[-empyre-] clarifications on what women

[Diana McCarty <diana@b.lab.net>]

Hello Empyre,


The last posts make me think a few clarifications are needed...


Jon,  you got my points right. I mentioned two specific venues, one media
art and one contemporary art - to point out that there are different fields
of art. There are also entire institutes dedicated to video, photoghraphy,
painting, etc etc.. Various texts in the book focus on interactive/
tele-communications/ video/ computer/art, but how those bodies of work, (not
to mention the larger contexts that inform the work and are tied to the same
types of social conditions that the technologies are). Of course, there are
artists and media that cross-over, video for one, and net.art to a certain
extent. Thanks for asking for clarification.

Tim, I don't see caustic remarks as much as feedback, both positive and
negative. Also, most of what I've read (and posted) is not critical about
work that has a focus on women, _because_ it has a focus on women. But
because it says Women, a broad term, when the actual texts are really North
American. This has really been dealt with in Post-Colonial Feminst work.
Regina's thesis on Brazilian women artists sounds fascinating, but also
because she contextualizes her topic.

You are right to say that the works presented so far are intereting. But,
most of the works discussed on the list so far are not actually in the book,
they are being added to the link list. You raise some excellent points - but
I don't think we are out of the time you describe as not so long ago. Hence,
my critique. You mentioned VNS Matrix - and they are discussed in several of
the texts included, but not given an artists paper. Aside from their role in
this book, they have spawned tons of cyberfeminst work all over the planet,
ciberfeminista in Mexico, Sub Rosa in the US, OBN in Germany, and so on.
These, in turn, have generated a broad discourse.  It had an impact on
further productions, established a new paradigm.  For me, that is what makes
the VNS work seminal.

As a non-objective and rather engaged woman in the broad fields of media,
art and gender, I'm critical about the weak points in Judy's book. These are
the kinds of questions my colleauges and I tackle on a daily basis. For
sure, I don't have all the answers, but because these are points I have to
consider, I am curious how other women deal with them.


best,

diana