Whether you’re a tech savvy trailblazer or a techno-peasant Luddite, there’s no denying tech is *everywhere* nowadays. Here, Artistic Director Rebecca Mordan talks about how we at Scary Little Girls, and our sister project Greenham Women Everywhere, are folding tech into our world, to tell forgotten stories.
“Those who know me might be surprised to read what I’m going to say here. I’ve never been the most technical of people – in fact my family have come to accept that hitherto working fine items like computers, cookers or even light switches will fritz and fuse in my presence – but over the last few years I’ve been really excited by the range of tech tools that our two companies have used, and even more excited by the stories they help to share. It’s easy to think of tech as being ‘for the bros’ but we’ve used it for some incredible shows and I think there’s some feminist activism to be found in lifting the lid and showing that it can be used by, and belong to, all of us.
Back when Covid came along, we, along with the rest of the world, went online. We created fortnightly cabarets celebrating incredible humans, called Salon de la Vie. Preparing these Salons at home, with only my best beloved, our Finance Manager Adrian to help, meant I had to get up close and personal with the tech kit. Between us, we turned our hands to sound, light and live streaming, we named our new camera Margo and our alarmingly phallic mic Lydia and we asked our audience to name that (phone) stand.
This glimpse behind the scenes is really important to the way we use, and talk about tech here. We know that a lot of people find tech intimidating, baffling, and so it resolutely lives in a box called ‘not for me’. It’s important to us that we can show that it’s not a trick, it’s not off limits – it can be silly and fun, and rough and ready, and full of fun and joie de vivre. It doesn’t have to be serious, or expensive or super slick – we can play with it and we can break it and try again. I learned loads in those early Salons, about what works online differently from in the real world, and some of the lessons still play into our work now.
Speaking of playing with tech, one of the most fun and ridiculous things we’ve done (well, it was Christmas 2020, when we all needed a LOT of good cheer) was our work on interactive costuming with our wonderful friend and tech genius LH Trevail. Laura created a slightly bonkers head-dress using Raspberry Pi technology which moved in response to hashtags. Maybe we’ll bring that out for another Christmas special one day!
Looking back, I’m amazed at how deeply we’ve dived into the muddy waters of tech, and I’m loved the pearls we’ve come up with. Which of these projects have you seen or been involved with?
Salon de la Vie – fortnightly cabarets, live streamed / broadcast online; audience interaction via the head-dress. April 2020 to January 2022.
Greenham Women Digital – an archival and interactive website that preserves the experience of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp (GCWPC). Explore the Greenham gates, click on items to hear stories and songs. Developed with our sister project Greenham Women Everywhere, software development co-operative Animorph and launched in November 2020.
Twine stories – pull up a digital chair and sit around our virtual Greenham Campfires (created 2020) or pop into our Karavan (to come) to explore stories in a choose your own adventure style. Here’s LH Trevail again, in a video from February 2025, talking about the next stories we’re going to launch.
Collaborative Livestreaming – In December 2022, with Creation Theatre, we presented the Minack Theatre’s first *ever* livestream of our performance of The Tempest (included in The Guardian’s Best Theatre To Stream this Month no less)
Wiki edits – In 2023, our sister project Greenham Women Everywhere delivered training on how to edit Wikipedia. At that time, just 18.44% of biographies on English Wikipedia were dedicated to women and only 9% of contributors identified as female. Today, only around 25% (figures vary) of those working in tech in the UK are female. If we are not part of the creation of tech, we will continue to see the biases that fail to include us in it (anyone else got a phone that doesn’t fit in their hand, let alone their pocket?)
An Chi Drolla – an archival and interactive website that preserves Cornish stories, experiences, memories and voices. Developed with software development co-operative Animorph and launched in spring 2025.
Augmented Reality and Splats – in Spring 2025, I spent a week with the Centre for Blended Realities at Falmouth University and got up close and personal with creating augmented reality. I created things called splats (technical explanation here), which are incredible 3D renderings of real life objects. I was shown how to do this with an app on my phone and to say I was blown away by the speed and quality is an understatement.
With tech becoming more embedded in our worlds, from the hardware of the phones we hold in our hands each day to the algorithms that shape what we read, I believe it’s a feminist act to unpack and interrogate it. Even if you never write a piece of code in your life, or design a website, or edit a page, I think it matters to understand that someone did, that its created. All the tech wonders we see around us are products of people’s minds – and there is no reason why all of our minds and experiences should not be represented.”
