Feminist Hackspace. Interview with Patricia Reis and Stephanie Wuschitz

Patricia Reis and Stefanie Wuschitz are the founders and members of the trans*feminist hackspace Mz* Baltazars Laboratory, Vienna in Vienna. It is run by a collective and offers on one hand a hackspace with a workshop program for female, trans and non-binary people, and on the other hand runs a gallery space with a feminist exhibition program.

The lab is conceived as a safer space for people who have traditionally been excluded from or have felt unsafe in spaces where science is taught and technology is developed. It invites those people to participate or give workshops that bring together technology, art, and have a critical understanding of social structures.

In this interview Stephanie Wuschitz and Patricia Reis introduce feminist hacking as an artistic methodology. They discuss the relationship of gender and technology, and explain how Mz* Baltazar’s Lab aims at developing other imaginations of technology by conciously developing a community. They discuss the role of the space in developing that community and the importance of creating a safer space both for fostering engagement within the community and for the space but also for reaching out to a wider audience.

Interview conducted by Shusha Niederberger, HeK (House of electronic Arts Basel), March 1, 2018.