The MUTEK festival has a gender-balanced program, and that’s a good thing!

Last year, the MUTEK festival pledged to achieve gender parity by 2020. Finally, it achieved it in 2018.

For its 19th edition, MUTEK decided to put the spotlight on women in digital arts by becoming one of the founding members of the Keychange movement, a project aimed at the empowerment and development of female artists. This includes parity in programming, but they’d never done that before.

The artists and innovators will take part in a series of discussions as part of a free symposium.

Meet Patti Schmidt, co-programmer of the Montreal-based electronic and digital music festival. She explains how and why we need to achieve parity.

Why is it so difficult to have parity events?

It takes time because you have to deconstruct your way of thinking. You have to find new places where you can find women who aren’t used to being there. You have to change your perceptions, educate yourself and those around you.

Humans are lazy by nature. It’s much easier to select people we already know and those who are right in front of us. We assume that there’s only one network, the one we know, when in fact there are several others. We end up thinking that artists are only to be found there.

If you had to give just one piece of advice to put an end to non-parity events, what would it be?

Once you start to realize the absence of women, you can’t help but notice it. It’s as simple as that. It’s not necessarily a political act, but it’s about rebuilding your brain to recognize a situation where women are absent.

It’s important to point out that there are plenty of talented women present. We’re not looking for charity! We select women who are brilliant. Period!

“Who decides what’s good or bad? This is art! It’s subjective and personal. Popularity and habit should not determine the programming of a festival.” – Patti Schmidt

Why has MUTEK waited so long for parity programming? Is it a consequence of #metoo?

I’ve been working in the music industry for over 25 years. When I was young, I took parity for granted. As I grew up, I realized that there are unconscious biases and external factors that prevent a group of people from getting where they want to go.

I think that the place of women is linked to a change in mentalities. Society is now ready for this, driven by the younger generation.

Why did MUTEK opt for parity?

When you’re a festival like MUTEK, you have a duty to ask yourself “What’s our goal with this festival?”. You don’t become an artist to get rich. If not for the money, then what? We want to be a medium of discovery, of revelation, but also a social movement. We want to participate.

What’s the Symposium event you don’t want to miss?

This panel will be of particular interest: “Setting the record straight: from meritocracy to quotas, biology and more”. We’ll be giving keys and answers to those who say quotas are useless, that women aren’t biologically suited to technology and meritocracy, and how to respond to such clichéd comments.

Interested in gender equality? The interview with Élizabeth Stefanka is for you!