Cyborg 1997

The digital communications era is well documented and indeed often over-hyped. The potential for the expansion of the perception of human reality through the use of virtual reality has been the subject of science fiction for many years. The last few years have seen a rapid acceleration in the possibilities afforded by contemporary technology, and the advances are symbiotic with the fiction.

This piece represents the personality of a human being as projected into a simulated computer reality. The underlying fabric of the simulation provides a canvas upon which the personality can be realized. However, the personality is not physically present, it is merely a pattern woven into the fabric, a flow of data maintaining the presence of the human in the simulation.

On a more futuristic level, it might be possible one day to directly connect the brain into a computer interface, so that emotional experiences could be shared through some new language or medium of communication, represented here by the flow of colour and texture through the otherwise regular matrix. While devoid of the rough and gelatinous interactions of the human flesh, perhaps a higher level of intellectual and spiritual interaction could be achieved using this new medium.

However, some people perceive this new reality to be terrifying and littered with new fears of government control and loss of identity, represented by the cage-like bars framing the face. The new human body will become encased in invasive implants and devices in order to facilitate the interface to the new reality, in the same way that the new digital body will become both host and simultaneously be composed of its new individual personalities.