Before the word “computer” described a machine, it referred to a profession that, at the beginning of the 20th century, was primarily practiced by women; to calculate was considered a female activity.

In recent years, historians have described this development and made biographies of important female programmers such as the “Eniac Girls” public knowledge. But what are the reasons that computer science turned into such a masculine field of activity? Why is the number of professional female computer scientists decreasing since the end of the 1960s and even more since the advent of the microcomputer in 1985? And how does society deal with the fact that women are marginalized as creators of technological developments?

The exhibition Computer Grrrls addresses these questions and brings together artistic positions that negotiate the relationship between gender and technology in past and present.

Computer Grrrls deals with the complex relationship between women and technology from the first human computers to the current revival of cyber-feminist movements. A comprehensive timeline will cover these developments from 1750-2018. The exhibition gathers contemporary works of young artists adressing this unrecognized story and challenging the hegemonic imaginaries around technologies today. Invited are artists, hackers and theoreticians who are working on how to think differently about technology: By questioning the gender trends in big data and Artificial Intelligence, promoting an open and diversified Internet, developing participatory ways of working and designing utopian technologies and prototypes.

Curators: Inke Arns (HMKV), Marie Lechner (La Gaîté Lyrique)