We crave authenticity because everything these days is a “simulation” which is very difficult, if not impossible, to decode. Going from advertisement to product-placement, for instance, is a good example of this progression. Ads did not require much decoding; we knew what we were looking at, but now with product placement, it’s very difficult to tell who is paying for what.
I think part of what Warhol did successfully is to deconstruct simulations. His “15 minutes of fame” brought to our attention, the new nature of fame, disconnected from the authentic substance that we assume to be the qualification for fame.
