The Red Pill or the Blue Pill

In 1916 Eric Satie performed his work 'musique d'ameublement', literally furniture music; music heard but not listened to. It was the first ever muzak; Satie foreseeing the time when our lives would be filled with unheeded music. While ignoring this contemporary sound track most of the time, we are conscious that it is there, neutered, affecting our moods, altering our behaviour - driving us to consume. This musical accompaniment is a new phenomenon - less than one hundred years old; in a same period of time, the textual has become furniture text, text seen but not read - logos, signs, advertisements, labels - affecting our moods, altering our behaviour, constructing our experience of reality.

MORPHEUS: I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice. Tumbling down the rabbit hole?

NEO: You could say that.

MORPHEUS: I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he's expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know, you can't explain. But you feel it. You felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. Like a splinter in your mind - driving you mad. In every moment of your waking life you can see a text - this page. Look ...