„Art Engineers vs. Machine Divas. A Retro-Utopian Investigation of Machine Theater“

The research:

An important part of the project „Art Engineers vs. Machine Divas“ consists of interviews with women artists using technology for their work in nowadays expanded „theater space“. Artists, whose work is somehow related to the idea of the „Machine Theater“. Artists moving between Internet stages, space art projects and robot actors, who have transformed the figure of the „artist engineer“ from the early 20th century and augmented it with many new forms.

The description of positions and approaches of these women artists, especially of their roots and their preoccupation with „machines“ in all their various forms, is the aim and the theme of this investigation.

We are asking for their first experiences with technology, their technological utopias, their experiences on exchanging know-how with other artists or technicians.
Including questions like:
What are your stages?
Who are your actors?
What are your „machines“?

Furthermore we are asking for verbal statements about the part machines play in the artist’s work, and what they mean to them.
On the one hand the intention of this research is the creation of a pool of information on woman artists using technology for their work in an expanded concept of „machine theater“.
On the other hand we are searching for new questions to be asked, in order to specify and define the role of contemporary women artists working in this special field.