02 August 2005

cyberfeminism

The panel 'Hacking the Body' is an inquiry into the meaning of cyberfeminism today after more than ten years since it was coined, reflecting artistic and activistic practices which play with the topics of body, identity and sexuality.

In 1991, along with new gender and identity utopias linked to a radical and collective use of technology, VNS Matrix, a group of Australian women wrote 'A Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century' and, influenced by Donna Haraway, playfully developed the concept of cyberfeminism.
The cyberfeminist virus spread to Australia, Europa and America, combining radical use of body, enthusiasm for new technological utopias and hopes for subverting patriarchy through new hybrid identities, irony and political activism.

After ten years of individual and collective practices, where does cyberfeminism stand today? In which way is it possible to radically hack concepts like identity, the body and sexuality?
Currently, there is a new wave of radical body expression through independent pornography which, experimenting with the body and identity as well, tries to subvert dichotomies like male/female, gay/straight. Is this the new body infected by the cyberfeminist virus?

No comments: