Annie's Research Aims:

My research focuses primarily on the theme of technological innovation in the work of female artists, curators, inventors, musicians etc. This covers the invention of new tools, innovative use of existing technologies and, more broadly, the ways in which new technologies impact on, and provide new possibilities for, the ways in which women work, play and communicate, both within the arts and the wider community.

As well as present-day established practitioners, I will spend some time looking at historical figures in the development of technological art forms, and, with an eye to the future, to investigate the work of some up-and-coming new-media artists.

Some of the issues I will be addressing:

• The historically male-dominated nature of the development of technology – How easy is it for women to enter and practice within technological disciplines? How has this changed over time? What new skills, attitudes and priorities do women bring to the technological arts? Are there still problems specific to women working within these areas?

• Passive consumption vs. active development – to what extent are female artists using existing tools to develop their own, tailor-made toolkits? How are women, within the arts and within the wider population, using the internet to form new communities and arenas for dialogue and self-expression? What is the extent of women’s involvement in the collaborative development of new technologies?

• Identity, anonymity and authorship issues in relation to new-media practice – When a project is built using team-developed technologies, often open-source, where does authorship lie? Can the artwork be separated from the innovative tools used to build it? In what ways are women constructing virtual identities through which to express themselves in cyberspace? How do women’s virtual identities relate to their flesh-identities? To what extent is the internet facilitating a more fluid attitude to gender? How relevant at all are gender issues to women’s on-line activity, outside of areas where gender is the issue?

• Cross-disciplinary practices – What is the experience of female artists working with scientists, engineers etc.? What is the experience of female scientists, engineers etc. working with artists? Can female practitioners in both groups of disciplines contribute anything new to the now ancient Two Cultures debate?