Question 1a and 1b

OCR A2 Media studies Exam Questions 1a and 1b tips

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Is Postmodernism a useful theory or not:

·         Postmodernism challenges the very notion of truth….and certainly disputes the idea that we should live our lives by adhering to widely perceived ideas of the truth (through religion etc)

·         Many critics see this position as offensive. They believe that it is a luxury of people who live in advanced, rich nations and democratic states to take this ‘playful’ stance on matters of truth… (JM, 138) For example, many people in sub-Saharan have to face very fundamental truths every day…truths about the need to eat to survive etc

·         The denial of ‘grand narratives’ and moral principles in postmodernism is also objected to by people who have religious convictions and attach importance to moral principles

·         If truth is absent, many would argue that we sink into a moral relativism where ‘anything goes’.

·         • Can you really separate postmodernism from modernism? One criticism of postmodernism is that it is not as new as many would claim it to be. In particular, intertextuality/pastiche/parody are often seen as key characteristics of postmodernism but, it is argued, they can also be seen as characteristics of many modernist texts: ‘Joe Dante’s films may be marked by a plundering of all kinds of popular cultural sources, but then so is James Joyce’s Ulysees, a high modernist novel’.

·         Postmodernism has emerged from so many different disciplines that it is notoriously difficult to define. How much value can we ascribe to theory which remains so elusive? If it is difficult to define what postmodernism is all about, might we conclude that there is nothing really there: there is nothing at its heart.

Simulacrum, Authenticity and Romanticism

Simulacrum: (plural: simulacra), means "likeness, similarity", was first recorded in the English language in the late 16th century, used to describe a representation, such as a statue or a painting, especially of a god.

Authenticity: The quality or condition of being authentic, trustworthy, or genuine.

Romanticism: Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1840. Romanticism 's purpose is not to amaze you by grandeur or grace, but to rise your emotions and guide you to an aesthetic experience.

Orange Juice

Music Video Narrative

Music video narrative

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Audience-Reception Theory

Reception Theory

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Flight of Concords

Flight of the conchords po mo_notes

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Postmodern Music

Postmodern Music. on Prezi

Research and Planning

List of Primary Research:

• Music Video analysis; Artic Monkeys - When the Sun Goes Down, Maccabees - No Kind Works, The Maccabees - Precious Time, The Vaccines - If You Wanna, Bombay Bicycle Club Magnet, Beastie Boys - Make Some Noise.
• Mood Board of artists from a similar genre.
• Examples of other texts - Analysis of album artwork.
• Analysis of Magazine adverts and posters.

List of Secondary Research:

• Market Research - Looking through top 40 and download charts.
• Anthony Goodwin - formats of a music video.
• Read various reviews on music video's.
• Watching music channels in an attempt to gain an understanding of current music videos.

all the research we carried out as a pair was helpful in some way. The primary research mainly consisted of analyizing other artists work, this was extremely helpful as it provided us with lots of inspiration as what to include in our music video, magazing advert and digipack. Analyizing the professionals work also gave us and understanding of the level of quality that we needed to acheive in order to gain a professional looking final product. Secondary research was also extremely helpful as looking the charts and download charts gave us a greater understanding of what music videos were currently out there. Reading reviews also gave us an idea of what was effective in music videos and also what was not.

AS Coursework Primary Research:

• Double Page Spread Analysis.
• Contents Page Analysis.
• Magazine Cover Analysis
• Magazine Moodboard
• Fonts analysis
• Magazine Pitch feedback

AS Coursework Secondary Research:

• Posted examples of articles, written by others e.g. NME

As you can see from the lists, it is clear that my research (both primary and secondary) was more extentsive in my A2 coursework than my AS coursework. This reflects the effort that i put in during AS and A2 coursework. My research and planning skills have improved over the two coursework tasks. My analysis skills have improved greatly and this can be seen by comparing my magazine analysis with my music video analysis. My music video analysis was also in much greater detail than my AS analysis.Research and planning is essential when undertaking a project such as creating a magazine or a music video, research and planning greatly increases your knowledge and also gives you hatful of ideas in which you can include in your own work.

Expense and cost:
when researching areas such music magazines (AS Coursework) and music videos (A2 Coursework) the expense and cost is almost always free. The internet was the basis for almost all of research throughout both my AS and A2 research. The expense of AS research was however slightly more expensive than my A2 coursework. This was mainly due to the expense of buying magazines for research purposes whereas with music videos i simply viewed them for free using Youtube.

