
By Misha Neal
Over the course of this past year, what used to be easily defined boundaries have since become blurred. We work where we sleep and we sleep where we work. We attend class from our kitchen tables. We live online now, and virtual space is somewhere we go—a place where we seek community, connection, and exchange as a balm to our increased isolation. More people have had opportunities to engage with otherwise exclusive and inaccessible events and content. And in exchange, we’ve made ourselves more virtually accessible, too. What does this expanded access do for us? Does the power to stop, rewind, replay, or speed up reality leave us with more control, or less?
The works featured in “Virtual/Reality” explore this tension, providing us with a more nuanced understanding of technology’s impact in our lives today. Like Lisha Chen in Butter Keyboard, they lean into the slipperiness between virtuality and reality—asking us to question how the increasing intrusion of technology into our lives impacts us. The artists here refuse to categorize this change as inherently good or evil, but rather ask us to be present with paradox.
Over the course of this past year, what used to be easily defined boundaries have since become blurred. We work where we sleep and we sleep where we work. We attend class from our kitchen tables. We live online now, and virtual space is somewhere we go—a place where we seek community, connection, and exchange as a balm to our increased isolation. More people have had opportunities to engage with otherwise exclusive and inaccessible events and content. And in exchange, we’ve made ourselves more virtually accessible, too. What does this expanded access do for us? Does the power to stop, rewind, replay, or speed up reality leave us with more control, or less?
The works featured in “Virtual/Reality” explore this tension, providing us with a more nuanced understanding of technology’s impact in our lives today. Like Lisha Chen in Butter Keyboard, they lean into the slipperiness between virtuality and reality—asking us to question how the increasing intrusion of technology into our lives impacts us. The artists here refuse to categorize this change as inherently good or evil, but rather ask us to be present with paradox.
By: Misha Neal
The works featured in “Virtual/Reality” explore this tension, providing us with a more nuanced understanding of technology’s impact in our lives today. Like Lisha Chen in Butter Keyboard, they lean into the slipperiness between virtuality and reality—asking us to question how the increasing intrusion of technology into our lives impacts us. The artists here refuse to categorize this change as inherently good or evil, but rather ask us to be present with paradox.
By: Misha Neal