Output details

'Reality is in the performance' : Issues of Digital Technology, Simulation and Artificial Acting in S1mOne

This essay is concerned with the use of digital technologies in Hollywood cinema and argues, contrary to established interpretations, that they perpetuate the illusionism and verisimilitude of its representations. An initial discussion of the use of digital technology in the cinema provides the basis for an analytical and historical account of the move from avant-garde experiments in virtual, or non-human performance. This history is then contrasted with the Hollywood appropriations of digital technologies, and its elaboration of a virtual performer - represented in a film like S1mOne (Andrew Niccol, 2002) - which is put in the service of such naturalism and illusionism. In order to appreciate their relevance, and significance the above arguments are placed within the broader contexts of digitization, simulation and virtuality as theorized, among others, by Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard.