F I L M / V I D E O / M U L T I M E D I A / A R T

fifth experimenta media arts festival issue

W O M E N ® A R T . I E C H N O L O G Y . A U S U P P L E M E

Journal of Experimenta Media A r t s No, 10, Spring, 1996

Annual Subscription

3 issues, $15. $25 international, $5 members

Commissioning Editor Shiralee Saul

Sub-editor Vii ginia Maxwell

Designer John Bleaney

Y o u r P lace o r M i n e ! Locating Digital A r t 1

Darren Tofts

M E S H i n t e r v i e w s P e t e r H a n d s a k e r , Director of exper imenta media arts festival 1996 6

S t r a n g l e d b y a n I n t e s t i n e 8 (Being a general prolegomenon on the word of Guy Maddin, filmmaker and to Archangel, his latest origination.) Darren Wershler-Henr/

S i l v e r D e l i r i u m / C r i m e s a n d C o n f e s s i o n s 12 Marie Craven

Contents

Experimenta Staff

Festival Director Peter Handsaker

Festival Sponsorship Coordinator Caroline Mazza

Festival Assistant Sally Tulloch

General Manager Amelia King

Program Director Shiralee Saul

Experimenta Board of Management Antonia Bnjns (Chairperson)

Paul Kalina Nick Pullen

Anna Funder Peter Hughes John Gilman

Sonia Harford Marcus Breen

Experimenta Office

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Articles represent the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the editor or publishers. This magazine may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the copyright owners. All material is copyright of the authors and/or Expenmenta.

Expenmenta is grateful for the continuing support of Arts Victona in publishing this journal. It is also grateful for the support of the Australian Film Commission to produce the women@art,technology.au supplement.

Experimenta acknowledges the financial support of Pnncipal Sponsor, the Australian Film Commission. Major Sponsors, Cinemedia-Film Victona, Multimedia Victoria and Arts Victoria. Sponsors, NETS[yic) , eMerge, City of Melbourne, City of Port Phillip, Pegasus Networks, Apple Computers, A F C Women's Program, Open Channel, Tnple R Broadcasters, Brashs, Elbex Australia, SKA-TV, Audio Visual Australia, Microtouch, Ism. Marc Pascal Design, Sud Design, Victorian Design Group, Rivet, Smitka Design, MAP, RMIT School of Fine Art , Love Adhesives, Wesfi , Rina Bernabel, Ruth McDermott in presenting expenmenta media arts festival I 996.

S t a n B r a k h a g e R e t r o s p e c t i v e Peter Mudie I S

T o See T h r o u g h So i l ed Eyes ; Rcha rd K e m 17 Lance Sinclair

C D - R O M t h e 2 1 s t C e n t u r y B r o n z e 18 (reprinted with permission from the MCA Catalogue for Burning the Interface) Mike ieggeU

L i s t e n i n g as P e r f o r m a n c e : T h e Reflective Space 2 4 Lawrence Harvey

Reviews

A U S T R A U A N . F ILM

COMMISS ION

w o m e n @ a r t . t e c h n o l o g y . a u

A u s t r a l i a n W o m e n A r t i s t s a n d N e w M e d i a T e c h n o l o g i e s Kathy Cleland

I n t e r a c t i v i t y , I n t e r s u b j e c t i v i t y a n d t h e A r t w o r k / N e t w o r k Zoe Sofoulis

S o u n d , E l e c t r i c i t y a n d W o m e n Deborah Durie

D o m e s t i c D i s t u r b a n c e s (or Prometheus Housebound) Shiralee Saul

M a r t i n e C o r o m p t ' s C u t e M a c h i n e s Helen Stuckey

J u n - A n n Lam's N o r t h E a s t S o u t h W e s t - t h e Y e l l o w Per i l V i r u s Liso Daniel

