Simulacrum Culture

Along with other trends and technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR), where people are in contact with simulated beings, objects, and places, the spread of AI-generated artistic content is entrenching a “simulacrum culture” in the popular imagination, making engagements with virtual characters, settings, and objects no longer appear as just figments in fantasy worlds, but rather as alternatives to real human worlds. The integration of VR and AI is not only revolutionizing the ways we do important things in society, such as training pilots and doctors, but also how we increasingly seek entertainment. It is the latter aspect that is of interest in this chapter, which discusses Jean Baudrillard’s view that electronic media make engagement with virtual beings and worlds indistinguishable from our normal perception of reality. Simulacrum culture has become embedded especially in the so-called Metaverse, where even the deepfakes of artists and celebrities are no longer perceived as “fake,” but part of a world where the real and the hyperreal are cognitively verisimilar, and where the distinction between original artworks and artificial copies of them is increasingly dismissed as immaterial. In this cultural environment, it is critical to ensure that the power of art in all media remains firmly in the hands of human beings.