As a young boy, I often found myself in the atelier of the Haarlem artist Marinus Fuit. My father, a friend of the graphic artist (who also build Marinus’ website), would bring me along, and I’d wander the halls of the old school building where Fuit worked. I was intrigued by his art, though I barely understood it. Recurrent themes—the red and white barrier, balls, yellow floors, the conspicuous absence of people—lent his worlds a limitless quality; they were familiar yet utterly alien.
I thought it was cool.
Fuit was a nice guy, too.
When I moved out of my parents' house, it was only natural that I took a piece of Fuit’s work with me. It hung on my wall for years before I eventually passed it on to my sister.
I found myself thinking about Fuit in the context of internships and the burgeoning developments in AI (Chat GPT, Bing, Bard, Midjourney, Dall-E, Perplexity and so forth), social media, and the recent launch of the Apple Vision—a ski goggle-like device offering a novel way to interact with the world. Our world is one where reality and artificial reality merge; a synthetic world.
This naturally led me to the philosopher Jean Baudrillard.
Baudrillard conceived the concept of the ‘Simulacrum’; a scenario where reality is supplanted by representations of that reality. He termed this ‘hyperreality.’ In the early 1990s, Baudrillard famously asserted that ‘the Gulf War did not take place.’ The war, he claimed, was presented to us solely through media representations.
This doesn’t happen by accident, according to Baudrillard.
Four Phases of Reality
Baudrillard distinguishes four phases of reality, illustrated through the lens of painting:
The ‘Truth’: Here, the world is depicted as it is. Think of Rembrandt, or a portrait painter who creates lifelike works.
Distorted ‘Truth’: The truth exists but is rendered in a distorted manner. Consider impressionists or painters who offer romanticized portrayals of the ‘truth.’ Van Gogh, for example.
Replaced ‘Truth’: The truth no longer exists and is replaced by an image that shows a ‘false truth.’ Magritte’s work comes to mind; it’s painted very realistically, but something is off.
Hyperreality: There’s no longer any relationship between ‘truth’ and ‘representation’ because there is no ‘truth’ to depict. Think of Rothko’s paintings, which consist solely of colors.
The Fourth Phase
According to Baudrillard, Western society has entered this fourth phase. It’s an era where the image, the representation, dominates. There are only images now. Consider the internet or virtual worlds where we develop a virtual ‘self’ that increasingly diverges from our real ‘self.’
Complex? Absolutely.
Relevance for Interns
The question is indeed pertinent for interns. Baudrillard asserts: ‘We accept the reality as it is presented to us.’ If we live in a ‘Rothko’ world and train interns to become novice professionals, are we teaching them to believe in what is presented to them? Or are we helping them to think critically about what they see?
It’s unwise to train students to view the world as if they’re looking at a Rembrandt when we inhabit a Rothko world.
If you wish to delve into Baudrillard’s work, I wish you luck. The PDF is available here.
Looking for something less challenging to start with? Perhaps my book would be a good starting point.