Ruth Schnell in conversation with Astrid Peterle (Head of Curatorial Kunsthalle Wien) in the framework of the exhibition Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991.

While Radical Software looks back at the pioneering work of women in digital art before the internet, Vienna Digital Cultures asks: how do new technologies shape culture today?

Ruth Schnell is an artist and curator. From 2010 to 2023, she was head of the department of digital arts, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, Vienna. Schnell began using a computer at the end of the 1970s, after her colleague, artist and curator Peter Weibel, acquired a series of Commodore 64 computers for the university’s art department. Her work has been exhibited widely at home and abroad including at the 14th Bienal de la Habana in Havana and at the 46th and 44th Biennale di Venezia. In 2024 she was the recipient of the City of Vienna’s prestigious Medienkunstpreis der Stadt Wien.