The Sublime | VR Exhibit

What is the sublime? Traditionally, it was understood via the concepts of grandeur, power, fear, transcendence, awe and stupefaction – but today, one might argue, it is best characterised by a feeling of disembodiment, displacement and chronic anxiety. As we enter ever more uncertain times – both existentially and technologically – the sublime casts a shadow on our future, making us both wonder in anticipation and worry in trepidation. As the two big powers of technology and nature merge, what scary frontiers lie ahead of us? What fascinations await? In the ever flat expanses mediated by digital worlds, we feel at once fearful and in awe, ourselves but also another. As we collectively watch our identity slip through the cracks in our keyboard, we begin to feel the thrill of becoming something new but also the utter fear of becoming something we don’t know. In this dichotomy lies the contemporary and future sublime, and in this amorphous lapse in space, between now and then, us and them, here and there – we open our call to artists from all digital spheres to excite us all with their rendition of “The Sublime”.