Las Vegas - A Postmodern City

Las Vegas is the opposite of many American cities which conform in uniformed space where all the Cities look the same, subsisting in a hyperreality in which nothing is real, or has any attachment to the once existed. Las Vegas represents a themed space and Baudrilliard theory of Simulations and Signs. Within Las Vegas there is no originality, everything is a copy of a copy. Walking down the main strip of Las Vegas affectively you could visit Paris where there is the Eiffel tower which is half the size of the original; this is just one example of a simulation represented in this themed urban space. Las Vegas if often portrayed as an Adults Disney Land which is an escape from reality. Thus, everything in Las Vegas exists as a simulation of a reality that is in fact not real. This then demonstrates the simulacrum of society through the false portrayals of Americanism that Las Vegas proudly displays. Its casinos are built in themes that themselves do not exist in the real, they are instead hollow buildings that give a false identity within a false reality. Las Vegas strip is surrounded by a sprawl that reinstates the post modern character of the City. Looking at all of this reinforces the idea as Las Vegas being a contemporary post modern city within America which could interestingly be compared to the city of Los Angeles.

Here is a good website with an interesting view of Las Vegas being postmodern: its called 'Las Vegas: Postmodern City of Casinos and simulations.'

http://www.transparencynow.com/vegas.htm