C R I T I C A L T R A N S F E M I N I S T D E S I G N¶
02.05.23
During this class Laura spoke about critical practices mixing design, art, research design, experimental practices, knowledge making and transfers, practices that aren’t always clear where they start or end, as well as philosophy and ethics. The topic of fiction was questioned: How does fiction operate? Can it be a critical tool, something that questions how things can be, shaping our ideas of how the future can be, one of the ways that we are imagining futures, a vehicle for critique - ideas and thoughts that can’t live out in real life but can in a fiction world.
But what happens when fiction has hyper real consequences? Technologies in older sci-fi movies, have they also shaped how technology has evolved into the present? An example of fiction is - Boundaries - they are fiction with hyper real consequences, environmental, political, social, something that isn’t ‘real’ but still people are murdered every day because of these fictional boarders dividing areas and the people living there into groups.
Acknowledging these colonial backgrounds, racism in systems structures was central to the seminar where Eugenics and other philosophical theories that have justified horrible actions for the ‘moral good’ were discussed. But who can decide what articulates ‘moral duty’, where are they coming from and for what is this morally good? Who decides what is ‘undesirable or unnecessary’?
The relevance of critically paying attention to terms, narratives and discourses was an overall topic. How have they been used historically, what did they mean? What do they mean now? Here we also spoke about dimensions of power, where negative, restrictive, oppressive power - Potestas acts as politics as usual, beaurocratic and Positive power being affirmative and empowering - Potentia => the political, knowledge, knowledge making transferring.
Critique as creativity - power has these 2 dimensions that are always fluctuating
We were introduced to Indigenous Feminism and Radical Indigenous survivance and empowerment, which counter creating narratives that reproduce colonial background. We watched Daniela Ortiz’s critical performance to Spanish migrant Laws where Ius Sanguinis which is present in Spain and many other European countries and doesn’t acknowledge children born in a country if they have migrant parents, seeing them as migrant even before they are born, showing how systemic racism, colonialism, and inequalities are still present in system structures today. https://riseupfeministarchive.ca/activism/issues-actions/indigenous-womens-rights/
‘I would not wish an identity upon anyone’ Identities that have been denied, abused, murdered, just because you are born in a specific place, someone has already decided your identity for you and will act upon the judgments they have from this.
We spoke about Subaltern which describes people in the lower social classes and other social groups that are displaced and marginalized while also living in an imperial colony. It is impossible for them to speak up as they are divided by gender, class, caste, region, religion and other narratives. These divisions do not allow them to stand up in unity.
Epistemic violence threatens the integrity of individuals and communities and plays a key role in power systems such as sexism, colonialism, ableism, among others. Who is explaining these topics? What is happening in class is this exactly, we need to be very much aware of this. https://englishsummary.com/canthe-subaltern-speak-summary/
BIOhackers ‘We have always been biohackers’ transnational network of notes on the internet. Hacteria Biology etc with a hacking mentality and methodology
We watched Mary Maggics project about Open Source Hormones questioning Who has control over our bodies? And who has the power to control hormones? What does it mean to people when they don’t have control over hormones that enter their bodies and the environment? What does this mean in relation to bioethics adnd bio hacking. The project opens up important discussions and reflections about control and ownership over our own bodies, as well as questioning the roll and future of medicine and how we take care of our bodies and the environment. https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/open-source-estrogen/ https://maggic.ooo/Open-Source-Estrogen-1
This class raised important topics in an interesting way, there were many terms that were for me hard to understand in English, but a good way to learn them. A reminder to remember the privileges we have and are born with, and the importance to raise your voice as a woman and take a stand for our rights. We were shown inspiring projects that do this in the intersection of art, design, science and experimental practices.
During the second session we were further introduced to organisations and collectives that work with art, science and technologies to question the status quo and normalised subjects. We watched a video from Aqua_Forensic that aims to visualise invisible anthropogenic pollutants in water habitats. The project combines: art, science, and a citizen-science approach to collect and process information on pollutants – ‘invisible chemical pollutants’ such as legal & illegal drugs – mood controllers, antibiotics, antimycotics, painkillers, hormone pills etc.that are the residue of human consumptions discharged into underwater habitats. The project goal is to make these invisible anthropogenic pollutants and the pattern of their effect in the water habitats visible. https://www.fact.co.uk/artwork/aqua-forensic https://robertina.net/aqua_forensic/
This project was very interesting regarding the different projects I am a part of during this term reagrding, water, sea, waste and communicaion around this.