MsGlitch Collective Statement

MsGlitch403 is a collective initiated by four UCSC SIP interns in the summer of 2023, exploring the relationship between gender, sexuality, and representation in cyberspace. MsGlitch403 represents a multitude of ideas: Starting at its core, we take inspiration from ‘glitch,’ first coined in Glitch Feminism by Legacy Russell, representing our divergence from the heteronormative digital sphere. Repurposing the ‘403’ from ‘403 Forbidden Error,’ a status code indicating the server understands the request but refuses to authorize it, we seek empowerment from becoming internet reformers who defy online restrictions. Lastly, by adopting ‘Ms,’ a title that emerged from the second-wave feminist movement, connoting women’s independence, we aim to create a feminine cyber persona applicable to anyone willing to transcend beyond the limitations of their physical bodies into the web.

Through four artistic research projects, we investigate biases behind AI image generators, cyberfeminist movements beyond the West, the tension between perceived free will and the categorization of femininity, and the transcension of the physical body. Understanding the power of virtual space and its complications, we contemplate the possibilities of what feminisms, societies, and individuals could become.