Accessibility:
As youtube is so easily accessible it was much easier and less time consuming to find examples of music videos. It was much more difficult and time consuming to find good quality examples of music magazines which were specific to the genre i chosen.

Accuracy:
throughout both my AS and A2 coursework i tried to use accurate facts and figures. I didn't use figures at all in my AS coursework and the only example i think of in my A2 coursework was when I used the download chart and top 40 singles chart in my research. This information was undoubtedly accurate as the  figures from the download chart were taken from iTunes and the top 40 chart was taken from the radio one website. During the audience feedback, the main source of feedback was teachers, friends and classmates. We had no feedback from people that we were not familiar with, this could mean that some of the feedback, particularly that from our friends may be slightly biased, although we trust professionals such as our teachers to give honest feedback and not to be effected by relationships with students.

Validity:
no piece of work is completely original, and this applies to my work to. My AS coursework took some elements from other magazines, for example including the 'F' from the title of the magazine on every page was a technique i noticed when looking at Vibe magazine which often placed the V behind the main model. Other than this my magazine was relatively original. When looking at my A2 coursework, the whole video was based around the 'Shuffle" music video by Bombay Bicycle club, although there are many differences between our video and Bombay Bicycle Clubs the inspiration for our video was taken from this and he concepts are very similar.

3. Organisation and Research:
Before my AS coursework i had never used Blogger before, and I found it difficult to organise and label my work effectively. This resulted in me having to label much of work long after i had completed it. During my A2 coursework i was much more familiar with blogger and as a result i have labeled and referenced my work much more efficiently, avoiding a backlog of labelling.

4. Planning - Pre-production requirements.
for both my A2 and AS coursework i produced one draft before handing in the final edition of my work. During my AS coursework my drafts consisted of a 3 pieces of work, a draft cover, contents and double page spread. During my A2 coursework we simply produced a draft music video, the difference between my pre production work between AS and A2 is the quality. The quality of my AS drafts was fairly poor and i had to make massive changes and completely change the whole magazine, whereas my A2 draft was fairly high quality and although it still required lots of changes it was intially very good and the changes were merely improvements.

Organisation of time, personnel and equipment:
Throughout all of my coursework (AS and A2) i have always worked extremely hard to meet deadlines as this is crucial in allowing time to complete each stage of work. If one deadline is missed it has effects on all remaining deadlines as you now have more work to complete before the next deadline, and it for this reason i made sure i completed all my work on time.

Organisation of personnel was a extremely difficult and also frustrating, particularly during my A2 coursework as there more people and equipment involved. We produced schedules to make sure that our work was complete on time, however due to each member of the bands different commitments we did not stick to this schedule. The people that featured in the video were our friends and helped us out for free, there was little benefit for them, because of this we tried as much as possible to film around their other commitments and not to be too much of an inconvenience. Although we did not stick to our original schedules we did produce the work on time and were fortunate to have such helpful and generous friends. Also as teenagers communication does not come naturally and we found it difficult to communicate with each member of the band as they were often at work/school, this caused considerable frustration. We overcame this by communicating using different methods in order to gain a faster response e.g. twitter, Facebook and SMS.

5.Organisation of planning materials:
During my AS coursework i did not really follow any real plan, because my drafts scored so poorly i was simply working off teacher feedback. There was a very different story when working on my A2 coursework, we were constantly referring back to our storyboard and schedule which we had produced. We did not stick to these strictly but we used them as guidelines and made sure we did not stray far from them, because of this our work was always under control and we were confident with what we had produced throughout the entire course.

6.Presentation of Research and Planning:
In my AS coursework i used programmes such as SlideShare, Animoto, Scribd and Prezi to present my research and planning. This is a similar story to my A2 coursework, the only difference being that i had more experience of using these programmes and therefore i was able to create more aesthetic work.

7.How your Research and Planning has informed your practical production:
A large chunk of our A2 research was carried out on indie/alternative music videos, this was because we had decided to produce a music video which would fit into this genre. During this research we recognised a number of traits which were present in indie/alternative music videos, this research ultimate had a large effect on our final product as our video was inspired by many indie/alternative music videos e.g. Bombay Bicycle Clubs - Shuffle.

