Where are the individuals of today? What has happened to original intimacy, the humanization of our being? How do we identify and actualise ourselves? How does one substantiate the originality of an encounter? Is there real worth in this new system?

There has emerged a technological system for living. Our beings are represented through symbols, logos and simulated reality. Society organizes and categorizes us then provides opportunities for encounters within a virtual context. Our existence is over-rationalized, over-politicized and over-consumed. This has become our system of living; our life-program. Rather than relationships with others we seek relationships with machines, simulated reality and reflections of being. Diversity of personality fades away. Social encounters become homogenized.

Nietzsche suggests that less-developed organisms are those that need to be in permanent contact with one another to exist. Rather than being able to reflect in solitude and search for meaning within oneself, these organisms must be connected for their own survival...surviving in a cyber-world attached by sensationalized sound bites and regurgitated images. We are connected, but the question becomes urgent, connected to what? We live enclosed by data, measurements and categorized existence. Most come to us without any clear-cut attribution of authorship. Reworkings of media society have become central aspects of how pop-culture operates. Reality has been transformed into mere statistics where computer programs determine our being.

Walter Benjamin discusses art in relation to this technology. He notes that "the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice--politics." This new technological system lends itself especially well to the political function of art, without the traditional confines of authorship or authenticity. Art is a way to reencounter this actuality in the search for understanding, communication and the reaffirmation of our identity. An artistic image is one that acts as a symbol of reality. It can make possible a new and intelligent social conversation.