Post-Cyber Feminism: Mutations in Australian Feminist Technoscience

Session Submission Type: Open Panel

Abstract

Australia has a rich history of feminist critique and engagement with science and technology. From the VNS Matrix’ Cyberfeminist Manifesto to Laboria Cuboniks’ Xenofeminist Manifesto, Australian feminists have been at the forefront of experimental and radical scholarship and practice. While concepts from cyberfeminism and xenofeminism are now transnational, their uniquely situated histories within genealogies of feminist technoscience warrants further engagement. This open panel invites papers reflecting on Australian feminist technoscience “post-cyber feminism.” What mutations have occurred over time? By mutation, we refer to the transmission, variation and corruption of ideas and approaches to “doing” feminist theory and practice. Mutations call to attention changes in situated material contexts, in this case, the specific material-semiotic assemblages of time/place/people/events we call “Australia.”

The questions we seek to address include: What are the uniquely Australian histories of feminist technoscience? How do these intersect with other forms of Australian feminisms, such as Aboriginal, postcolonial, queer? How can we think "xeno" politics in a settler-colonising society? How do seemingly disparate movements in contemporary art, fiction, philosophy, and feminism draw on, respond to, and critically resist Australian cyberfeminism, and how has Australian cyberfeminism mutated in response to these? How have changing political, material, and technological conditions altered the field of cyberfeminism, perhaps necessitating the expanded taxonomy of what Helen Hester recently called “post-cyber feminism”? We seek both traditional conference papers and contributions that loosen or discard the conference paper format altogether: science-fiction, performance art, poetry, philosophy, and all other mutations.

Sub Unit

• Papers for Open Panels / Post-Cyber Feminism: Mutations in Australian Feminist Technoscience

Chairs

• Sally Olds, University of Melbourne

• Emma Black, University of Queensland

• Thao Phan, University of Melbourne, Australia

Individual Presentations

• A SPELL TO BIND ALL MALE CONFERENCE PANELS: A site specific performance/paper - Linda Stupart, University of Reading

• Big Mother Infrastructures: The (Il)Logics of Invisible Provision - Zoe Sofoulis, Zoe Sofoulis

• Alien Nation: Tracing The Other in Xenofeminism - Xiaoran Shi, Independent scholar

• Between// Around - Nicholas Brocchi, Griffith University

• Creative mutations: queering cyber-feminisms in artistic research - Anna Helme, University of Melbourne

• Flesh Machine and Mutant Bodies: Lab-Grown Life in Australian Feminist BioArt - Elizabeth Stephens, University of Queensland

Session Organizers

• Thao Phan, University of Melbourne, Australia

• Sally Olds, University of Melbourne

• Emma Black, University of Queensland