Postmodern music

http://www.fordmedia1112.blogspot.com/2012/02/jonathan-kramer-postmodern-music-theory.html

This is an example of number 6 of Jonathan Kramers postmodern music theory. This challenges the usual mutual elclusivity of populist values by including the use of classical music throughout the track. This song is produced by a hip hop artist yet includes  the use of classical music throughout the song.

Postmodern Artists: Beastie Boys

One of the greatest trio's of all time, if not the best.
The Beastie Boys emerged in the early 80's releasing two EP's; Polly Wog Stew and Cooky Puss. However they did not release their first real album Licensed to Ill until 1986:

Licensed to Ill (1986)

Paul's Boutique (1989)

Check Your Head (1992)

Ill Communication (1994)

The In Sound From Way Out! (1996)

Hello Nasty (1998)

To the 5 Boroughs (2004)

The Mix-Up (2007)

Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011)

.

I think that the Beastie Boys have to be considered a postmodern music artist because of their ability to change their style, their style is so changeable that in many of their albums their are songs which range from rap/hip-hip to much heavier almost rock genre. Although this it true of many of their albums one particular example is from the Ill Communication album which features heavily rap influenced songs such as Get It Together featuring Q-tip from a Tribe Called Quest which contrasts with the heavier rock genre of songs such as Sabotage.

  

Here are some more examples of songs by the Beastie Boys which show their versatility and range of style:

Fight for your Right.



Girls.

Postmodernism and Music Research based task:

The focus of your task will be postmodernism in relation to music. You will need to have an understanding of music that includes the following:

 •The postmodern sensibility that anything can be considered cool in an ironic 'I know it's bad, but it's so bad it's good' way. This to me is people’s guilty pleasure of music, which is not considered to be good by others but we are perhaps embarrassed to admit that we like it. My personal guilty pleasures include Sean Paul, Pit-bull and the Wanted.

·         Work that is created based (entirely or in part) on older material. This incorporates sampling and will take you from the realms of hip hop culture transporting you finally in today’s modern fragmented musical landscape. You will have to listen to some of the artists to fully appreciate them and their work. An example of this is the Jay-Z’s song Brooklyn We Go Hard, which sample’s heavily from Santogolds song Shove it.

·         Audiences that are both niche and mainstream. E.g.: Radio 1, 1xtra, BBC6, XFM The best example of this is looking at the Radio 1 line up, which plays more mainstream music during the day and then during the evening shows like Zane Lowe play music to more niche audiences.

• The state of the music industry incorporating any recent developments that change how we access/ interact with music e.g.: Spotify, X Factor, iTunes, illegal downloading, free cds with newspapers etc

·         The ways in which people engage and listen to music e.g.: iPod, DAB, mobile phones etc.

·         The legal issues surrounding sampling. (Led Zeppelin borrowed heavily from old bluesmen and it took years for the songwriters to be credited and paid royalties. The same group took a hard-line stance initially to be sampled by hip hop groups.) Sampling is widely used these days in music but early sampling caused many legal cases. In March 1963, The Beach Boys released "Surfin' USA". Chuck Berry's music publisher Arc Music sued over what was a note-for-note cover of Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen", and was eventually granted co-writing credit for Berry, and royalties from the record.

Funny Games

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Inglorious Basterds - Essay

In what ways can Inglorious Basterds be considered postmodern?

Inglorious Basterds can be considered postmodern due to the way in which Tarrantino has created and constructed the film. Inglorious Basterds incorporates a number of postmodern elements, which set it apart from other films and give the film a postmodern feeling. Tarrantino uses a number of methods such as using music and other intertextual components such as shots, framing, onscreen text and revealing the set, which combine to make Inglorious Basterds a postmodern film. One other way in which Inglorious Basterds can be considered a post modern film is the way in which it differs from a traditional war film, by removing certain parts of a traditional parts of a war film such as fear and adding other parts such as humour, this is another technique used by Tarrantino which makes Inglorious Basterds a postmodern film.

There are many different elements to post modernism and it can be a difficult concept to understand, there is not definitive definition of postmodernism. A close definition for postmodernist films is that they concentrate on dystopia and usually have more realistic endings in which everything does not turn out ok.

