It’s hard to say if Desert X anticipated this or it worried them, but it seemed like they weren’t crazy about all the influencers posing in front of the house. Signs were posted around the house stating “no professional photo shoots,” although what is a professional photo shoot anymore? Marketing agencies charge companies six figure sums for social media campaigns shot on iPhone 7’s while influencers get their boyfriends or husbands to photograph them with Canon Digital Rebels set in “A” mode to post to their Tinder and Bumble profiles to gain followers on Instagram.

The latter was in prime form at Mirage, along with a lot of other people there to observe and experience the space. I could not help but chuckle though as there was simply no way to photograph this space without other people in your shot. Even if you got a split second of a view with nobody in it, people behind you and to the sides were reflected in the mirrors.

I imagine that prior to installation here, Mirage may have been assembled in a studio. That would have been something to see. Smooth, crisp, perfectly reflective panels can be seen on Aitken’s site, when it was first installed in Palm Springs. Untouched by people or elements, you can imagine James Bond and Scaramanga hunting each other in this house. The elements, and people, had taken their toll on Mirage by the time I got there. Some panels had warped and bubbled. Others were dented, and surfaces were covered in smudges, scratches, and fingerprints from the thousands who had come through, touching everything. But to have seen this fresh would have been incredible.