Panel Statement

Panel: Bio-Architectures, Virtual Cities: The Revolutionary Human-Machine Community

Colours, textures, shapes, sounds and motion are the building blocks for the new digital artist. Understanding the meanings of colours in other cultures is but one of many examples of what is required to effectively convey our emotions to this new and diverse audience, What are the commonalties? What taboos exist? Should we strive to preserve the diversity or will a global language develop? Do we, as artists, have any control over this cultural globalisation? In the recent past, digital art has often been criticized as being cold and mostly deprived of emotional substance. The Internet has also added a new global dimension to art, it has become an outlet for the works of artists and a chance to learn from contemporaries and old masters. Individuals, east and west, north and south. although with unequal means, now have the ability to share their artmaking and interact with geographically distant artists. This global network offers an unprecedented opportunity to learn from other cultures. How can we. as artists, convey our feelings effectively if we do not understand the various cultural codes of our audience? Examples exploring these issues will be presented in order to illustrate the concepts involved in this topic.

• Andre Plante & Inoue Seiko (Japan), ATR Research Laboratories, Kyoto