One way in which Inglorious Basterds can be considered a postmodern film is the choice of music by Tarrantino. There are many examples of postmodern choices of music used in Inglorious Basterds ranging from Spaghetti Western music to a David Bowie song, which was produced long after the film was set. Tarrantino used Spaghetti Western music produced by Ennio Marricone on many occasions in Inglorious Basterds; it is unusual for this genre of music to be used in a war film, as the music tends to be much classical and slow. Tarrantino used this music and in my view made it work extremely effectively, particularly during the infamous ‘Bear Jew’ scene which is also framed in an exceptionally similar way to that of a Spaghetti Western shootout scene. Tarrantino used mainly close up shots, which emphasised each characters facial expression whilst waiting for the emergence of the ‘Bear Jew’. As well as using Spaghetti western music Tarrantino also decided to incorporate other genres of music such as Blaxploitation. Again Tarrantino manages to include this unusual genre of music into Inglorious Basterds very effectively. An example of this comes during the Hugo Stiglitz introduction movie; this scene is reminiscent of the Blaxploitation genre and uses elements of the Blaxploitation Shaft, because this scene uses many elements of the Blaxploitation genre the music is suitable and effective. The final example of the music Tarrantino chose for Inglorious Basterds is a David Bowie; this again is an unusual choice as the song is completely out of the time period in which the film was set. Despite this Tarrantino again manages to use the music in an effective way.

Overall the choice of music used in Inglorious Basterds adds a postmodern element to the film, as it is an unusual choice and not many other directors would have chosen such music. Tarrantino uses the music in specific scenes and parts of which suits the genre of the music and explains his decision for using such a curious selection of music. The music used also adds an element of intertextuality to the film. The Spaghetti Western music was produced by Ennio Morricone and is reminiscent to the music used in ‘The Good the Bad and the Ugly” and the Blaxploitation music and the scene it is used in definitely uses elements from the film shaft.

Although the music briefly touched on intertextuality there are many other examples of intertextuality included in Inglorious Basterds and this is both trade mark postmodernism and Tarrantino. As I previously mentioned Inglorious Basterds includes intertextual references from both Shaft form the Blaxploitation genre and The Good the Bad and the Ugly from the Spaghetti Western genre. Despite this there are many other intertextual references in Inglorious Basterds, which give the film a postmodern feeling. Another example of intertextuality is the link to the Sound of Music, during the scene in which Shoshanna escapes capture from Hans Landa the surrounding scenery of the countryside is almost identical to that of the scenery displayed in the Sound of Music. As well as the visual link there is another intertextual link between Inglorious Basterds and the Sound of Music, this link is much more subtle and is displayed at the very beginning of the film. Like the Sound of Music Inglorious Basterds is physically split into chapters using on screen text, the chapters also display a fairy-tale like link, with the onscreen text reading “Chapter 1: Once upon a time in Nazis occupied France…” This is unusual for a post modern film to be set up in this fairy-tale like way, particularly as postmodern films do not generally end happily ever after. Yet another example of Tarrantino using Intertextual links in Inglorious Basterds can be seen around opening scene involving Hans Landa looking for hidden Jews. The intertexual link comes as Landa is leaving the cabin, in which Tarrantino incorporates as shot, which is almost identical to a shot, used in the film The Searchers. The shot shows Landa standing in the doorway facing out into the open. These intertexual links are only an example and Tarrantino uses a huge amount of intertextual links throughout the entire film, the sheer amount of intertextual links incorporated into Inglorious Basterds certainly adds a postmodern element to the film.

Another way in which Tarrantino adds a postmodern aspect to Inglorious Basterds in the way in which he uses on screen text. Tarrantino often uses onscreen texts in his films and perhaps the best example of this is Kill Bill. During Inglorious Basterds there are many occasions in which text appears on screen and in true Tarrantino style he uses his favourite font and yellow colour. The onscreen text is not overly used and Is mainly used to introduce characters such as Hugo Stiglitz. Perhaps the most obvious example of on screen text comes during the scene in which Shoshanna cinema is filling up with the important Nazis leaders. During this scene arrows are drawn on screen pointing to certain characters, the arrows are then followed by the names of the characters appearing revealing that they are infamous Nazis leaders, for example Martin Bormann. This is definitely an example of postmodern techniques as the text is unusual and is rarely seen in conventional war films. As well as being postmodern the text does serve a conventional purpose as it does introduces certain characters and is also used to split the film into sections with the use of chapters.

