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which has real time kinetic movement. In this thesis, I am proposing this
kinetic information visualization as a new form of data visualization that
can reveal and transfer data in the physical form and in real space.
3.2. New Realities
In contemporary society, we have to adjust to new realities (i.e. virtual,
hyper, mixed, and hybrid realities) of the plethora of the mass media in
contemporary urban life. With life in various realities, like Jean
Baudrillard said, “the surrounding universe and our very bodies are
becoming monitoring screens,” the landscape around us now unfolds as a
screen. In his book, The Ecstasy of Communication, Baudrillard stated,
“The landscape, the immense geographical landscape seems a vast, barren
body whose very expanse is unnecessary (even off the highway it is boring
to cross), from the moment that all events are concentrated in the cities,
which are also being reduced to several extremely miniaturized high
places.” 52
In cities, people are becoming consumer-driven, and our bodies have to
deal with various media screens, from the screens of TVs to those of
mobile phones. However, it is impossible to judge such a media evaluation
either positively or negatively. Baudrillard proposed an interesting idea
about the image and screen in our modern life, which he referred to as
‘hyper-reality.’ In the book Continental Philosophy, editors McNeill and
Feldman describe this concept:
Figure 35. Herbert Bayer,
Diagram of the Field of Vision,
1930
[B]audrillard argued that technological existence unfolds as the
presentation of simulacra, that is, of images that correspond to no
underlying reality or truth, but operate as a play of signification in which it
becomes increasingly impossible to identify any original or
uncontaminated reality. Where reality becomes virtualized in this manner,
there the virtual and the real became fused, existence has been
transformed into what Baudrillard called “hyperreality”. 53
52
Baudrillard, Jean, The Ecstasy of Communication. Translated by Bernard and Caroline
Schutze, Semiotext(e), 1988, p19
53
McNeill, William and Karen S. Feldman., ed., Continental Philosophy: an anthology.
Blackwell, 1998. p443
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