Panel Statement

To go beyond the range or grasp of human experience, or reason or belief are simple definitions of the verb to transcend. We are often encouraged to consider the global transient network of digital media as a portal to some form of transformation, either of ourselves or at least our virtual selves. It may be that at the point at which we are in danger of being overwhelmed, where there is an almost felt violence, the terror of the encounter of looking over the precipice, a State of Emergence, there is a sublime experience. Does the immensity, complexity, impenetrability of digital infrastructures fill you with existential vertigo? Does the enhanced awareness of our rational ability to navigate, direct and even circumscribe the flow of electronic bits re-affirm your human spirit? Transcendence is often hinted at as a key feature of the sublime experience. Transcendence, in that there is a sense of ourselves to be a part of, within and surrounding that which overwhelms. Is this potential for transcendence an intrinsic aspect of a virtual environment that needs to be envisaged?

• Taylor Nuttall, UK, is an artist who makes regular transitions from rural idyll to cosmopolitan sprawl, personal intimate space to online virtual space, keyboard coding to sublime aesthetics. Having developed a series of Internet based projects Taylor is currently researching at Manchester Metropolitan University and is interested in factors within virtual environments that may be considered to transcend content, technical structure and modes of navigation. Lecturing in Art and Design for the last four years Taylor will be taking up a new post as Divisional Leader in Computing Imaging. The post will be based at MANCAT in Manchester from August 1998. Taylor also provides training in VRML and continues to participate in collaborative projects with IDEA. This summer Taylor will also be taking part in the vr@vr2 workshop in Rotterdam and a Virtual Worldworkshop at the Mappin Gallery, Sheffield.
• Gurdon Leete, USA, mum.edu/dlmfa-team/gurdy-leete
• Anna Bonshek, USA, mum.edu/why-study-here/about-our-graduates/alumni-profiles/anna-bonshek
• Roman Verostko, USA, Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Executive Director ISEA93 (FISEA’93) verostko.com