See also: mimesis.
“Storytelling is the imitation of an action.”
– Aristotle
When I began to work with 3D software – this was around 2004, 2005 – I quickly developed a new way of looking at the world. 3D software is fantastically equipped to render simulations of real-world situations, whether these are forces of nature (gravity, wind, waves), atmospheric lighting, or materials. The computer is capable of achieving extreme realism, making it sometimes very difficult for people to distinguish between ‘real’ or simulated scenes.
A skeuomorph is a design element that retains the visual form of its predecessor even though this form no longer serves a functional purpose. A classic example is the digital recycle bin icon, which resembles a physical wastepaper basket even though nothing is literally being thrown away. Similarly, the early interfaces of smartphones used textures such as leather, wood and paper to make unfamiliar digital tools seem more intuitive. In physical design, examples include decorative rivets on jeans and moulded wood-grain plastic on car dashboards.
Imitation and simulation in art
In art, ‘imitation’ is generally coupled with something fake, a falsehood, a display of fraudulence. A copy is seen as inferior to the original, which is labelled as ‘authentic’, or ‘unique’. This is at odds with digital media, where unlimited copy-ability is one of its main features, to the point that there is no original to speak of. Despite the notion of imitations being artificial, unnatural – unreal – “manipulative and deceptive signaling does occur widely in nature.” Think of butterfly wings that resemble predator eyes.
Simulation and imitation make a prominent appearance in the cognitive sciences through the fairly recent research on mirror neurons. Mirror neurons have been observed in primates, birds, and to some extent in rodents, but in humans they have evolved to trigger happy gunslingers. They fire when we are presented with the execution of a familiar action: “we think, remember, and imagine by mentally stimulating or reactivating elements of what we have previously perceived, understood, enacted, and experienced.” Our brain is a simulation machine, and interestingly it does not seem to matter much whether a stimulus takes place in real-life or on-screen: they fire nonetheless. The research on mirror neurons helps to understand traits such as empathy, but also the appeal of art forms.
“We are wired for emotional contagion” according to literary scholar Brian Boyd, a property that causes an “inability to suppress a response.” It means that we are easily fooled: we simply cannot help ourselves. The intentional willingness to be fooled is an integral part of much of the entertainment industry, from cinema to amusement parks. It is the ‘suspension of disbelief’ required for the immersion in a story.
Introducing a level of realism helps to ease the viewer into the deception. Familiarity lowers the bar for imitative mental representations. It is a trick that hinges on the evocation of a sense of wonder through near-real simulations.
The execution of digital 3D animated scenes in my works is far from perfect – I am working within the technical means and limits of consumer electronics – but to my surprise people regularly ask me where I filmed certain scenes.
Brian Boyd, On the Origin of Stories, p. 156, 160, 189.
