I. Baudrillard, VRML
	A. notes
		1. dissimulate: to pretend not to have what one has
		2. simulate: to pretend to have what one doesnÕt have
		3. example: simulate ÒtrueÓ symptoms of an illness
		4. medicine and army enamored of simulations
		5. duplication makes both  copy and copied  artificial
	B. politics and capital
		1. we now dissimulates scandal
			a. ÒscandalÓ against morality
		2. take up the challenge in the symbolic order, 
	C. causality is possible only in a simulated restricted field of action (manipulation is tinged with complicity)
	D. Strategy of the Real (p 19)
		1. proving the real through the imaginary
		2. parody is no longer possible
		3. news are simulations of news, already inscribed in the decoding and orchestration  of the media
		4. The hyperreal has no specific content or end [telos -xw] and threatens to escape from the order.  [but isnÕt this too optimistic? look atadvertising? CD ROM of the Gulf War...- XW]   TV is the end of the panoptic space, replacing the clear Renaissance optic with a mess of flickering TVÕs, occluded gazes.
		5. PowerÕs only weapon is to re-inject the ÒrealÓ and the  referential.  
	E. The Implosion of Meaning in the [Mass] Media (p 79)
		1. Three hypostheses about the relation between meaning and information
			a. information is negentropy, physics-based view, standard 
			b. information is independent of signification -- Shannon-style code  [ ?  but it seems that people use Shannon thy in a way consistent with belief in the first, ÒoptimisticÓ principle. -xw]
			c. information destroys meaning & significance
				i. It exhausts itself in the act of staging communication
				ii. It participates in the destruction of the social.  Mass media simulates the social
II. Discussion
	A. JJ: Derrida criticizes BÕs notion of simulation because itÕs complicity   
	B. MM:  Contrast this with DeBordeÕs spectacle of capitalism, notion of a ÒcontinuousÓ spectacle.  An example, to illustrate the SituationistsÕ theory, is fashion.   We see high fashion, and a spectacle of advertized fashion, and define our own clothing aesthetics against this spectacle.
	C. JJ: The interest here is a study of desire.   Power by itself is neither good or bad.   Foucault studied the asymmetries of power
	D. Example: can we have ÒpornographyÓ or the erotic, in ÒinteractiveÓ TV?  [Or any such explicitly technologically  mediated communication?]
	E. We are entering a totalizing rhetorics, eg. the genetic code
	F. Simulation freezes a master narrative vs. sub-narrative [eg. VRML vs behaviors scripted within it - xw]
	G. Art can be viewed as that which breaks norms, eg of rational expectation, of the logic of use-value.
	H. Can we have jazz-VR?
	I. XW: Shall we explore what it is to distinguish between bricks and clay in VR?    Bricks have a prescribed structure, and implicitly a prescribed order
	J. MG:  Using MAX (nusic synthesis system), I see this difference.   I work with algorithms -- clay -- and others prefere to use sound-samples -- bricks.   But itsÕs really a difference in style of work.   I like too flexibility.
	K. next week, weÕll look at C. AlexanderÕs A Pattern Language, and 
	L. XW:  Aside from Òarchitecture,Ó another issue is the representation of the self in VR.   VR designers are debating whether and how you see yourself (avatar) in this scripted reality.        How much of your bodey do you want?
	M. DM: Avatar?  Avatar etymologically means that which comes before..   IÕd prefer to think of myself as primary and those representations of me as ... 
	N. agents, emissaries, proxies
	O. DM:Looking at the transcript of these VR design discussions,a dn the posters in the second floor Sweet Hall consultants, it seems that the imaginative matrix of these people is that of Tolkien.   A kind of infantile fantasy.
	P. What are some interesting applications of VR?  To visit the Amazon?  To have deferred experience, or experiences that could never be siumulated in non-digital world?
	Q. BH:  Alexander is useful because he gets beyond this clay/brick choice, which is too low level, and not a very useful distinction.