Re: [-empyre-] www.ggg.cc - games/gender/girls

["ben .w" <b121@eudoramail.com>]

>During the early 1990's English theorist Sadie Plant had also coined 
>the term 'cyberfeminism'. By pure serendipity, both VNS Matrix and 
>Plant were thinking about the body in cyberspace, and the potential 
>for virtual identities to create a rupture in gender identity...was 
>it possible to leave your gender behind in cyberspace...and what is 
>the potential for other sorts of identities to emerge. For VNS Matrix 
>and Plant, these ideas were liberating, and enabled a positive and 
>critical engagement with cybertheory of the time. Other key figures 
>around this time included Allucquere Rosanne/Sandy Stone and Linda 
>Dement, who were very much challenging ideas of online identity and 
>flesh in cyberspace.


Julianne,  
fascinating to draw a trajectory  from 70's cunt art to 90's Cybercunt art. 

>From my knowledge of feminist writers like Sadie Plant et al I always assumed they were appropriating the masculine fantasy - jumping into what men have been accused of doing since the early days of the technological revolution  - that is sexualising  technology and cyberspace - and using it as a  site to act out gender and identity fantasies.

I remember well the teledildonic phrase, and I also recall a Swedish ?male writer /artist (whose name escapes me) who designed a immersive latex body suit to enhance cybersex. Joseph N spoke about the erotics of Virtual Reality last month which elicited  a response about the inability to leave the body behind.

How is your work and other cyberfeminist work different from mens or women non-cyberfemmisist work produced in the mid 1990's - perhaps they all reflect the ethos of the era.  

Ben
____




>These first manifestations of cyberfeminism were imbued with a sense 
>of idealism, with an attitude that 'cyberspace' was a new kind of 
>frontier. I am interested in the next month to look at some questions 
>concerning the trajectory of cyberfeminism, and indeed the sense of 
>play within technoculture. To what extent has new media art practice 
>overcome the fascination with technology and embarked on an 
>engagement with issues of identity, sexuality and political change? 
>What sort of spaces has cyberfeminism created for women to engage 
>with technology, or has cyberfeminism been irrelevent in this? One of 
>the VNS Matrix projects was to investigate the potential of 
>developing games for girls. The prototype of the game project BAD 
>CODE was an attempt at this, but unfortunately has never made it on 
>to the shelves of gaming stores. Is there a market for girl gaming 
>and who are the developers?
>
>I hope that these questions spark some interest and I look forward to 
>comments from the list and from Mary Flanagan a bit later in the 
>month,
>
>cheers Julianne
>
>_______________________________________________
>empyre forum
>empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>


Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com