I am sitting in a room. Roni Horn is speaking about her work. I know it’s not deja vu. When did I hear her speak before?

If you’d like to see and hear the Baudrillard talk I webcast last week, it’s up now. He’s pretty interesting: one of the few people talking about the shape of our world in macro. Know that bit in the first Matrix movie where Neo opens a book with the pages cut out to retrieve some disks for the mescaline guy? The book is Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard.

Some of the stuff we’ve been reading has a strong alienating, disorienting effect. Dream Worlds, Mass Consumption may have put me off television commercials for good. I want to make my brother read a bit of it — and some Adorno on consumer ‘choice’ — to understand why I shout at the television. Now this Baudrillard stuff makes me wonder what I’m doing when I sink into my laptop everyday.

Imagine living before photos, moving images, telecommunications and motorized transportation. Just try. It’s hard. Share it with me in the comments or email me if you feel like it.