In the ‘Matrix of Destiny’ the universal goddess (Venus) makes her appearance to humanity under a multitude ofguises.
It was a hot January afternoon almost two years ago when Medusa (a python in new skin) and I, were invited to witness VNS Matrix reveal the most recent version of their controversial Cyberfeminist Manifesto which would appear both as a Broadsheet centrefold (December 1991) and on a billboard at The Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. The ever changing Manifesto stakes a claim for women in ‘cyberspace’ (and the future), drawing upon feminist theory, science fiction and technology to communicate with the most serious of humours a message of ‘universal’ significance.
Language is the slave of mistress VNS and not to be appropriated by men alone; especially where it is employed to perpetuate patriarchal mythologies and the consequent suppression of the heroine. Thus the language of violation in the context of cyberfeminism is reappropriated and transformed into a rhetoric of celebration and strength, to be used as women will.
At the Third International Symposium on Electronic Art (TISEA) held in Sydney during November 1992 VNS Matrix presented, at the Australian Centre for Photography, the first part of a work in progress towards an interactive installation entitled All New Gen.
Taking as its focus a critique of a form of high technology which has become rapidly embedded in popular (male) (youth culture) throughout the post industrial world, the “Gameboy”, All New Gen is envisaged as a walk-in simulated computer game environment which evokes the adventures of heroine “Gamegirl” Gen, and her battle with the “enemy” Big Daddy Mainframe.
This ‘interview’ was recorded at an artists’ reception in the Performance Space capturing VNS Matrix in conversation with conference delegates, speakers and exhibiting artists.
Publication Details
- Type
- Journal Article
- Title
- Infiltrate
- Author
- Publication
- Broadsheet, pp. 14–17, Vol 22 No 1, March 1993, English
- Publisher
- Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide, SA Australia
- ISSN
- 0819 677X