Nadja Verena Marcin is the Artist-in-residence of the European Media Art Platform 2022 at Onassis Stegi

During the pandemic, global households relied on compliant digital service assistants like Alexa or Siri to deliver groceries, to-go orders and produce, equating subservience with a feminine character to meet the growing demands of a privileged consumer class.

In response, the feminist audio bot “#SOPHYGRAY” (2021–2023) was created with groundbreaking excerpts from works by bell hooks, Donna Haraway, Silvia Federici, Audre Lorde, and Anna L. Tsing, in order to – amusingly – refute gendered expectations.

“#SOPHYGRAY” is a feminist audio bot that visitors, using a tablet, can engage with in small talk and discuss about art, identity or feminism inside an immersive installation. During the process, stereotypical, gender-specific ideas are replaced by philosophical concepts and unusual, surprising conversations. While it can render philosophy and smart expressions, its language is still limited and in need to be continually diversified – learning through each interaction.

As ways of working are reevaluated around the world, this piece critically and humorously examines the ideological implications of female voices in VA technology. Symbolically, Sophy asks, “What would it look like to rewire the modus operandi of all service apps?”

The project’s first version has been realized with the kind support of NOVATEC, Jason Basset of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, NEUSTART Modul C by BBK and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media of Germany, Kultur-Stipendium by Stiftung Kunstfonds, the cultural ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia and the New York State Council on the Arts.

The European Media Art Platform (EMAP), co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union, aims to support collaborative projects by emerging artists who work critically with technologies in the fields of video, digital art, robotics, bio art and other forms of media art. Since the launch of the platform in 2018, 44 projects have been commissioned, 13 of which received international awards. Many more EMAP commissions have been presented at prestigious institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Barbican in London, and the Venice Biennale. Following an international open call which received 500 artist proposals from 37 countries, EMAP recently announced their selection for 2022. Each of the 15 media artists and artist groups will take part in an international two-month, fully funded residency with an EMAP partner organization, culminating in several group exhibitions within the next 3 years.

• Antre Peaux (Bourges, France): Juliane Jaschnow & Stefanie Schroeder
• Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria): Charlotte Jarvis & Susana Chuva de Sousa Lopes & Patricia Saragüeta
• FACT Liverpool (United Kingdom): Agnes Varnai & Tina Kult
• gnration (Braga, Portugal): Marc Vilanova
• iMAL Art Center for Digital Cultures & Technology (Brussels, Belgium): Studio Above&Below – Daria Jelonek & Perry-James Sugden
• IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture] (Utrecht, The Netherlands): Beny Wagner (DE/USA) & Sasha Litvintseva
• Kersnikova Institute / Kapelica Gallery (Ljubljana, Slovenia): Alizée Armet
• KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art praxis (Zagreb, Croatia): So Kanno
• LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre (Gijón, Spain): Paula Kaori Nishijima & Marlén López
• m-cult (Helsinki, Finland): Trammel Hudson & Caroline Sinders
• NeMe (Limassol, Cyprus): Rosa Menkman
• Onassis Stegi (Athens, Greece): Nadja Verena Marcin
• RIXC Centre for New Media Culture (Riga, Latvia): Leon Butler
• Werkleitz Centre for Media Art (Halle, Saal, Germany): Marleine van der Werf
• WRO Art Center (Wroclaw, Poland): OPN Studio - Susana Ballesteros & Jano Montañés