| Studio XX,
Montreal’s techno-feminist centre for experimentation,
creation and critique, invites you this coming Friday to take
part in a debate on cyberfeminism, moderated by Sharon
Hackett and Valerie d.
Walker, and in live Net interactions with some
participants at the Digitophagia
festival in Brazil. As of 9:30 pm, we will stream Winnipeg’s
Send+Receive festival
concert Sounds Pulled from
the Air featuring Studio XX’s resident
Raylene Campbell with
her magic accordion. Drinks and snacks
will be served.
It will soon have been 15 years since the Australian artists
of VNS Matrix launched their "Cyberfeminist Manifesto
for the 21st Century”, following in the footsteps of
the famous Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway. An important
concept for so-called third-wave feminism, cyberfeminism is
characterised by plurality and by its very nature resists
generalisations and singular definitions. Calling for networks
as non-hierarchical models of organisation, as spaces of communication
for a multitude of voices, it also invites us to appropriate
the transgressive power of machines and technologies and celebrate
their fusion with biological and political entities. Reminiscent
of the Nineties for some, cyberfeminism has also become, for
others, a cool way to fully assume one’s feminism at
the dawn of the 21st Century…
Following-up on the blog about cyberfeminism in the Americas
in .dpi, the Studio’s
new electronic review, on Friday we’ll ask ourselves
how we fit into this trend. New media artist and new general
director of Studio XX, Marie-Christiane
Mathieu is at the Digitophagia
festival (Brazil – 14-24 October, 2004 -
www.midiatatica.org/digitofagia/),
an event about tactical media in the digital age. From Museu
da Imagem E C Som in Sao Paulo, the Brazilians accompanying
Marie-Christiane will join us through the Net to discuss these
issues and share their own experiences of feminism in Brazil
at a time when – even now – tradition still holds
sway. Do you have to be techno, have access to wealth and
technological practices, to be a cyberfeminist? At our end
of the optical fibre, Valerie d. Walker
and Sharon Hackett will facilitate
a debate about the possibilities and the limits of cyberfeminism.
If you’d like to start feeding your thoughts right away,
visit the site of .dpi (dpi.studioxx.org).
Beginning at 9:30PM, the stream will switch to music and
sonorities from the Send+Receive Festival in Winnipeg,
where a concert will spotlight Peter
Cusack (London, England), Anna
Friz and Annabelle Chvostek
with their Automated Prayer Machine, [
sic ] and the accordionist Raylene
Campbell, fresh from her artist residency at Studio
XX. Anyone with an internet connection can tune to the show
in on XX's website!
_ Digitofagia Festival
(Brazil - Rio de Janeiro, Radio Interferencia, Praia Vermelha
Campus:
14-17.10.04 + Sao Paulo, Museu da Imagem e do Som: 18-24.10)
http://www.midiatatica.org/digitofagia/
Using the tactical media approach, Digitophagia takes up the
idea of cultural digestion by integrating digital networks
and media in an interaction with the Brazilian surroundings
and the international community, taking a look at how Brazilians
negotiate with technology and discover new and interesting
practices.
_Cyberfeminism Blog:
http://dpi.studioxx.org/?s=digitofagia
In the context of the Digitofagia Festival, some Brazilians
women will ask: what IS cyberfeminism,
anyway? Studio XX invites you to send your
replies, whenever you’d like, to the articles that appear
on .dpi’s Digitofagia blog or to submit texts by sending
an email to: webmestre@studioxx.org.
See articles by Cornelia Sollfrank,
creator in 1997 of the Old Boys Network - first cyberfeminist
alliance: http://cyberfeminisme.org/txt/cyberfemcomment.htm
_Valerie d. Walker
Information systems consultant, Valerie D. Walker holds a
Bachelor’s degree with a specialisation in electrical
engineering and computer science from the University of California
in Berkeley. Of course, we know her best as an amazing instructor
and the co-hostess and producer of XX Files, the radio show
that casts a feminine regard on technology - on the waves
of CKUT 90.3 FM at 11h30 on Wednesday. Online archives: www.ckut.ca.
_Sharon Hackett
Internet and Literacy Development Agent at the Centre de documentation
sur l’éducation des adultes et la condition feminine
(CDÉACF), Sharon Hackett is involved in reflections
and initiatives surrounding the integration of information
technologies in community organisations, locally and internationally.
President of the World Forum on Community Networking, she
is also active in Québec among groups promoting open-source
software. Founder of the netFemmes network (http://netfemmes.cdeacf.ca),
she also co-ordinated many studies on the information technologies
(IT) needs of womens’ groups (www.womenaction.org/women_media/).
Studio XX is very proud to count her among the new members
of its Board of Directors!
_Send+Receive sound
art festival (Winnipeg – 15-23.10.04)
http://www.sendandreceive.org/
_Raylene Campbell
Originally from Alberta, Raylene is an accordionist who works
in the area of electroacoustic composition and performance,
as well as in the exploration and creation of audio art, notably
with the Expanded Instrument System.
http://www.studioxx.org/e/production/residencies/2004/res_campbell.php
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