A l i s o n Main's T e c h n o - G r a m m a r Hala Starr

S a r a h W a t e r s o n ' s M a p p i n g E~Mot ion Zoe Sofoulis

T h e B o d y R e m e m b e r s Zara Stanhope

R e - p o s s e s s i n g t h e B o d y Josephine Grieve

cinemedia

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5 9 100 Y e a r s of C r u e l t y : A r t a u d C o n f e r e n c e Antonia Bruns

6 0 i m p a c t @ 6 m o n t h s . c o n f Gillian Morrison

6 2 D ig i ta l G u m b o : S I G G R A P H Simon Britton

6 3 L a u r e n Tan ' s O c t o g e n e Kurt Bereton

6 5 N o r i e N u e m a r k ' s Separation Anxiety

Deborah Durie

6 6 G a r t h Pa ine & C r a i g M a d o c ' s MQMi

an Intelligent Virtual Environment

James Rowland

6 7 S u z a n n e T r i e s t e r ' s Dying for Your Sins

Catiiono Murtagh

6 9 A n g e l a V a l m a n e s h ' s Calculations a n d D e b o r a h O s t r o w ' s Where to From Here

Alison Main

f r o n t c o v e r i n s e t : Mart ine C o r o m p t ,

Cute Macliine,

1996

ISBN 1326-8694

Australian artists K a t h y C l e l a n d

Kathy Cleland is a Sydney-based writer and curator.

U n t i l recent ly , the word ' t echnology ' typ ica l ly conjured up images of industr ial machinery and mi l i t a ry hardware, but new computer-based information and communication technologies have made us realise afresh that technology also has a more insubstantial dimension—one that includes social relationships and interactionsas well as hardware. In this context it is important to remember that one of humanity's earliest and most crucial technologies was that of spoken and written language.

T h e most recent developments in this lineage of

communicative technologies is the modem-connected

computer and the phenomenon of the Internet. Sherry

T u r k i c descr ibes the computer as the def in ing

technology of our time, an 'object to think with'. ' T h e

post-industrial information age is a Net-worked era

where people communica te w i th ' i n t e l l i g e n t '

machines and, perhaps more importantly, with each other through these machines . T h e increasing frequency and intimacy of our interactions with new technologies are redefining what it means to be human.

Australian women artists, writers and curators ha\'e taken a leading role in examining the possibilities and challenges that these new technologies present. Just why the Australian climate has produced such a strong contingent of women working in the new media arts is open to speculation. Francesca Da Rimini comments: ' . . . I can only surmise that the conditions for replication of the aberrant cyberfeminist virus were perfect here in Oz . . . i t does help having fearless funding agencies and curators and publishers who are supportive of work which is culturally and politically challenging'.-

It is clear that organisations such as A N A T (Australian N e t w o r k for Ar t and T e c h n o l o g y ) , the A F C (Aust ra l ian F i l m Clommission) and the Australia (Council (through the now defunct Hybrid Arts Board and the more recent New Media Arts Fund) have played a crucial role in supporting the training and professional de\t of women w orking with new

technologies and in the research and production of new media works . Without the support of these funding bodies it is l ikely that work such as Linda Dement's Cyherflesh (lirlmoiister imA V N S Matrix's new computer game prototype HtidCode (to name only two) may never have got beyond the drawing board. One can only hope for the sake of the new media arts in Australia that funding cuts will not impact too severely on new works currently in de\elopment and on the next wave of emerging artists.

O f course, money is not the only important factor.

Access to technology and like-minded people through

tertiarv institutions and other networks has also been

an important part of this development. A N A T ' s annual

art and technology summer schools in particular have

inspired and encouraged many women artists and,

perhaps even more importantly, have helped to build

up a strong and supporti\ network in Australia of

women artists working with new technologies.

