Useless Technology

This site features a group of artists who want to show the uselessness and often also pointlessness of modern technology. Their slogan "Technology so pure that its only function is to exist"  is used throughout the whole project. The following example should illustrate their critique. Many of the gadgets and tools of modern technology are just produced for the sake of inventing something new without serving a real purpose. 

During our research we found another site which also deals with this issue in an ironical way. It also aims to criticise the mass consumption where good packaging and marketing are even more important than the product itself. 

What better present for the person who has everything than a poignant reminder that they want for nothing? This lovingly crafted vial of emptiness is filled to the brim with unfettered nothingness. Free from the burden of possessions, the weight of responsibility, Nothing is as idiotic as it is brilliant.

Features
A packet full to the brim with nothing.
Suitable for ages 14 years+.
Size: 17 x 9 x 7cm.

female:pressure

In our research we came across this intersting site www.femalepressure.net, an online database of female electronic music artist run by Viennese Djane Electric Indigo. Female artists - espescially in electronic music - are underrepresentated and often not recognised. This platform creates a public space where they can let their voices be heard, create networks and collaborate with each other.

Gender Stereotypes

Just a funny anectode: As we were sitting outside preparing our presentation a group of students came by and started talking to us. The two guys asked Martin about our laptop we were using (the brand, the performance,...). They just talked to Martin, automatically assuming that it was his laptop and that he was the expert. They wanted to know how satisfied he was with it because they were looking to buy one for their female friend who was with them just sitting there silently listing to their all male talk. However, the laptop could have also belonged to Rosi, but they did not even think about that. 

Artfem.tv

"artfem.tv is an online television programming presenting Art and Feminism. The aim of artfem.tv is to foster Women in the Arts, their art works and projects, to create an international online television screen for the creativity, images and voices of Women. artfem.tv is a non-profit artist run ITV and media art portal about Art and Feminism." (http://artfem.tv/artfem_tv/)

This website features a wide variety of short clips and movies which presents the feminist perspective on social issues. We really enjoyed browsing around on the website, watching the different movies and critically discussing them. Here are a few short clips that we really like. 

(In)visible: Features close-ups of different faces of people of color, in the background there is a voice asking over and over again, "Why can't you see my face?". It connects the issues of black people, namely their invisibility in the white society with the underrepresentation of other minority groups e.g. women, homosexuals. 

http://artfem.tv/id;8/action;showpage/page_type;video/page_id;in_Visible_by_erica_eaton_2005_flv/

GenderFree: This clip shows the fluidity of gender roles, in a funny and playful way using the format of advertisements. In the first part the women's clothes change with the help of overlaying, between feminine and masculine portrayals of the same woman. Thus, bluring the strict boundaries between the genders exposing gender as a social construction. The second part is set up as an advert for a ringtone that is promoting feminism. It can be seen as a response to commerical ringtone adverts, which often make use of gender stereotypes. The third clip plays with the post-feminist practice of "camp" as an exaggeration of traditional gender roles, with three people going "camping". For us this is the weakest contribution of this series but maybe let us know what you think!

http://artfem.tv/id;8/action;showpage/page_type;video/page_id;feminist_adverts_by_Sol_Haring_and_Anita_Moerth_flv/

Disturb the Peace

http://www.d-t-p.tv/

"Whoa! Why does this word carry so much weight, and why do these women want to distance themselves so far from this word?" Once I had received a similar response from three other women, as though anger was un-cool, or un-sexy, I started thinking of the "Angry Young Men" of the fifties and sixties-the amorphous James Dean types whose anger was sexy, because anger is one of the sanctioned responses that men have, and women don't. No man would protest being featured in a book called Angry Young Men, do you think? 
[Interview with Andrea Juno, Ed of "angry women" (Juno Books, 1992)]

Society does not expect women to be angry, it is seen as a negative attribute, whereas from men it is almost expected to be angry and aggressive. History is full of narratives of angry young men, women on the other hand are expected to be peaceful and quiet. This website's purpose is to disturb this notion of a peaceful and passive woman. 

The website is a platform for female artists to express their anger through the works they publish here. It is designed in a non-hierarchical manner with all the entries floating around randomly, so there is no judgement involved what comes at the beginning or at the end.