During Inglorious Basterds there are certain self-reflexive elements, which gives the film a postmodern quality. Examples of these self-reflexive elements take a number of forms including public information films, revealing the set and other intricate details, which could easily be missed. The first and most obvious self-reflexive element is the film within a film. This happens on more than one occasions with the introductory film for Hugo Stiglitz and also the public information film about 35mm film print. Both of these short films, especially the public information film break the 4^th wall and reminds the audience that Inglorious is nothing but a fantastical film. Breaking the 4^th wall is a commonly used postmodernist method and is used in many other postmodern films. Another postmodern feature, which Tarratino often uses in many of his films, is the method of including the revealing the set during the film. This again breaks the 4^th wall and reminds the audience that it is merely a film and not reality. Tarrantino reveals the set during Inglorious Basterds on more than one occasion although the untrained eye easily misses them. The first example of Tarrantino using this technique comes again in the opening scene in which the camera follows Hans Landa to the door in an overhead shot which reveals elements of the set. The final way in which Tarrantino uses self-reflexive elements in order to create a postmodern facet to Inglorious Basterds is by using old and unusual cinematic techniques. There is an example of this in the opening sequence in the French dairy farm. When this scene is examined closely it is clear to see that on certain windows of the barn the scenery has been painted on to the window. This is an old technique and is not used in modern film production since the creation of CGI and improved technology. Using old techniques such as this is considered postmodern and perhaps explains why Tarrantino decided to use such methods.

Levis-Strauss developed the concept of Bricolage, in which things are constructed out of socially recognisable debris, which has been taken from other texts. They’re many examples of this in Inglorious Basterds as Tarrantino is renown for including high levels of intertextuality and using ‘debris’ from other films. Examples of this in Inglorious Basterds include; the modern music used, small films within a film, comedy, on screen text, chapters and Tarrantino’s infamous foot fetish, which he manages to include in all his films. Levis-Strauss developed this theory further by splitting it into modules; addition, deletion, substitution and transformation, each of which can be applied to Inglorious Basterds. Tarrantino uses addition by adding public information films into Inglorious Basterds, however the most prominent example of addition is the way in which Tarratino adds humour into the film, this is unusual particularly for a war film, which often focus on other emotions. There are many examples of deletion throughout Inglorious Basterds, however I believe the most significant of these in the way in which Tarrantino deletes fear from the film. This is extremely significant especially considering the genre of the film, however Tarrantio counter balances this deletion with the addition of humour into the films. This makes the film postmodern as it has completely transformed the typical war film into something completely different.

Overall I believe that Inglorious Basterds must be considered as a postmodern film. Tarrantino includes a number of methods, which make Inglorious Basterds almost unrecognisable to the traditional war film. These methods also add a postmodern aspect to the film as methods such as revealing the set and using deliberately music which is from a completely time period all create a feeling of postmodernism around Inlgorious Basterds. Perhaps Tarrantino’s biggest achievement is that he managed to use all of these unusual methods and create what I believe to be a very impressive film.  

           

Inglorious Basterds - Theorists Applied

Genette developed the term transtextuality and developed five sub groups, however only four of these terms apply to Inglorious Basterds.
- Intertextuality: There are many intertextual links throughout Inglorious Basterds. Here is a list: Spahetti Western (Music, Close up shots, emphasising facial expressions), Shaft (Blaxploitation), Blaxploitation (Music), Battleship Potemkim (similar shot of a pram rolling), Sound of Music (fairytale link, similar scenery), Where Eagles Dare, The Searchers.

-Metatextuality - Explicit or implicit critical commentary of one text on another text. This is also present in Inglorious Basterds. Metatexuality occurs during a conversation between Soshanna and Frederick Zoller, in which references to Max Linder (silent film star), Leni Riefenstahl (film director), GW Pabst (Director), Sergeant York (American Film).

-Hypotextuality - the relation between a text and a preceeding hypotext - a text or genre on which it is based but which it transforms, modifies, elaborates or extends. The are many hypotext links in Inglorious Basterds. Inglorious Basterds was designed to be a war film, however there are many hypotexts links which are not in keeping with the genre and both extent and elaborate the genre. Examples of this include the Blaxploitation/Spaghetti Western music, the link to the Searchers, Public information film and the parody of Hitler.

-Architextuality -designation of the text as part of a genre by the writer or by the audience. Inglorious Basterds in reffered to as a War film by both the audience and Tarrantino, although the film is not like any other war films.

