Resolution to Ars Electronica

November 13, 2000

Six major international women-in-music organizations have signed the resolution below directed to Ars Electronica and its sponsors. The combined membership of these organizations represent approximately 2500 professional women musicians. Additional signatories are expected. For further information about the Ars Electronica festival mentioned, see this article. 

William Osborne
http://www.osborne-conant.org

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A RESOLUTUION TO ARS ELECTRONICA AND ITS SPONSORS

In early September Ars Electronica presented a festival entitled "Next Sex: Sex in the Age of Its Procreative Superfluousness" that embraced and advocated the aesthetic use of eugenics. Presentations opposing eugenics were not included. Vitally important ethical questions were thus omitted. Ars Electronica's ideology of biological determinism was so extreme they even included speakers advocating the "naturalization" and aesthetic validation of rape.

For a detailed discussion of the festival and its program, including links to other informative sites see:
<http://www.osborne-conant.org/ars.htm> (An article from the MSNBC website is also included below.)

The signatories of this resolution call upon Ars Electronica to present a -wider- spectrum of discussion concerning eugenics. This would include opponents of eugenics and discussions of legal limitations responsible artists would envision. 

The signatories also express categorical opposition to aesthetic validations of rape.

This petition will be sent to Ars Electronica and its sponsors, which include Austrian State Television, Microsoft, Compaq, Hewlett
Packard, SGI, Oracle and Siemens.

Sincerely,

1. Unabhängiges Frauen Forum (Independant Women's Forum of Austria)
2. FrauenMusikForum Switzerland (800 members serving Switzerland, France and Italy)
3. The International Alliance for Women In Music (800 members serving the United States)
4. Internationaler Arbeitskreis Frau und Musik (600 members serving Germany)
5. Canadian Women Composers (Canada's largest women-in-music organization)
6. The Pauline Oliveros Foundation