a cycle.
“It is never too late to revive your origins. It is their destiny: since they were not the first to be in on history, they will be the first to immortalize everything by reconstitution (by putting things in museums, they can match in an instant the fossilization process nature took millions of years to complete). But the conceptions Americans have of the museum is much wider than our own. To them, everything is worthy of protection, embalming, restoration. Everything can have a second birth, the eternal birth of the simulacrum. ” (Baudrillard, America)
― Jean Baudrillard
This cycle is exposed in the work and concept behind the Archalumis Gallery. Is the art of the Archalumis Gallery the property of Mrs. O'Dair? The child is a minor and 1/2 her original genetic code. At what point is the original or Baudrillards "real" to be accounted into concept of ownership? Perhaps when Davek comes of age, or when his mother has passed? Or is Davek an original and therefore entitled to full ownership of the art, in the same way a factory owner sells the products produced and developed by company workers in a factory? The questions of origin relate to the concepts of ownership in confounding ways. If it is a new creation, it can have a new owner. Cultural acceptance of simulacra suggests anything three times evolved or removed from the "real" original is arguably a new creation. In many ways, this exemplifies one of the worlds newest globally accepted simulacrum, genetically modified organisms or GMO's.
The ethical debates surrounding GMO's will continue with generations X&Y. This debate will continue to be influenced by the acceptance of simulacra which spirals exponentially farther from "real" with each generation. For example, "real" as a word could be rewritten to the following sequence:
Archalumis is a backwards word, moving forward at a very fast pace. It reaches into the infrastructures of both culture and nature. This change in both structures by one concept sabotages from within. The results could enable the collapse of the natural; establish a new definition for the origins of life as blocks of information subject to ownership; and change forever the most fundamental forms of reality known to humanity.
This is how people play with questions. What is real? Will the real please stand up?
The ethical debates surrounding GMO's will continue with generations X&Y. This debate will continue to be influenced by the acceptance of simulacra which spirals exponentially farther from "real" with each generation. For example, "real" as a word could be rewritten to the following sequence:
- gen 1 "real" - gen 2 "reall" - gen 3 "realll" - gen 4 "realV"
- gen 5 "rea_V" - gen 6 "rea_VI" and so on.
Archalumis is a backwards word, moving forward at a very fast pace. It reaches into the infrastructures of both culture and nature. This change in both structures by one concept sabotages from within. The results could enable the collapse of the natural; establish a new definition for the origins of life as blocks of information subject to ownership; and change forever the most fundamental forms of reality known to humanity.
This is how people play with questions. What is real? Will the real please stand up?
Works Cited:
Baudrillard, Jean. America. London/GB: Verso Books, 2010.
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation . Detroit/USA: University of Michigan Press, 1995.
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation . Detroit/USA: University of Michigan Press, 1995.