Whether browsing the internet, playing a videogame, checking social media, or wearing a VR headset, users entering online spheres assume they are stepping away from reality. Why are digital experiences so often thought of as existing outside of real life?

The international group of artists in Ghosts of the Machine reminds us that despite its otherworldly lustre, cyberspace cannot be separated from the “real world”. It is an extension of our societies, economy, and ecosphere. Through the glowing interfaces associated with digital media, these artists constantly point back to the world offline. By defying the imaginary boundary between online and offline worlds, they slip across other made-up binaries: between human versus nonhuman, technology versus nature. They reveal how these things do not exist in opposition to each other, but are in fact continuous and fluidly interconnected.

Featuring work by Ho Tzu Nyen, Juliana Huxtable, Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Lu Yang, Skawennati, Santiago Tamayo Soler, and T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss.

Banner Image: Lu Yang, Heaven Realm #1 (detail), 2021