This essay proposes that an innocuous advertisement for adidas sportswear contains a meta-narrative detailing the historical progression of the image within media art. In doing so, the same advertisement outlines an essential dilemma of contemporary aesthetics: that of a shift from representation, to simulation. In order to familiarise the reader with the advertisement, some description of Long Run is necessary. The ad is a remix of archival footage synthesised by the inclusion of elite sports people who came to international prominence in the late 1990’s. The footage consists of documentary material gathered from the coverage of Muhammad Ali’s “Rumble in the Jungle’ boxing match with George Foreman n Zaire, Africa, in 1974. Seamlessly juxtaposed, what the viewer sees is a pre Parkinson’s Muhammad Ali jogging alongside elite athletes such as swimmer Ian Thorpe, football superstar David Beckham, the now disgraced Olympic sprint champion Marion Jones, and several other high achieving athletes. A voice-off touts the difficulties faced by gifted athletes early in their careers, and the ad postulates that persistence, single mindedness, and the courage to defy your critics will guarantee eventual success. “Impossible is nothing” claims the voice, followed by Ali shadowboxing with the camera, delivering a telling uppercut, then stating “You out sucker”. (Long Run, Park Pictures, 2004) Implicit here is the achievement of the Black American civil rights movement, but only if you are prepared to pay for this privilege by wearing adidas sportswear. As a rhetorical tool for advertising Long Run is inspired. But the ad’s true power lies in what was probably an unintended meta-narrative.
If a meta-narrative can be defined as a story residing beyond that for which its content was originally intended, then Long Run tells a tale about images collapsing into the universal simulacrum. A meta-narrative differs from an allegory, in that an allegory uses one story to allude to a particular event, such as Camus’ novel The Plague and its indirect referencing of the Nazi occupation of France during World War 2. Meta-narratives on the other hand refer to theoretical dissertation. As case in point Long Run charts the progress of the image as it passes through 4 distinctive phases. In the historical figure of Muhammad Ali, the ad represents a basic reality. We know Ali was in Zaire in the early 70’s, and that he fought George Foreman for the WBC heavyweight championship, because history is a rhetorical record of an event that occurred in the actual world. This basic reality is then masked or perverted by the presence of prominent sports people from the recent past; notably, swimmer Ian Thorpe, who at age 22 wasn’t even born when Ali fought Foreman in 1974. This same perversion of reality is accentuated further when the filmmaker’s camera, now concentrating on Ali and his reality perverting co-conspirators as they jog together, captures an incidental and murky sun hovering on the horizon. Unspecified whether early morning or late evening, sunset or sunrise, combined with the inclusion of historical personas who cannot have accompanied one another on a jog through the outskirts of Zaire in the early 70’s, this marks the 3rd phase in the historical progression of the image: the absence of any basic reality. The murky sun we see is temporally and spatially dislocated. Is this Zaire in the 70’s, or Venus populated by clones in the year 3030 ? Finally, any sense of reality completely disappears when Ali, shadowboxing with the lens of a camera, lands a telling blow and announces: “You out sucker”. Exclusive, even nihilistic, Long Run no longer bares any relation to events that have occurred in the actual world. Reality collapses, and the ad becomes its own pure simulacrum. (Appignanesi & Garrat, 54-55, 1996) This meta-narrative, that of the progression of the image from representation to simulation, is also a concise history of 20th century aesthetics that elevates this humble advertisement to microcinema, making Long Run a work of media art.
If the simulacrum is a methodology for conceptualising of a space where images reside once their original and intended meaning collapses, then the phrase “Impossible is nothing” hints at characteristics of this space. Ambiguous, if not sumptuously awkward and imprecise, the term is shot through with opposing currents of optimism and pessimism. As a statement of transcendental intent, it could easily have been cropped from Marinetti’s futurist manifesto. (www.cscs.unimich.edu) Yet like the dark undercurrent of European fascism that permeates that exalting document, the phrase “Impossible is nothing” has a nihilistic connotation. Its opposing stream of everything and nothing combined, is an accurate reflection of the digitally manipulated image as it is presently understood: a simulation that promises everything, yet in aesthetic terms, is comprised of content that has never existed. Without an index to events in the actual world, the ad becomes ‘Impossible nothing’. As a negation of its own original and intended meaning, the ad continues to exist in spite of itself. Everything and nothing synthesised in a recombined form, that of functional advertisement to aesthetic artwork, the ad becomes its own pure simulacrum. Thus, the simulacrum is characterised by a benign nihilism, but this is only a transitional phase. Preceded by a transforming process of modification, multiplication and mutation, the image passes through this benign nihilism on its path toward actual simulation. Here, the simulacrum becomes a space characterised by infinite possibility. A matrix of diversity initiated by endless digital manipulations, its status is as transient as a collapsing house of cards.
