Radical Software MUDAM

In September, easily one of 2024’s most important shows opened: Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991. Curated by Michelle Cotton, the show surveyed the history of digital art from a feminist perspective, highlighting women pioneers in computational art’s history. The exhibition also uncovered and/or brought to the fore much vital research, as evidenced by the diversity of the show. It featured over 100 works by 50 artists from fourteen countries and spanned from 1960s–1991, covering early mainframe experiments to the rise of personal computing. It emphasized how artists often collaborated with scientists and engineers to create the newest digital works across drawing, film, performance and text. Positioned within the second wave of feminism, the exhibition challenges conventional tech-art narratives, celebrating women’s overlooked contributions to digital creativity before the internet’s public emergence. For this and many other reasons, Tina Rivers Ryan mentioned this specifically to me as key to digital art’s “moment” at the end of 2024.