technobodies, that is avatars, telepresence makes multiple spaces of experience possible. These spaces may have a contradictory design and evoke contrary experiences. Reality, states quantum physics, is always a product of observations. Now, a technical arrangement makes distance and proximity coincide in real time, which means: I am there where I am not and I experience sensory certainty of this against my better judgment.

Evolution: Genetic art

Recently artist-scientists like Thomas Ray, Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau or Karl Sims have simulated processes of life: evolution, breeding and selection have become methods for creating art. With the aid of genetic algorithms, the scenic and immersive image worlds generated by computers are given the semblance of being alive. The debate on genetics and artificial life, or A-Life, which was at first confined to the life sciences, acquired models, visions and images from art that have become visual points of reference

and catalysts in this controversial debate. Sommerer and Mignonneau are perhaps the most well known exponents of genetic art, which seeks to integrate the forms, processes and effects of life into art. In conjunction with the visual principle of immersion, this comparatively young branch of digital art has begun to play an increasingly important role in the production of illusions. From the beginning, naturalism has dominated the work of Sommerer and Mignonneau. Over 100 work exhibitions worldwide since 1992 document their success. Perhaps more than any others, these artists represent a form of art that, at an advanced technological level, engages with the upheavals wrought in contemporary art by the revolutions in image media and bioscience. Their exotic and voluminous image worlds are populated by a myriad of life forms: amoebas, tropical rainforest scenes, picturesque swarms of butterflies, or brightly colored microorganisms. Their unique aesthetics distinguishes their works, for example, «The Interactive Plant Growing» (1992–1993), «Phototropy» (1994–1997),