Feminist approaches to tactical media
Author: redactie redactie
Feminist approaches, to my disappointment, proved to be more a presentation of a number of ways women are active in the field of cyberspace, rather than a real discussion of gender and IT. And even though all of the speakers gave an interesting presentation in their own right, the incredible diversity of these projects made it a rather incoherent gathering.
The one thing the speakers had in common was that they all share a very practical view on Information Technology and the way they use it to benefit women. Rather than think about this subject on an academic level, they ‘went out and did it’.
Speakers included representatives of Women on Waves, Cybermohalla, and ASCII, as well as Australian artist Deborah Kelly. She did a very interesting series of works under the title 'Hey, Hetero'. Emer Beamer, also present, is working on a project that uses the Internet for education about AIDS in African schools.
All of these women gave interesting presentations of their work and all of them could have easily filled two hours by themselves. As it was, each had to make do with limited time, and the multitude of speakers left precious little time for a discussion to take place between the panel and the audience, which was a shame.
In another form this might have been a lot more interesting. Especially since such a limited part of the festival deals with gender issues and female inequality.
Suzanne Rademaker