[ISEA2019] Keynote: Christa Sommerer — Woman Working with Media Art Technology

Abstract

When we investigate the question how woman work with media art technology nowadays, it is interesting to look at female pioneers of digital art since the 1960’s. Woman artists and researchers had a key impact on today´s digital art and in this lecture selected female media art pioneers will be acknowledged. As the field of digital art has grown exponentially, current female media artists and young practitioners naturally face different challenges. Selected current work examples will be shown and practices will be discussed. Issue of gender inequity in art and technology networks will be addressed and good practice examples how to strengthen female networks in this domain will be presented.

  • Christa Sommerer is an internationally renowned media artist, researcher and pioneer of interactive art. After working, researching and teaching in the US and Japan for 10 years, she together with Laurent Mignonneau set up the department for Interface Cultures at the University of Art and Design in Linz, Austria. She studied with Roy Ascott at the University of Wales College of Art, Newport in the UK where she obtained a PhD. She previously worked at the IAMAS International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu, Japan, at the ATR Media Integration and Communications Research Lab in Kyoto Japan, the MIT CAVS in Cambridge US, the Beckmann Institute in Champaign Urbana, IL, USA, the NTT-InterCommunication Center in Tokyo. She was a Visiting Professor at CAFA Central Academy of Fine Arts Bejing in 2019, a Visiting Professor at Tsukuba University Empowerment Informatics Studio in 2018 and an Obel Guest Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark from 2014-2016. Together with Laurent Mignonneau she created around 40 interactive artworks that have been exhibited in around 350 international exhibitions. She received numerous awards, f.e. the 2016 ARCO BEEP Award in Madrid Spain, the 2012 Wu Guanzhong Art and Science Innovation Prize which was bestowed by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and the 1994 Golden Nica Prix Ars Electronica Award.
    interface.ufg.ac.at/christa-laurent
    interface.ufg.ac.at