I 'hc work of artists such as Paula Dawson, L inda

Dement and the cyberfeminist collective \ ' \ . S Matrix,

and the high profile that the work of these artists has

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achieved internationally, has been an inspirational factor for other women artists in Australia who are now continuing in this tradition. Comments Moira Corby: ' . . . i t is the whole role model mentor thing, as women move into t radi t ional areas and are v i s i b l y successful...this paves the way for others to feel it's O K for them to do it'. '

While gender issues are often a focus in the work of

women artists, particularly within the context of all-

women exhibitions such as Domestic Disturlxiiires, it is

important that gender is not necessarily seen as the

defining quality of women's work. As Melbourne-

based artist Elena Popa comments, 'the work comes

first'.

Never the less , w i th in the new technology arena

women have been at the forefront in critiquing and

challenging some of the assumptions of 'technological

progress'. They have questioned the 'fctishisation' of

the technological object that is evident in many

technology magazines and have reminded us of the

human side of the human-technology interaction,

acknowledging both the Utopian and dystopian aspects

of those technologies.

Patricia Piccinini's The Mutant Genome Projert, where audiences can select \arious characteristics to make their own L U M P (Lifeform with Unevolvcd Mutant Properties) baby, was inspired by the real-world Human Genome In i t i a t ive ( H G I ) . H G I plans to catalogue the ent i re human genome, so g i \ i n g scientists and doctors the knowledge and power to manipulate specific genetic material.

' I find it very hopeful and very frightening...! think

gene therapy is going to be a wonderful thing, it will

cure cancers...! hope it will...but I also hope it won't

make our society all six foot tall and straight...there's a

lot of potential here but everybody should be part of

that decision-making process and not just leave it up to

other people that have incen t ives behind their

decision-making like money'.^ (Patricia Piceinini)

While it is impossible to deny the often inequitable and oppressi\ social and economic forces shaping the production and use of new technologies, it is important not to succimib to political pessimism and inertia and to look instead to the agency of individuals and groups to shape and use new technologies for their own purposes and pleasures and to resist their oppressi\"e uses.

'The designers and promorcrs of a technolog\ cannot completely predict and control its final uses. There arc always unintended consequences and unanticipated possibilities'.'

In T/ie Practice of l'\vencia\ Michel dc ( 'ertcau

celebrates the creative uses that the '^^cak' make of

the systems of the 'strong' through infiltraticm and

subvers ion, misappropr ia t ing and re-us ing the

'machinery of oppression' for creative, libertarian purposes. T h e In ternet i t se l f is a case in point: originally created by the U . S . military as a tool to integrate communications in military manoeuvres in the event of war, the In te rne t is now used by a growing number of organisations and individuals for private purposes and it supports an astonishing variety of social interactions. T h e de-centred nature of the Internet is an ideal breeding ground for anarchy and experimentation as it is difficult to police. De Certeau reminds us that the 'art of the weak' is that of the tactic and guetilla 'warfare', an approach that is also a strategy in the work of cyberfeminists, who suggest a variety of subversive and creative uses and abuses of new technologies and the active engagement of women in this process.

Australian-based V N S Matrix, one of the first groups to

use the term 'cyberfeminist' in its 1991 manifesto",

play just such a destabilising role, challenging gender

stereotypes and ideologies by in f i l t r a t ing and

subver t ing the largely male dominated ( s t i l l )

technologies of computer games and the Internet.

V N S Matrix has helped to re-code and negotiate new

meanings and possibilities, creating more pleasurable

and empowering readings for female users. In its new

prototype version of Bad Code, a futuristic ([iiest game

with a bent, the aim of the quest is to destroy the data

banks of the 'Big Daddy Mainframe'.

A similar line is taken by cyberfeminist theorist Sadie Plant, who positions women in alliance with new technologies in the ctacks and crevices of an unwieldy and d is in tegra t ing patr iarchy. As Plant puts it, 'C^^yberfeminism is simpK the acknowledgment that patriarchy is doomed'.' While some more traditional feminists may see such cyberfeminis t slogans as misguided or even i r respons ib le , perhaps an 'irresponsible feminism' is exactly what is needed to encourage women to experiment and engage with new technologies in new and product ive ways , thus challenging the old assimiptions that women and technology don't mix.

