Alex Galloway: I know a little bit about your history, that you were/are
involved in the cyberfeminist group VNS Matrix. Can you tell me a little
bit about what you are making these days? When I saw you recently at the
Banff Center I noticed that you were experimenting with different kinds
of controllers, like using your computer to turn the lights on and off.
Are you working toward some sort of installation project?

Josephine Starrs: Yes, I'm working on an interactive sound and video
piece for an event in Sydney about surveillance issues. Much of the
sound will come from Leon Cmielewski's and my web site "Diagnostic Tools
for the New Millennium" http://starrs.banff.org/
…people have been sending us paranoid phrases from that site and these
will be whispered through a sound localizer. I'm continuing to explore
my love/hate relationship to new technologies…of course I love to play
with the toys and I have as much technolust as any cyberchic, but the
implications of modern technology and where it is taking the planet I
find extremely scary, especially in the area of biotechnology.

AG: A lot of people are working on biotechnology. What do you find scary
about it? Do you think that artists can have a positive roll in thinking
about the use of biotechnology?

JS: I'm concerned, along with many others, that genetically engineered
life forms are being released onto the planet with little regard to the
consequences. For example the biotech giant Ciba-Geigy sells corn seed
genetically engineered with Bt, a natural pesticide organic farmers use.
Within a few generations the pests will likely be immune to the effects
of Bt and organic farming will become less viable. Monsanto (recently
merged with American Home Products to form the biggest biotech/agri/drug
corporation ever) pressures farmers into buying its roundup ready
agricultural products. About half of U.S. cotton, 40% of soybean and 20%
of corn this year are genetically altered.

VNS Matrix has a name for the transplanetary, military industrial data
complex…Big Daddy Mainframe, but BDM refers also to corporations who
are patenting the gene pool so