Baudrillard, for all of his received criticisms, did contribute to an amalgam that is neither modernist nor post-modernist philosophy. He recognized the power of the symbol or “sign,” the first and ever-lasting universal language of humankind. The above is a latter day cave painting with, of course, high resolution and showgirl feathers. Yet, it is far less compelling than a primitive expression. The photograph IS more primitive just not expressing significance.

Considering Baudrillard’s “sign value” versus “symbolic value,” the above image is neither poetic or artistic. It is a sign. A cellular phone could have recorded the above. The photographer was, in fact, the camera and this is the new vehicle of fast-food expression, along with it’s numerous technological relatives. Diversity has waned with such “quick” art that is highly “media-ized” and sold to the vast numbers of those who may never knew art at all if not for the art of the “media medium genre.” In the future, mass reproduction of such “art” by scripted media tools and revenue producing methods may be later called “the murder of art.”

Jean Baudrillard did, at least, recognize the power inherent in the mass-produced symbol or sign. These are today’s “cave paintings,” but are not hidden in caves. The are used to sell commodities. Look around: the corporate logos are a fine example of a streamlined systematic representations, signs, of services or products.

Baudrillard’s chief critics argue against complete virtualization–his simulated world of “hyperreality.” Where are we truly heading? Al Gore recently appeared as a hologram to a mass of rock concert goers. Was he live or was he Memorex? You decide. The hologram’s reproductive image of Gore was more visually exact than if he were in direct physical view of the person closest to the reproduction. Art?

“Media-ization ” has taken certain casualties. Even the media’s own casts and crews cannot be blamed for doing the will of their employers, performing their jobs. Insofar as atrophying human expression, the media is more akin to a slow neuro-degenerative disease versus a quick destabilizing blow to the occipital, visual center of the human central processing unit. There is one exception: a child’s rapidly growing central nervous system that is flooded with such redundancy.

Rarely reached summits of human expression in traditional literature, poetry, and all art forms are rare finds. Are these being extincted in favor of mass-produced and media-propelled “opinions-of-the-moment” which shall perish, unlike classic, original art?

Media and the “capitalism” that the early Baudrillard leveled aim to has given a blow to richly expressive and precious art of all mediums. The proverbial death blow? Not yet.

Lastly, the West’s “computer generation” will have difficulty in conceiving and creating rich, expressive art. Future art is foreshadowed by “Kylie’s” picture above. Baudrillard’s sell, here, has a ring of truth: machines produce machines. By extrapolation, machines produce assembly-line machine similes of expression. Hyperbole? Perhaps. Alternatively, Baudrillard, like so many before him, was ahead of his day.