George Orwell and Aldous Huxley in two dystopian works: Nineteen Eighty-
four (1949) and Brave New World (1932), respectively. Postman indicates that
what we find in Brave New World is that ‘in the age of advanced technology,
spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling
face than from one whose countenance exudes suspicion and hate’ (Postman,
1985: 155). In this sense, the confusion provoked between reality and
unreality is produced by the same media entertainment technology that we
create to afford pleasure. These devices that promise endless hours of
entertainment have the danger of confusing us, the audience, and (directly or
indirectly) controlling our decisions.
Today, the fact of technology means that virtuality occupies some of
the places that were inhabited by reality not so long ago. This is illustrated
by the words of Ecclesiastes with which Baudrillard begins his book
Simulations (Baudrillard 1983: 1): ‘the Simulacrum is never what hides the
truth, it is truth which conceals that there is none. The Simulacrum is true’.
We are achieving a stage where real experiences can be judged in relation to
their corresponding experience in media products, films and videogames.
Paradoxically, the artificial measures the real, reality becomes the simulation
and, in the confusion, reality loses its meaning. Consequently, one of the
risks that we are experiencing with the development of visual technological
procedures is the tendency of the spectator to either believe everything or
not believe anything at all. Complete faith or absolute skepticism seem to be
the alternatives and both block the perception of reality. Perhaps we should
find a half way, a third direction, in which we question what we perceive. In
this respect, Richard Gerrig points out that ‘resisting our susceptibility to
stories is a useful skill in a media and advertising saturated world’ (Gerrig,
2004: 268). Indeed, we need to reposition ourselves and our perception in
relation to the new circumstances of technology. It is clear that our brains do
not only respond to personal and bio-psychological effects, but also to
cultural and technological conventions about realism that are constantly
changing. Therefore, as visual technology has changed substantially in recent
years, we have to adapt to the new conventions and perceptions that this
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