Stuck in Realness

Stuck in Realness is a simulated environment into which Ricardo Nemeye van Wijk invites the viewer to navigate virtually. It explores the symbolic meaning of architecture. The project seeks to  delineate the gravity of glorified commercial architecture’s visual representation. It presents a visual and sonic spatial construction of the four phases of Simulacra, a theory defined by Jean Baudrillard.

A simulacrum is a simulated reality that is alienated from its original existence, or, unmoored from what it was constructed to represent. Nemeye van Wijk programmed four scenes into the digital space of the game called “Apparitions” that aim to amplify and project the Simulacral order. Stuck in Realness foregrounds the strong connection between the constructed nature of architecture and the symbolic manner in which these systems make meaning.