Introductory Statement

Increasingly, culture operates based on a sophisticated, invisible layer of data that may or may not relate to the physical world, and which leaves a “worldly residue” behind as machines alter our lived experience. This residue contributes to a wide variety of real world impacts. In addition there is a growing appreciation in the mainstream for the partial, procedural aesthetics produced by internet culture, from animated .gifs, RGB palettes, filters, to cats, unicorns, hair smiles and ugly selfies. What are the current effects of how the physical and the digital are entwined and what are the implications for the future? What does this blending of spheres mean for politics, aesthetics and the social world?