Show Notes
Only 4% of secondary school girls in the UK consider a career in technology their first choice. In this episode of The Unseen, Claire Belhassine visits Goldsmiths, University of London, one of the world's most radical creative institutions, to speak with three computational artists whose work sits at the intersection of code, culture and ideas to inspire other young women to think differently about the tech sector.
The next generation of women shaping the future of AI and computing are emerging with clear visions of the future they would like to inhabit.
IN THIS EPISODE:
What it feels like to be a young woman building at the intersection of art, technology and ideas in 2026, and why that intersection is where the most interesting questions live. How Esther Tokyo Bello is reworking history and cultural systems through technology, and what the Yoruba Ifá Divination System has to say about computation. How Julia Mascetti moved from the arts and media industries into game development and found that the distance between storytelling and code was smaller than imagined. How Federica Ciotti uses AI and sensor-based systems to question how meaning is made in real time, and why inclusion into what exactly is the most important question. Why there is more than one route into technology, and why the future belongs to people who refuse to stay in one lane. What these three women see that the industry cannot yet see, and why institutions like Goldsmiths matter because they nurture people who ask different questions.
ABOUT THE GUESTS Esther Tokyo Bello is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher and a PhD candidate in Arts and Computational Technology at Goldsmiths, developing Reversioning, a creative practice-based methodology. Her work spans abstract painting, filmmaking and dataset creation, and she was an artist-in-residence at Tate Modern's Tech, Tea + Exchange programme in 2025. She lives and works in London.
Julia Mascetti is a narrative game developer and the writer and co-developer of I Write Games Not Tragedies, a narrative-driven rhythm game paying homage to British emo and goth subcultures. She previously worked across the arts, media and tech industries before completing an MA in Game Design, and now runs the studio Studio Wife. She lives in London.
Federica Ciotti is a London-based artist working across drawing and computational arts, with a background in semiotics and over twelve years of experience in graphic facilitation and live visual synthesis. Her studio practice extends drawing into sound, performance and sensor-based responsive systems, and she collaborates with organisations and research teams to translate complex conversations into visual and hand-drawn forms of knowledge.
LINKS Esther Tokyo Bello: esthertokyobello.com
Julia Mascetti - I Write Games Not Tragedies on Steam. Studio Wife: studiowife.com
Federica Ciotti: federicaciotti.com MA Computational Arts, Goldsmiths University of London: gold.ac.uk
ABOUT THE UNSEEN The Unseen is a podcast from Godmothers Studio exploring the women whose ideas, work and imagination shape technology, culture and the world we are building. Every Godmother starts by seeing something the rest of the world cannot yet see. godmothers.ai This episode was produced by Godmothers Studio. Producer Saskia Cookson and Gianluca Allaria Presented by Claire Belhassine. Music by Tara Lily. Sound by Kit Proudfoot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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