Theorists

Postmodernism theories and texts

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Creativity

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Creativity Task

Modernism - Definition:

In the field of art the broad movement in Western art, architecture and design which self-consciously rejected the past as a model for the art of the present. Hence the term modernist or modern art. Modernism gathered pace from about 1850. Modernism proposes new forms of art on the grounds that these are more appropriate to the present time. It is thus characterised by constant innovation. But modern art has often been driven too by various social and political agendas. These were often utopian, and modernism was in general associated with ideal visions of human life and society and a belief in progress. The terms modernism and modern art are generally used to describe the succession of art movements that critics and historians have identified since the Realism of Courbet, culminating in abstract art and its developments up to the 1960s. By that time modernism had become a dominant idea of art, and a particularly narrow theory of modernist painting had been formulated by the highly influential American critic Clement Greenberg. A reaction then took place which was quickly identified as Postmodernism.

René Magritte - Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Magritte's work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. The representational use of objects as other than what they seem is typified in his painting, The Treachery of Images (La trahison des images), which shows a pipe that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advertisement. Magritte painted below the pipe "This is not a pipe" (Ceci n'est pas une pipe), which seems a contradiction, but is actually true: the painting is not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe. It does not "satisfy emotionally"—when Magritte once was asked about this image, he replied that of course it was not a pipe, just try to fill it with tobacco.

Postmodern Film:

Postmodernist film describes the articulation of ideas of postmodernism through the cinematic medium. Postmodernist film upsets the mainstream conventions of narrative structure and characterization and destroys (or, at least, toys with) the audience's suspension of disbelief to create a work in which a less-recognizable internal logic forms the film's means of expression.

Postmodernism - another defintion:

"A general explanation is that postmodernism is a contradiction in terms, as post means after and modern means now, it is impossible for anything to be after now. The term itself is supposed to be deliberately unexplainable.

In terms of literature and media it is generally considered to be anything which makes little attempt to hide the fact that it is not real, it wants you to know that its been created and it wants you to recognise elements from elsewhere (i.e. that they have 'stolen' ideas from other sources), that there are no new or original ideas and that everything is in someway connected. Importantly it doesn’t want you to view it as being any more or less valid or important than a text which pretends to be real, postmodernists want everything to be equal, they want to remove binary opposites and start again. Students are often criticised for being post modern as they tend to like 'naff' things and think they are cool precisely because they aren't cool (thus removing binary opposites)"

Michael Smith (2009)

Postmodernism - defintion:

Postmodern texts deliberately play with meaning. They are designed to be read by a literate (ie experienced in other texts) audience and will exhibit many traits of intertextuality. Many texts openly acknowledge that, given the diversity in today's audiences, they can have no preferred reading (check out your Reception Theory) and present a whole range of oppositional readings simultaneously. Many of the sophisticated visual puns used by advertising can be described as postmodern. Postmodern texts will employ a range of referential techniques such as bricolage, and will use images and ideas in a way that is entirely alien to their original function (eg using footage of Nazi war crimes in a pop video).

Hyperreality Examples:

1.A magazine photo of a model that has been touched up with a computer.

2.Films in which characters and settings are either digitally enhanced or created entirely from CGI (e.g.: 300, where the entire film was shot in front of a blue/green screen, with all settings super-imposed).


3.A well manicured garden (nature as hyperreal).

4.Any massively promoted versions of historical or present "facts" (e.g. "General Ignorance" from QI, where the questions have seemingly obvious answers, which are actually wrong).


5.Professional sports athletes as super, invincible versions of the human beings.

6.Many world cities and places which did not evolve as functional places with some basis in reality, as if they were creatio ex nihilo (literally 'creation out of nothing'): Disney World; Dubai; Celebration, Florida; and Las Vegas.


7.TV and film in general (especially "reality" TV), due to its creation of a world of fantasy and its dependence that the viewer will engage with these fantasy worlds. The current trend is to glamorize the mundane using histrionics.

8.A retail store that looks completely stocked and perfect due to facing, creating a world of endless identical products.


9.A life which cannot be (e.g. the perfect facsimile of a celebrity's invented persona).

10.A high end sex doll used as a simulacrum of a bodily or psychologically unattainable partner.


11.A newly made building or item designed to look old, or to recreate or reproduce an older artifact, by simulating the feel of age or aging.

12.Constructed languages (such as E-Prime) or "reconstructed" extinct dialects.


13.Second Life The distinction becomes blurred when it becomes the platform for RL (Real Life) courses and conferences, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or leads to real world interactions behind the scenes.

14.Weak virtual reality which is greater than any possible simulation of physical reality.