As we have seen, the advertisement Long Run lays claim to being a work of media art. A digitally rendered entity that illuminates the path of an image as its meaning collapses, this path can be further dissected to reveal 5 essential characteristics. Modification, multiplication, mutation, benign nihilism, and actual simulation. Not simply an outline of an aesthetic tradition, that of a progression from representation to simulation, the presence of these 5 characteristics also illuminates the history of media art, and the conceptual transformations that have occurred during its inception. Broadly speaking, these conceptual transformations are in direct relation to ways of experiencing a work of art. What characterises this conceptual transformation is a shift from objective observation of an artwork, to mutual participation; otherwise known as immersion.
As a mode of perception contemporaneous with media art in the year 2008, immersion has been an implicit characteristic of aesthetic appreciation since the Renaissance. Mobility, or the capacity of the spectator to physically move within and through an environment while engaged in an appreciation of its aesthetic value, was a characteristic of Fresco painting. Rather than remaining still, subdued by the assumed power of an image captured within a gilt-edged frame, the spectator was at liberty to wander through the Sistine Chapel while gazing upward at Michelangelo’s visual ruminations upon the life of Christ. (Manovich, 111-114, 2001) And even though it can be argued that the same sense of mobility is also present in the spectator’s experience of an art gallery, this is refuted by the fact that the gallery experience is characterised by an appreciation of individual artworks in isolation, each work having its own index of meaning, rather than a coherence that binds every image into an all encompassing narrative. And yes, galleries that exhibit particular movements in art such as Symbolism or Surrealism, or that attempt to convey the key elements of an aesthetic tradition such as Modernism, while providing an overview of a particular movement or tradition, are still entities separated by formal distinction and differing content. Braque and Picasso both used Cubist perspectives in their painting, yet each artist is recognised for having developed a distinctive style. Similarly, Francis Bacon’s distortions of the human form painted late in his career hark back to the early adventures of the Surrealists, yet all 3 painters remain categorised under the collective banner of Modernism. Not so with the Fresco: as an apparent work of Modern art that liberated the spectator from the constraint of contemplation in isolation by initiating the actual physical participation of the spectator within an aesthetic experience, it has more in common with Jeffry Shaw’s Legible City, (with Dirk Groenveld) and Char Davies’ Osmose and Ephemre’. In this sense, mobility, or interactivity, no matter how rudimentary, for what’s important here is the impulse, means the Fresco is consistent with the view that Postmodernism has its foundations in the Renaissance. (Appignanesi & Garrat, 6-8, 1996)
Returning now to our consideration of the advertisement for adidas sportswear Long Run, and its claim to being a work of media art, we see at the beginning of that humble ad the historic personage of Muhammad Ali who, in Baudrillardian theory, represents a basic reality. Then up steps Ian Thorpe, Marion Jones and others; by doing so, their presence masks and perverts, or modifies, this basic reality. As we have seen, modification of a basic reality is 1 of 5 key transformations of an image as it transits along a path from representation to simulation. Similarly, the shift from objective appreciation of an artwork in isolation, to actual, physical appreciation as characterised by the spectator’s experience of Fresco painting, or immersion, is also a modification of the human capacity to perceive. Broadly speaking, this modification is a shift from a singular to a plural appreciation. The objective observation is replaced by the subjective experience; or an intellectual and often superficial experience confined to front brain activity is amplified to include what might be explained as a genuine ability to perceive. Experiencing Michelangelo’s Hand of God in the Sistine Chapel would have been an experience that engaged the 5 senses. Seeing the image from multiple points of view, hearing our own footsteps as we progressed through the environment and feeling the breath of air rush past us, perhaps even smelling the plaster surface on which the image had been painted and tasting its residue on the tongue, was a sensory experience that engaged sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. This same modification of perceptual awareness occurs when we perceive an image to be in transit between its capacity to represent a basic reality, and a simulation that has no index to an event in the actual world. Consequently, the advertisement Long Run resonates not just as an illumination of a shift in human perceptional awareness, but as a Postmodern historiography.
Once again returning to the ad Long Run, that moment when Ali and a yet to be conceived athlete such as Ian Thorpe somehow jog together beneath a temporally and spatially dislocated sun, we reach that point in Baudrillard where the ad marks the absence of a basic reality. This 3rd stage of a Postmodern historiography, a moment when reality begins to disappear, is a paradoxical consequence of the image as it multiplies. Previously modified by the inclusion of an athlete yet to be born, this transition between a perversion of reality, and the beginning of its disappearance, is marked by the inclusion of an image of a sun that theoretically, cannot exist. It follows then that the 3rd stage in the historical progression of the image, that of the disappearance of a basic reality, is a consequence of disjunctive images multiplying to the point where within the mind of the spectator, any connection with an event in the actual world disintegrates. One man jogging somewhere with another man who is yet to be born, beneath a sun that cannot be located in time and space. As disjunctive images recombine and multiply, reality disappears; Long Run’s meta-narrative further develops as Postmodern historiography, that of Baudrillardian theory, and as the 2nd of 5 key characteristics that illuminate critical moments in the historical development of Media art.
