The future is hyperreal

PHOTOGRAPHY

Mar 27

Shane Lim’s ongoing series The future is hyperreal is a response to hyperreality. He creates tension by blurring the lines between natural and unnatural, to arrive somewhere neither real nor unreal through the juxtaposition of nature as subject and its distortion through digital process.

Text and Photography Shane Lim

From Baudrillard's 'Simulacra and Simulations'

"These would be the successive phases of the image:

It is the reflection of a basic reality.
It masks and perverts a basic reality.
It masks the absence of a basic reality.
It bears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum.

In the first case, the image is a good appearance: the representation is of the order of sacrament. In the second, it is an evil appearance: of the order of malefice. In the third, it plays at being an appearance: it is of the order of sorcery. In the fourth, it is no longer in the order of appearance at all, but of simulation."

“To create tension in blurring the lines between natural and unnatural, to arrive somewhere neither real nor unreal.”

About Shane

Shane Lim (b. 1993) graduated from the National Film and Television School with an MA in Directing Fiction.

His debut short film November premiered at the 25th Singapore International Film Festival and was later nominated for the Golden Reel for best short film at the 31st Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. In 2019, November was added to the Asian Short Film Archive in the University of Toronto’s Mississauga Library.

He has since made numerous shorts, among them a trio of films experimenting with hybrid forms – together, they reflect the impact of social media in the lives of young people. Vessel premiered on Vimeo's ‘Staff Picks’, #L4L screened at the 31st Filmfest-Dresden and Into the Ripple received a nomination for best student film at the 5th Birmingham Film Festival.

His first music video for Rina Sawayama’s Alterlife, conceptualised and shot in 24 hours, premiered on VICE and was later featured on VOGUE, THE VINYL FACTORY and KALTBLUT.

As a director, he seeks emotional truth and grounds daring experimentation in heartfelt storytelling. His work aims to provoke questions about culture and society with the hope of creating dialogue to encourage change.

To see more of his work, visit his website, follow him on Instagram or check out his Vimeo channel

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Christian Trippe

The future is hyperreal

Shane Lim’s ongoing series The future is hyperreal is a response to hyperreality. He creates tension by blurring the lines between natural and unnatural, to arrive somewhere neither real nor unreal through the juxtaposition of nature as subject and its distortion through digital process.

“To create tension in blurring the lines between natural and unnatural, to arrive somewhere neither real nor unreal.”

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