Alexa Esqueda

Adding on to the basis of mass consumption that Jean Baudrillard’s Hyperreality draws from, there are certain aspects of the shopping experience that have always been customizable: who you want to be, what you want to see, where you want to be seen, and why. However, the pursuit of cultivating this individual experience is nowadays influenced by others, for social media is a curated space. Trends are tried on to fit one’s identity—ultimately leading to people trying on the same thing. The pursuit of self-expression becomes less authentic, the more mass consumption becomes mass production.

With the reproduction of art, there’s a noticeable difference in how less-real a copy is. Each derivative work distances itself further from the original artwork. Applied to modern-day consumer culture, this simulacrum of reproduction without end dilutes our grasp of individuality as spaces where we display our identity and spaces where we consume to add to our identity become indistinguishable. In other words, simulations of each other.

“Some day, all department stores will become museums, and all museums will become department stores.” – Andy Warhol qtd. in The History of Department Stores.

From clothing to works of art, being cultured and expressing yourself implies a certain level of homogeneity. The difficulty of escaping this repetitious pattern sets up mass culture as another hyperreality—where customization is an illusion.

This Case Study is part of a larger essay, Simulation and Hyperreality.

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