' I t takes an irresponsible feminism—which may not be a feminism at all—to trace the inhuman paths on which woman begins to assemble herself as the cracks and crazes now emerging across the once smooth surfaces of patriarhal order...Cyberpunk and chaos culture are peppered v\ith wild women and bad gids...'"

Certainly, the anarchic energy and refusal to

play by the rules evident in cyberfeminism

makes it an empower ing and product ive

discourse, one that allows for a strategic optimism as

well as providing the basis for a contemporary critique

of technology and society.

'Feminism docs really need to adapt and change to

contemporary thought, and cyberfeminism has put

issues whieh are important to women on the techno-agenda. Many women find it a useful tool to engage with and eritique technology. Cyberfeminists are not anti-technology; on the contrary, they are technophiles and geeks who can't get enough of their machines.''

I n a future that shows every sign of becoming increasingly populated by information technologies

interfacing ever more intimately with their human part icipants, it is important to see women artists and writers in Australia taking an acti\part in negotiating and shaping the form, possibilities and uses of those technologies. T h i s is not an academic issue, for what we do now is creating the kind of future we will live in.

\V/iaf is the appeal for women artists in working with new technologies?

' I am a screen j i m k i c . t h i s habit is cheaper than any pre\s drug habit. As I am a cyberslut. I don't need ro buy my own machines, I am happy to whore on anyone's gear...and I live to communicate, to re-create myself—the Net is the perfect environment for me.' ( F r a n c e s e s D a R i m i n i )

' I am a non-singular, multi-disciphned artist; computets enable my fteedom of exptession. It's a revolutionary tool

and medium in that I can mix sound, image, moving footage wi th ease. . . I think also it is exci t ing for women to realise they can control a piece of complex technology and utilise it to express whatever they want to. The main thing about new media technology is precisely that it is new, that women are demanding use of it and there is no traditional structure to say we can't ( M o i r a C o r b y )

'Perhaps the reason why new media technologies appeal to women is that they allow for a new field of expression for them to explore. Because the area is relatively new it allows for many possibilities in terms of a new form of self expression. Media such as the Internet offer an anonymous identity. T h e Net allows \ou to be whoc\er and whatever you want to be.' ( E l e n a P o p a )

' . . . in a way, computers seem to be more suitable for w o m e n than men, as t r ad i t iona l ly w o m e n are accustomed to using cottage industry technologies such as the typewriter or sewing machine, where you can work in isolation and not have to rely on outside facilities...also, because of the wider intetest in new technologies, suddenly there is an opportunity to have a v o i c e that extends over and above the frustrating insular world of gallery-based exhibition.' ( M a r t i n e C o r o m p t )

To what extent do gender issues inform your work, if at all? Is gender a redundant concept, should we be talking about a multiplicity of genders?

' . . .as long as there are social ine( |u i t ies based on gender discrimination, we can't afford to drop gender from these discourses. T h e memes of

hts i3pm

cyberfeminism and gender terrorism infect eacli otlier continually...the gender fucking that occurs in virtual communities such as lambdaMOO where gashgirl li\es is exciting...anarcho gender terrorism is necessary in the war against the patriarchy.' ( g a s h g i r l ) *

'How can gender ever be redundant?'

(Josephine S t a r r s ) *

'There is definitely a trend towards a pluralising of

genders and positions. It has been led by women and

by those men who have been marginalised (gay men,

non-white men)...you can communicate on the Net

with a non-gender specific entity or adopt any identity

you wish ( M o i r a C o r b y )

' In many ways I am against reductionist arguments

w h i c h d iv ide men and w o m e n into separate

camps...there are many men doing really interesting

work who contribute enormously to a sophisticated

and intelligent discourse on emergent techno-culture.'

