The paradox of the billboard lies in its presence as a larger than life representation outwardly projecting the absence of a lifestyle in the mind of the consumer. The measure of this paradox is an issue of scale. The larger the billboard and the more it extends its matrix over the city, the more it exacts a multiplication of absent lifestyles in the minds of many consumers. Purchase of the displayed commodity only goes so far in filling this absence. Of course, when we buy a bottle of Evian, all that we consume is water. We never really experience the decadence of the supermodel who bathes in a tub of what we now drink. What we then posses through purchase is not a lifestyle, but only the commodity whose proximity now defines the distance between ourselves and the flattened surface of the billboard. We get the feeling that we are on track, but not quite there. Thus it can be said that the matrix of billboards forms a network of negative feedback that sustains its presence in the fabric of a city. (09/02/01)