This video captures a dérive I took with a friend who visited me recently. She had never been to Las Vegas and agreed to take photos of me at the Paris and Luxor hotels for my arts-based research.

Gazing up at the simulacra in the Paris casino, I am reminded of Guy Debord and his concern for the soul of the city. This is so far removed from anything original that it creates its own reality. As Jean Baudrillard wrote in America (1986), “It is a hyperreality.”

We had no plan in mind except to “drift” and discover on foot. Our intention was to look beyond the “tourist gaze, ” and to bring our fully open and embodied attention to whatever called to us.

Before we set out, I had strapped a violin case onto my back, but intuitively left my violin at home. Perhaps I was already feeling the hollow echoes of the Las Vegas attractions.

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