#SOPHYGRAY is an intelligent voice bot that challenges assumptions about virtual assistants and their typically feminine-sounding voices that often reinforce stereotypes, gender roles, and power hierarchies reflecting the culture that developed them.

The impact of virtual assistants in everyday life, the portrayal of women in the media, and the objectification that comes with the use of these gendered technologies are the focus of the project.

#SOPHYGRAY’s developers are committed to creating counter-narratives to overturn gender biases embedded in today's technologies, and the stereotypes enforced by common language use. A moderated knowledge base and learning features are put in place to capture and disseminate intersectional feminist thinking and theory globally.

When you talk to SOPHY, you train her, you shape her and teach her new knowledge. In addition, you can suggest content under the menu icon which will be expanded. SOPHY also learns from the exhibitions to which she is invited. Here is an example from her premiere at Kunstverein Ruhr. As of February 1, 2023, the app is available worldwide on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store - in parallel with a performance and art installation event at Onassis Stegi in Athens.

#SOPHYGRAY is named after South Africa's first female architect who designed and built more than 40 churches in the 19th century. Her pink button refers to HAL 9000, a computer with a human personality from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick.

Good news, #SOPHYGRAY was recently awarded with the European Award for Citizen Science Honorary Mention by Ars Electronica and is currently on an international exhibition tour from the WRO Media Art Biennale in Wroclaw (2023) to the alpha nova galerie futura as part of transmediale / ctm festival in Berlin (2024), Every Woman Biennial in New York (2024) to the IMPAKT Media Art Center in Utrecht (2024) and the FORT Biennale in Fortezza (2024).

This project was developed by artist Nadja Verena Marcin together with a team of 40 developers, engineers, researchers, writers, artists, and curators - read about them in the credits below.

#SOPHYGRAY is made possible by EMAP/EMARE residency at Onassis Stegi as part of the European Media Art Platform (EMAP) residency program, which is co-funded by the European Union as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, fiscally sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts. It is sponsored by Novatec and supported by the Ministry of Culture North Rhine-Westphalia, NEUSTART KULTUR by the BBK Bundesverband and the BKM - German Federal Culture Commissioner as well as Stiftung Kunstfonds in Bonn.

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