Fourth International Symposium on Electronic Art [FISEA’93] 1993 ⁄ VNS Matrix

VNS Matrix is a group of four women artists (Josephine Starrs, Julianne Pierce, Francesca da Rimini and Virginia Barratt) who are committed to redefining the role and image of women in art and technology. Both as makers and users of computer-based artforms, women are significantly under-represented. However, in the world of computer graphics, women are very much present in easily recognizable forms as they are in traditional cine- ma and advertising, that is, objectified, stereotyped and fetishized. VNS Matrix aims to subvert this traditional image by creating characters and representations of women who are strong, defiant and active.

Form has rapidly become cliched as computer artists have focused on technical challenges rather than structural and conceptual possibilities such as the development of new forms of narrative and representation. VNS Matrix believes that it is vitally important for new technologies to be used in a critical fashion, and that women have access to the produc- tion and consumption of these exciting new tools.

The group’s current project is the development of an interactive (art) computer game enti- tled ALL NErf7 GEN. The hero of the game, Gen, is the antithesis of pallid and predictable computer game characters. Gen is terminator of the moral code, saboteur of Big Daddy Mainframe. Her mission – t o subvert and corrupt cyberspace.

VNS Matrix are cyberfeminists with attitude. Their ironic and witty art injects a critical edge into the arena of art and new technologies, imagining and imaging alternative future worlds.