Power – Femmetech

Civic participation, digital infrastructure, and why the US is behind

February 28, 2018February 28, 2018 by femmetech

femmetech

TheÂ one simple thing that US digital infrastructure canâ€™t do to encourage civic participation: Share UIDs Those who know me appreciate that I like to get to the bottom of things if I think it'll help solve a problem. There's a reason - logical or otherwise - why things are the…

Femme Hacking

April 18, 2015April 18, 2015 by femmetech

femmetech

Femme hacking, n.:Â to use tacit knowledge ofÂ deprivilegedÂ structures [femme science] to apply roundabout methodologies of tool-using [hacking] in order to achieve an outcome. Having emerged from academia, Iâ€™ve thought a lot about the ways in which knowledge is articulated, permissioned, and authenticated: e.g., one must clearly express a defensible statement; problematized…

Liberation approaches to Technology: Interview

November 3, 2014October 14, 2015 by femmetech

femmetech

The fantastic author, librarian and activist Melissa Morrone [@InfAgit] interviewed me to discuss technology, feminism, decentralized networks of power, and liberation-focused approaches to teaching. quality content Read the whole interview here: http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/?p=4778. A few choice quotes: MM: can you talk more about that in your approach towards technology and intimidation?…

Insurgency and Anarchafeminism

November 20, 2012January 3, 2014 by femmetech

femmetech

Â Basically my life is totally great because I decided to make it my part-time job to study how people are collectively, creatively rebellious. Again, this means I look at participatory extralegal systems like socially-engaged, guerilla and performance art, tactical media, forms of DIY/DIWO production cultures, copyleft, and pop-ed. One of…

Power is Just a Snack

November 15, 2012May 22, 2015 by femmetech

femmetech

Power is going to come up a lot, so itâ€™s worthwhile to think about a bit. One of the ways that I am interested in how activist art manifests is against, alongside, parallel to, and in opposition to P/power. But how does it work? Chomp, Chomp A mental exercise: Imagine…

Usership, Intersubjectivity, Political Meaning

November 12, 2012January 3, 2014 by femmetech

femmetech

[caption id="attachment_90" align="alignleft" width="300"] Photo by Shaun Slifer, from the Interference Archive[/caption] If the people who are making vernacular, politicized cultural forms are also using these forms and doing so in groups, how do we talk about them? What about when them are us? Users are Experts Steven Wright*,…

Where It Lands: Users and Relational Aesthetics

November 6, 2012January 3, 2014 by femmetech

femmetech

We did an overview of what activist, and socially-engaged / participatory art is and who it is made by in the last posts, so now lets look at some of the ideas artists and makers invoke behind this type of work: users and usership, relationality, intersubjectivity* and groups. [caption id="attachment_84"…

Makers: Actors, Artists, â€¦ Users

November 5, 2012January 3, 2014 by femmetech

femmetech

Who makes activist/political arts? The individuals and groups who make this kind of cultural production are primarily: movement actors [e.g. activists] within the communities meant to experience and co-create the work; artists, cultural activists, tool-having professionals, also often from within the discourse communities. These groups are far from mutually exclusive…