Of course, the hiatus between function and design, or the inability of an object such as a chair to be pleasing to the eye and comfortable to the backside simultaneously, was a dilemma faced by the Bauhaus. Attempts at resolving this hiatus between art and craft, artists and artisans, aesthetics and functionality, was a key dilemma instigated by the discovery of electricity and its precursor consequence as a prompt for the development of Media art. The fluorescent tube, as a synthesis of function and design, is a pertinent example of multiplication; or the 2nd key concept that characterises the historical progression of the image, and its development within media art. As an object designed for a specific function, that of allowing people to see in the dark, this same actual function of the fluorescent tube departed from its humble origins and entered the realm of the metaphorical. Because of a multiplication of 2 previously disconnected concepts, the fluorescent tube, by also becoming a functional tool for advertising, extended its reach into the aesthetic realm of representation by its illumination of a metaphysical darkness. (Popper, 10-28, 1993) As advertising became a key component of life in Western capitalist democracies, so too did artists begin to reflect upon its tools. Dan Flavin’s reconfiguration of the gallery space by using coloured fluorescent tubes invoked a contemplative, self-reflexive mood. The very idea of an illuminated darkness was multiplied to include reflections upon the mysteries of the self in relation to a world in exponential transformation. (Collings, 148, 2000) The ad Impossible is Nothing is a culmination of this same rapid mode of technological change. Like the fluorescent tube, its use as a functional tool for advertising is multiplied by the inadvertent inclusion of a meta-narrative that in turn, crosses over into a Postmodern historiography and key conceptual moments in the history of media art.
Poststructuralist formulations such as those advanced by Baudrillard and his theory of the universal simulacrum are attractive because of the paradoxes they propose. The image is shown to be a parasitical entity that by multiplying, initiates its own disappearance. Here, the image moves beyond the 2nd of 5 key conceptual transformations toward the 3rd, that of mutation. The final 2 conceptual transformations of the image as it reconfigures itself, those of benign nihilism and actual simulation, are implicit in mutation; while all 3 occur during a particular moment in the ad Long Run. Consequently, the first 2 conceptual transformations of the image, those of modification and multiplication, are clearly defined as separate entities existing in their own right, and within their own historical lineage. Not surprisingly, the inter-relatedness of mutation, benign nihilism, and actual simulation, requires a subtle analysis that is consistent with the exponential rate of technological change that has characterised pluralist thinking since the later half of the 20th century.
Returning to the ad Long Run for the final time, we reach a point where the recombined figure of Ali makes a proclamation to a camera now in close-up. “I’m here”, says Ali, while shadow boxing with the camera, then delivering an uppercut before announcing “You out Sucker”. From representation of a basic reality to the beginning of its disappearance, this prelude to the image collapsing is also a moment when reality mutates. Previously modified and multiplied, Ali’s proclamation of actual presence means space and time as previously understood have become unrecognisable. If Ali is indeed “Here”, then why is he not the wry, yet silent and somewhat dithering individual disabled by Parkinson's disease ? By announcing his arrival, the ad denounces the existence of representation as a mode of perception. In doing so, Long Run’s meta-narrative illuminates a critical moment in the history of aesthetics. It follows then that the history of aesthetics, that of representation to simulation, cannot be understood without reference to media art.
The moment of transition between the absence of a basic reality, and its collapse into the universal simulacrum, is also a mutation of time and space. Previously modified and multiplied by a digital editing suite that allows for the juxtaposition of historical personages who we know can never have interacted, the temporal-spatial zone within which this interaction now occurs no longer bears any relation to an event that has occurred in the actual world. Momentarily characterised by a benign nihilism, the image, and the temporal-spatial zone the image is comprised of, are annihilated. In a compelling negation of the elements essential for the existence of an environment. the meaning implicit in the image is also destroyed. But as Bataille has shown, the presence of Thanataos is always counter-balanced by the creation of life, and Baudrillard’s simulacrum is no exception. Muhammad Ali, or a figure purporting to be that person, but who no longer contains any trace, nor can be identified with the historical personage the sign ‘Muhammad Ali’ previously represented, announces its presence by claiming to be “Here”. But the “Here” this figure claims to reside within is a zone completely unto itself. By being so, it bears no relation to anything but itself. In transit, the mutating image has passed through a state of benign nihilism before reconfiguring itself as an actual simulation. Just why this moment of nothing is benign, is due to its temporary status. As a moment preceding the creation of an actual simulation, it becomes an historical trace reconstituted as a world created afresh. Long Run, as microcinema, and therefore a work of media art containing a meta-narrative illuminating a Postmodern historiography, also pinpoints a critical moment in aesthetics and the history of media art.
Bibliography
Long Run, produced by Park Pictures, for advertising agency IBO and adidas sportswear, 2004.
Appignanesi, R. & Garrat, C, Postmodernism for Beginners, Allen & Unwin, N.S.W. 1996.
Manovich, L. The Language of New Media, MIT Press, Massachusetts, 2001.
Popper, F. The Roots of Electronic Art, from Art of the Electronic Age, Thames & Hudson, London, 1993.
Collings, M. This is Modern Art, Seven Dials, London, 2000.
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