I think that there are as many sexualities as their are individuals and
it may not be necessarily apt to relate in an everyday life of a woman in EU but perhaps not all a waste of time to mention, that women only events have been a tradition for thousands of years. Especially since I value circulating womens knowledge and practice that has been eradecated and sabotaged
In Australia we have a law system called 'secret women's business' (that is, laws, customs and religion that are specific to women, which men do not have access to). I thought I'd provide this connection its mainy practiced with indidgenous/ Aboriginal women _ a highly vexed issue_ as most issues of bloodline/ lineage/ race seems to be for most people.
The realm of secret sacred women's business has in a certain sense already been touched by scepticism (perhas not unsimilar to most women only events) It was not until the 1970s, under the influence of what has come to be called "feminist anthropology", that this aspect of Aboriginal life was more widely documented. Until then, women's business was assumed to play an ancillary role to the more important ritual life of men.
In 2002 I often would visit my friend Barbara then a volunteer at the ASCII and where I was for the first time really confronted by the issues of being a women involved in technology. I entered into a dynamic often volitile and openended conversation with a few of the male identified members of ASCII which still continues in its own lively way. I spefically wrote Situated software: fiction, action-at-a-distance and dolls in repsonse to this ongoing conversation I also timed it for the Gender and Technology friday-discussion-evenings. Since I couldn't make it in person so I posted it to one of the memebers via IRC who was hosting the event as my statement.
Contextualising the paper and other references of inspiration:
In 2002/3 I was working on 'electric theatric operation' I was invited to be as artist in residence at Waag Society for/new and old media. I was looking at translocal software for a performance between Colombia, Amsterdam and Sydney.
I noticed some of my women friends involved as performers who would not even dare touch the computer being so scared of 'breaking something'. After numerous attempts to encourage them, they were also just in general intimated by computers and would freak out if they have to write a cv, check emails etc. I guess that was the main thing that initally inspired me to be more involved with the /etc, to break down the wall of technology at a very grass roots level.
I was pretty happy that most of them turned up for the hardware course hosted by the GCA at ASCII in mid 2005. These women are now regular computer users.
Also other references for this paper can be found at:
Grosz, Elizabeth. (2001) Architecture from the Outside: Essays on Virtual and Real Space. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Fiske, Alan. (1993) Structures of Social Life. Free Press.
Habermas, Jurgen. (1989) Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
sistero:
I think that there are as many sexualities as their are individuals and
it may not be necessarily apt to relate in an everyday life of a woman in EU but perhaps not all a waste of time to mention, that women only events have been a tradition for thousands of years. Especially since I value circulating womens knowledge and practice that has been eradecated and sabotaged
In Australia we have a law system called 'secret women's business' (that is, laws, customs and religion that are specific to women, which men do not have access to). I thought I'd provide this connection its mainy practiced with indidgenous/ Aboriginal women _ a highly vexed issue_ as most issues of bloodline/ lineage/ race seems to be for most people.
The realm of secret sacred women's business has in a certain sense already been touched by scepticism (perhas not unsimilar to most women only events) It was not until the 1970s, under the influence of what has come to be called "feminist anthropology", that this aspect of Aboriginal life was more widely documented. Until then, women's business was assumed to play an ancillary role to the more important ritual life of men.
Further reading here is an extract from the opening keynote address of the 6th International Congress on Women, Adelaide, April 1996
sistero:
In 2002 I often would visit my friend Barbara then a volunteer at the ASCII and where I was for the first time really confronted by the issues of being a women involved in technology. I entered into a dynamic often volitile and openended conversation with a few of the male identified members of ASCII which still continues in its own lively way. I spefically wrote Situated software: fiction, action-at-a-distance and dolls in repsonse to this ongoing conversation I also timed it for the Gender and Technology friday-discussion-evenings. Since I couldn't make it in person so I posted it to one of the memebers via IRC who was hosting the event as my statement.
Contextualising the paper and other references of inspiration:
In 2002/3 I was working on 'electric theatric operation' I was invited to be as artist in residence at Waag Society for/new and old media. I was looking at translocal software for a performance between Colombia, Amsterdam and Sydney.
I noticed some of my women friends involved as performers who would not even dare touch the computer being so scared of 'breaking something'. After numerous attempts to encourage them, they were also just in general intimated by computers and would freak out if they have to write a cv, check emails etc. I guess that was the main thing that initally inspired me to be more involved with the /etc, to break down the wall of technology at a very grass roots level.
I was pretty happy that most of them turned up for the hardware course hosted by the GCA at ASCII in mid 2005. These women are now regular computer users.
Also other references for this paper can be found at:
Grosz, Elizabeth. (2001) Architecture from the Outside: Essays on Virtual and Real Space. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Fiske, Alan. (1993) Structures of Social Life. Free Press.
Habermas, Jurgen. (1989) Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Kusters, Wouter. (2001) Peter Sloterdijk; A Psychonaut In Outer Space.
http://www.petersloterdijk.net/international/texts/en_texts/en_texts_PS_...
Marson, Ingrid (2004) Debian group encourages women developers
http://uk.builder.com/manage/work/0,39026594,39230737,00.htm
Raymond, Eric S. (2001) The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux And Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/inde...
Ribaud, Arthur. (1871) Letters of the Visionary. http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/DocumentsE1.html
Shirky, Clay. (2004) Situated Software
http://www.shirky.com/writings/situated_software.htm
Strate, Lance. (1995) Experiencing Cybertime: Computing as Activity and Event.
Interpersonal Computing and Technology. An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century
http://www.helsinki.fi/science/optek/1995/n2/strate.txt
Veggy, Dark. (2005) From Free Software to Street Activism & Vice Versa.
http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=05/08/20/2253233
http://info.interactivist.net/comments.pl?sid=4594&cid=2371
Weiden, Fernanda. G. (2005) Women in Free Software.
http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20050911153013536
Also posted nettime-l-digest, Wednesday, September 14 2005, Volume 01: Number 1638.
Winnicott, D.W. (1971) ‘Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena’ from Playing and Reality. London: Tavistock Publications.