The stage watches itself being a stage, the mirror reflects the mirror reflecting, the performance performs its own performance. We’re not just acting — we’re acting the part of someone who knows they’re acting, watching ourselves watch ourselves, aware of our awareness until the layers stack so high we can’t remember which one is real. The image generates an image of itself generating, and that becomes the image, which then images itself imaging. Every gesture is a gesture about gesturing, every moment of authenticity a performance of performing authenticity. We’ve built a hall of mirrors where each reflection is also a mirror, and we’re standing in the center, spinning, trying to find the original surface while knowing that maybe there never was one, that it’s been recursion all the way down, the copy of the copy of the copy dissolving into infinite regression .