“… he [the fantastic artist] only really creates within known
limits, with known media.”
Marcel Brion, L'art fantastique , p. 27
XX Fantastic
Introduction
Looking through the older documents
archived on Studio XX's Matricules project, one of the first things I
notice is the desire to make digital technology more accessible to
women artists. Computer-based tools, first considered enigmas to be
solved, were rapidly appropriated by women artists for creative
purposes. Along with this desire for technological demystification,
which was the topic of several of our Femmes br@nchées
(Wired Women) presentations, another point that stands out
in the Matricules archive is the large number
of artistic creations in the archives that are geared towards
generating an experience that I will call the fantastic. This
experience, rather than demystifying technology, is directly involved
in its mystification. Understanding that the computer matrix developed
from a model based on Fair Isle weaving, it becomes clearer and clearer
to me how the fantastic is used to express a direct connection between
women and technology.
Fantastic is a word that shifts meanings when used in the contexts of visual art, film, and literature; here I use it in the widest sense, as the archived works are multimedia pieces. The various exhibitions and conferences preserved in video format cannot be defined within a single discipline. So for this Matricules tour, I will focus on the multiplicity of meaning and the rediscovery of the fantastical form. In visual arts, the fantastic is a genre that is explored and represented mostly by male artists. XX Fantastic is an invitation to discover how women artists, by using technology as a creative tool, have reappropriated, perhaps without even being conscious of it, fantastical art. My reflections on the archived documents are based on this theme, but it is only one way among many that we can approach these archives. Keep in mind that this kind of project involves making decisions that leaves many aspects of the archives in the untouched, while highlighting a very small portion of the archived works. Happy reading...
Fantastic is a word that shifts meanings when used in the contexts of visual art, film, and literature; here I use it in the widest sense, as the archived works are multimedia pieces. The various exhibitions and conferences preserved in video format cannot be defined within a single discipline. So for this Matricules tour, I will focus on the multiplicity of meaning and the rediscovery of the fantastical form. In visual arts, the fantastic is a genre that is explored and represented mostly by male artists. XX Fantastic is an invitation to discover how women artists, by using technology as a creative tool, have reappropriated, perhaps without even being conscious of it, fantastical art. My reflections on the archived documents are based on this theme, but it is only one way among many that we can approach these archives. Keep in mind that this kind of project involves making decisions that leaves many aspects of the archives in the untouched, while highlighting a very small portion of the archived works. Happy reading...