Briefly list the orders of simulacra and define the term pure simulacra.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The first true order of simulacra, Baudrillard suggests, began with the Renaissance and culminated with the birth of the Industrial Revolution. Here, the order of obligated signs is replaced by the first “modern signs” in an era of the “counterfeit,” where the meaning of signs is no longer bound to the obligations of a feudal order. Baudrillard’s second order of simulacra begins with the Industrial Revolution and ends in the early part of the twentieth century. A newfound logic of technological reproduction creates a mass proliferation of signs serially produced on a massive scale (through photography, film, print, etc.). The third order of simulacra, beginning in the late twentieth century, is the order of simulation proper and describes the contemporary period. The dominant scheme is one in which signs no longer have any contact with material reality but, instead, are completely liberated from objective signifieds. Pure simulacra emerge as copies of things that have always only been copies.