Tag: simulacra

• Trump l’Oeil

  February 23, 2025

  I BEGAN WRITING this after I saw the photos of Donald Trump working at McDonald’s. Like many, I was struck by how much the images, with their bizarre aesthetics and surreal content,… more ›

• Inside the Delirious Rise of ‘Superfake’ Handbags

  May 7, 2023

  Once upon a time, the legend goes, Theseus slew the Minotaur and sailed triumphantly home to Athens on a wooden ship. The vessel was preserved by Athenian citizens, who continually… more ›

• Choose Reality While You Still Can

  September 27, 2022

  But what happens in an age when cultural content is generated and consumed in such great amounts that most of a person’s reality consists of consuming content? And what happens when… more ›

• The Strange, Soothing World of Instagram’s Computer-Generated Interiors

  May 10, 2021

  The spaces project order and calm, and rely on a visual vocabulary of affluence, indulgence, and restraint. They are uncluttered and private; welcoming but undamaged by human use. They are… more ›

• Shared (un)Realities

  February 28, 2021

  Photo by Donald Giannatti on Unsplash “The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Parmenides taught that the only things that are real are things which never change… and the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus… more ›

• Synthetic Media

  November 15, 2020

  While we’re seeing a reduction in time consumers spend watching TV and consuming other so-called “old media,” that decline is being offset by increases in time spent with digital media.… more ›

• A Business With No End

  January 6, 2019

  Recently, one of my students at Stanford told me a strange story. His parents, who live in Palo Alto, Calif., had been receiving mysterious packages at their house. The packages… more ›