Art and Technology: An Innocent Relation or a Dangerous Affair?

The technology has brought into our lives new means of expression, on which artists picked up very quickly and exploited in their work. Latest developments in sensor networks, robotics and visual technologies have stimulated various attempts to fuse the technology with the human body, either as a scientific experiment or as a new means of artistic expression. We perceive this merger of Art with Technology as a necessary and unavoidable result of our contemporary societies, considering at the same time Art as the means of the human expression. In this work we follow the way in which Art integrates with modern technologies, starting from Telepresence and Telematic Art towards the Cyborg Performance and Second Life like experiences. By examining the fusion of Science, Technology, Art and the Human Body we analyse the social effects that might result from such a fusion. We may notice that the growing use of technology in Art advances the communication between people, but at the same time separates audiences from performers. Virtual technologies offer illusionistic worlds and exciting experiences but they often alienate the actor from his stage and the spectator from his spectacle. We ask a question: is the merger of Art and the Technology an innocent relation or a dangerous affair?