The EMAP artist in residency Nadja Verena Marcin presents #SOPHYGRAY at the 20th WRO Media Art Biennale 2023
Produced by Onassis Stegi as part of the European Media Art Platform (EMAP) residency, #SOPHYGRAY, is a feminist audio bot app that answers questions in surprising, philosophical, and humorous ways informed by intersectional feminist perspectives. The residency was hosted in Athens in 2022, where Nadja Verena Marcin had the opportunity to further develop the work.
Photo: Tobiasz Papuczys (Biennale WRO 2023 treści wymienialne / fungible content)
Onassis Stegi continues to support artistic practices positioned between art, science and technology through its participation, constantly investing in emerging artists. The European Media Art Platform (EMAP) platform provides up-and coming media artists working in the fields of visual and digital arts, design, film, sound or video with the chance to participate in 2-month residencies and to create new works to be presented at festivals and other events in partner countries.
Sophy, an audio bot, has been trained by the artist and its developers to have conversations about identity, art, and feminism. Text excerpts from important feminist theorists form the basis of the bot’s knowledge. It aims to draw attention to the gender biases embedded in today’s technologies, exposing and overturning the stereotypes associated with common language use and habitus. The impact of personal intelligent assistants in everyday life, the representation of women in the media, and the objectification that the use of these gendered technologies often entails are the focus of Marcin’s project.
Nadja Verena Marcin was invited along with ten other EMAP residency artists from the network to present their projects at this year’s WRO Media Art Biennale entitled “Fungible Content”.
On the 12th of May, #SOPHYGRAY was presented in an immersive exhibition installation accompanied by a live performance, as well as a mobile app.
Find out more at #SOPHYGRAY – A Feminist Audio Bot | Onassis Foundation .
Photo: Tobiasz Papuczys (Biennale WRO 2023 treści wymienialne / fungible content)
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.
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Photo: Tobiasz Papuczys (Biennale WRO 2023 treści wymienialne / fungible content)
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Photo: Tobiasz Papuczys (Biennale WRO 2023 treści wymienialne / fungible content)
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Photo: Tobiasz Papuczys (Biennale WRO 2023 treści wymienialne / fungible content)
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Photo: Tobiasz Papuczys (Biennale WRO 2023 treści wymienialne / fungible content)
The European Union’s new Citizen Science Prize honors, presents and supports outstanding projects whose social and political impact advances the further development of a pluralistic, inclusive and sustainable society in Europe.
“It’s long been known that our technologies are not neutral. The fact that they encode their developer’s world views, politics and prejudices is nowhere more apparent than with AI. With the #SOPHYGRAY audiobot, artist Nadja Verena Marcin forefronts the impact of human values by inviting participants to contribute to the bot’s development based on their interaction with its intersectional feminist canon.”
-European Union Prize for Citizen Science Jury 2023 (Kat Austen, Lewis Hou, Pedro Russo, Andrea Sforzi, Stefanie Wuschitz).
Read more: https://ars.electronica.art/citizenscience/en/sophygray/
#SOPHYGRAY is made possible by Onassis Stegi as part of the European Media Art Platform (EMAP) residency program, which is co-funded by the European Union, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the Ministry of Culture North Rhine-Westphalia, NEUSTART KULTUR by the German Federal Culture Commissioner, Stiftung Kunstfonds in Bonn as well as sponsored by IT company Novatec. The artwork is fiscally sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts.