(Ju l ianne P i e r c e ) *

' I don't find it useful in any sense to discuss gender as a singular affecting issue. We are all multiply affected by, to name a few, socio-economic, cu l tu ra l , educational, national and ruling government factors.' ( A n n M o r r i s o n )

'In my personal technotopia, gender differences in all

aspects of life are acknowledged but do not privilege

any one of the <many> genders ope ra t ing . . . '

( F r a n c e s c a D a R i m i n i )

' I am totally inefficient and careless about gender issues...if I see something which is going to move my guts it's great, it's alive...most of the things which shrink my guts are made by women: full and vicious circle, it's a lot of fun trving to avoid stereotypes except that they arc often true.' ( I sabel le D e l m o t t e )

Is there a difference in the way men and women interact with and use new media technologies or in the content and type of work they produce? What about collaborations and areas of common interest?

'Women take a more personal approach to technology, often focusing on the body and reproductive processes. Women show more of themselves in technology, rather than showing the technology itself. . . .Men try to master technology for the sake of it, as they are generally more competitive, whereas women are more interested in exploring what the computer can do for them ' ( E l e n a P o p a )

'Possibly women ooze more. . .and draw out the

inherent abject relations of technology...but boyz like

Dale Nason <ex cyberdada> have had their wicked

ways with machines too.' ( F r a n c e s c a D a R i m i n i )

' I have this great illusion that things are changing and that people are spending more time trying to surprise themselves or let themselves be surprised by the 'machines'. Maybe it's just an illusion, but I think that the way women used interfaces a few years ago (spending much more time and adapting the tools to their needs and dreams and physical sensations) has been a "precursor".' ( I sabe l l e D e l m o t t e )

'It is interesting that with Josephine Starrs' and my collaboration on The User Unfriendly, people have assumed that because I am the bloke thetefore I am the programmer. In fact I have been referred to as Josephine's 'tame programmer', which is an insult not only to both of us but, considering my lingo scripting ski l l s , any self-respecting programmer as w e l l . ' ( L e o n C m i e l e w s k i )

'Men tend to like the pristine 3 D shiny computer

graphics, objects that have the same aesthetics as a

shiny new car. Women are generally more into the

organic, and making computer graphics not look like

computer graphics.' ( E l e n a P o p a )

' I think there is a general tendency for male artists to app roach new techno log ies as a w a y of colonising/pioneering or creating a new Utopian w o r l d , w h e r e a s w o m e n seem to be more interested in deconstructing and re-evaluating the one that already exists.' ( M a r t i n e C o r o m p t )

* These comments are from VNS Matrix's catalogue essay for Ars Electronica 1996.

NB- All other comments are from a variety of fax/e-mail communications with the writer in October 1996.

References

1 Turi<le, S.. Life on the Screen, Allen & Unwin. 1996.

2 From an e-mail communication with the author, September 1996.

3 From an e-mail communication with the author September 1996.

4 From an artist talk for Cyber Cultures at The Perfomiance Space, Sydney, 23 March 1996.

5 Wajcman, J., Feminism Confronts Teclinoiog/. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991, p. 163.

6 URt:http://wv^.next.com.au/spyfood/ geekgiri/001 stick/vns/vns.html

7 Plant. S., 'Beyond the Screens: Film, Cyberpunk and Cyberfeminism'. A version of this paper was presented at the Eighth Birmingham Intemational Film and Television Festival. October 1992.

8 Plant. S.. 'Cybernetic Hookers', a paper delivered at the Adelaide Wnters

Festival and at Sydney's Artspace, 1994.

9 Pierce, |., in 'Nothing is Certain [Flesh, the Postbody and Cyberfeminism]', VNS Matnx's Ars Electronica

1996 catalogue essay,

t o p l e f t : V N S Mat r i x , futuropoiis 4,

f rom Bod Code, I 996

t o p l e f t : V N S Mat r i x , futuropoiis I. f rom B a d Code, 1 996

a b o v e : V N S Mat r i x , futuropoiis 3. f rom Bod Code, 1 996

0 '