“The alternative realities created through digital manipulation are complemented by works that have an air of the “hyperreal”, creating a heightened reality that seems to be neither artificial nor an authentic representation. While temporal and spatial continuity are maintained, the concept of reality still remains questionable”
Digital manipulation, in my opinion, is the most important feature of using technology as a tool because of the million possibilities a person can create with just one picture. I have always been fascinated with digital manipulation since I was a kid. I remember watching a video of a magician who made the Statue of Liberty disappear, and during the early days of YouTube there was a man who made his own version of Need For Speed: Tokyo Drift by making himself the actual car using stop motion trick . My friends and I were so fascinated that we decided to do our own stop motion tricks. Since technology back then was as not as good as today, we used a Nokia 6630 (which had a decent enough camera that we could pause and play during our recordings). We started off with simple tricks like vanishing coins and cats, then we moved on to something more ambitious like flying around(which is basically jumping a gazillion times and pausing the record button midair). It was our own version of alternative reality, on what it would be like if we have our own superpowers. Although this may be different than Paul’s definition of “hyperreality”, they have one thing in common, they invoke the viewers perception and forces them to ask themselves if what they are seeing is reality.
I see hyper realism more today in video games, T.V. shows, and films. For example, one can argue that G.T.A. V is more than just about expressing our violent tendencies through killing virtual people, but more of a brainchild of a game developer’s commentary on our society as a whole, how we worship celebrities and how the media forgets about the white collar crimes in the country. A person can even say that “Man, this is not far from reality.” I think that’s the true power of digital tools, we get to create new ways to express our thoughts and imaginations in a more powerful way.