14 on using actual materials in building the improbable architectural spaces that emerged through dialogue with the machine was such that they used mesh fabric to simulate digital noise. By doing so, they recreated the abstract essence of the digital in a tangible material way. It is worthwhile recalling the words of digital culture critic Katherine Hayles, who discussed, more than two decades ago, the ethical implications of being infatuated with the virtual while ignoring the flesh and blood essence of humanity. In her book How We Became Posthuman (1999)4, she warns that even in the posthuman age, it is dangerous to ignore the existential fact that humans are, and will remain, physically embodied. Hayles warns that if we are tempted to perceive the biological body as nothing but “an accident of history,”5 we will end up ignoring the essential human vulnerability. Culture researcher Sherryl Vint also stressed the vital need to preserve our awareness of the 4 N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman; Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1999). 5 Ibid., p. 2. 6 Sherryl Vint, Bodies of Tomorrow (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007). material body in the posthuman age, if we are to maintain ethical responsibility for people who are hampered by flawed or otherwise vulnerable bodies. In other words, Vint stressed the importance of preserving moral responsibility for our fellow humans, even when the body, with its limitations and suffering, seems no longer relevant to our existence.6 The collages displayed in the row of lit gallery niches do not conceal their seams and cuts, nor do they aspire to a perfect digital finish. They are manmade, or rather handmade, by artist Shirley Wegner, whose hands may have trembled a little when she cut and glued layers of fabric and paper into a wooden niche. Closely viewing the images and the video reveals their underlying human imperfection. The onlooker, standing a little farther from the stained-glasslike lit niches reminiscent of a house of prayer, detects a poetic, even sublime tone that insists on remaining human even in a posthuman age.
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