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There is no doubt of the sheer possibility for aesthetic municipal living that the city of Venice demonstrates but it is a proposition that is today compromised. It is a living, breathing city but now its infrastructure exists solely to promote a very evident but resolutely past glory. Essentially a living museum, what was once an icon of power with an influence that resonated around the World now has more in common with a fairground sideshow.

We have become so used to seeing the repetition of its memes across our communication media that it now seems tempting to think that all its buildings might actually be a facade, like a film set or theme park. Indeed the way the buildings weather seems hyper-real.

But despite the over saturation of an image, artifice is not a criticism that can be levelled at Venice. Instead it perhaps becomes another definition of the simulcrum; a projected image that is an amplified version of a reality, that by repetition makes the original less authentic.