Film Screening by Rosa Menkman, followed by Q+A with the artist

This short film presents les Inconnues – unknown women whose images are linked to the history of image processing.

In Pique Nique pour les Inconnues (Picnic for the Unknown), Rosa Menkman considers the ways in which the history of technology has been defined by standardization, in particular through the use of color test cards for image processing. This short film presents les Inconnues – unknown women whose images are linked to the history of image processing. In this work, test cards, bots, virtual assistants, stock photos and others find a voice, but fail to recover their personhood. We are simultaneously haunted by the familiarity of these digital ghosts, while also privy to an uncanny experience when the historically mute images speak for the first time.