The Signal is Clear

The Signal is Clear is a work that deals with barriers to access in technology for women on all levels of representation. The title of this work refers to frequency hopping, the invention of Hollywood diva and engineer Hedy Lamarr as a solution for long distance encrypted communication. In this technology both the sender and receiver of a signal need to hop frequencies at the same time in order to have a signal clear, creating a safe zone of communication between the two. Even though the method that she invented is crucial for wireless communication today, it was only inducted in 2014 and her brilliant mind was overshadowed by her physical appeal throughout her life. As we still experience the "toys for boys" paradigm in the world of tech today, the signal that is perpetually (yet less transparetly) made clear is that authority in the field of technology belongs to men.

On the surface level of this flag we see Hedy Lamarr surrounded by ornaments. The pictograms surrounding her are an encrypted collection of female South Eastern new media artists' personal records of their experiences working in the field. They speak of common issues and obstacles they as creators face, trying to take part in what is predominantly communicated as a masculine context. These testimonials are, however, encrypted through the Webdings font, creating a gap between what is on the level of visual representation and that what is hidden behind. The first acts as a metaphor for linking the feminine with the aesthetic realm and the second reflects the so often invisible side of lived experience.

This work was created for the purpose of the exhibition "We have cut the cables", organized in November in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Novi Sad, dealing with the position of female authors in new media in the sociocultural context fo South-Eastern Europe.