The media landscape of the present day is a map in search of a territory. A huge volume of sensational and often toxic imagery inundates our minds$$$ much of it fictional in content. How do we make sense of this ceaseless flow of advertising and publicity

The media landscape of the present day is a map in search of a territory. A huge volume of sensational and often toxic imagery inundates our minds$$$ much of it fictional in content. How do we make sense of this ceaseless flow of advertising and publicity$$$ news and entertainment$$$ where presidential campaigns and moon voyages are presented in terms indistinguishable from the launch of a new candy bar or deodorant? What actually happens on the level of our unconscious minds when$$$ within minutes on the same TV screen$$$ a prime minister is assassinated$$$ an actress makes love$$$ an injured child is carried from a car crash? Faced with these charged events$$$ prepackaged emotions already in place$$$ we can only stitch together a set of emergency scenarios$$$ just as our sleeping minds extemporize a narrative from the unrelated memories that veer through the cortical night. In the waking dream that now constitutes everyday reality$$$ images of a blood-spattered widow$$$ the chromium trim of a limousine windshield$$$ the stylised glamour of a motorcade$$$ fuse together to provide a secondary narrative with very different meanings.