3rd “<Interrupted =“Cyfem and Queer>“ in Berlin

Background

The third experimental symposium of “<Interrupted =“Cyfem and Queer>“ is a day and night-long series of conversations, brainstorming sessions, panels, lectures and performances dedicated to broadening the discourse around digital space. A place for reflection and action at the intersection of media, technology, gender and sexuality, the event aims to formulate strategies for queering the blurred line between science, music and art.

“<Interrupted =“Cyfem and Queer>“ positions itself at the point of tension between the past and future of the feminist canon concerning gender as it relates to the digital. Interruption, pause and the question of where to being and how to move forward, encourages not only reflection on one’s own subjectivity but requires an examination of the existing texts, ideas, practices and approaches to innovative, transdisciplinary thinking. That’s why all three events at Berlin’s Südblock and aquarium and OHM contribute to the development of a local feminist history of ideas, while also expanding it through the international orientation of the project.

The first international cyberfeminist conference in Kassel in 1997 developed 100 negative propositions, stating what cyberfeminism is not. This followed prominent science and technology scholar Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto“ in 1984, presenting technological development as a potential weapon against repression and dominance. Since then, the concept has evolved against a backdrop of the ever-changing digital landscape. Cyberfeminism is a hybrid term that is profuse with artistic, scientific, technological and political implication. Women, queer and non-binary people from different fields can use the term to generate new approaches, while becoming part of a greater context and network outside of their own discipline. Regardless of the cybertheorist, cyberpolitician or cyberartist quoted, each person defines the term differently. It is exactly this mutability that is at the center of “<Interrupted =“Cyfem and Queer>“ which asks a series of key questions over three events, staggered through 2018 and 2019.

How does a burgeoning digital-queer generation employ the energy generated by cyberfeminism, and what role do cyberfeminist positions play in contemporary society? How do artists navigate identity politics and generate resistance through their music and art, and can this engagement with music, art and theory spark a wish for self-empowering action?

Rather than a formal conference of people presenting their research, “<Interrupted =“Cyfem and Queer>“ takes an experimental and interdisciplinary approach to these questions, exploring what a queer internet might look like and examining the research that has already been done in this area, while fostering collaborations on artistic, activist and academic projects. Discussion will focus on trans- and interdisciplinary approaches to feminist ideas and concepts, developing reading, writing, thinking, performing and sounding practices, as well as other political work, in order to contest existing thought on nature, culture and technology.

Curated by Daniela Seitz and Anja Weigl of Creamcake and Gala Rexer, the third “<Interrupted =“Cyfem and Queer>“ conference giving its digital queer community the space it needs to share a much-needed voice.

Day Program

aquarium, Workshop Room*

10.00 - 11.30 Bailey Keogh: Resistance Strategies and a Practical Introduction to Blockchain
12.00 - 13.00 Paul Wiersbinski: Mortal Toys - a performative AR-game about control and being controlled

aquarium, Lecture Room

11.00 Hello!
11.30 - 12.00 Olamiju Fajemisin: On Words and Digital Thinking II
12.00 - 12.30 Morgana Karch: Models of Control: Taxidermy, data collection and the production of norms 
Break
13.00 - 13.30 Betiel Wasihun: Shame in the age of digital surveillance
13.30 - 14.00 Ellen O’Donoghue Oddy: Empathetic self surveillance and watching porn in Carmen Maria Machado and Ali Smith
14.00 - 14.30 Coco Fitterman: WHAT A SHAME TO HAVE A BODY
14.30 - 15.00 Exchange, conversation
Break
16.00 - 16.30 Michelle Pfeifer: Sonic Borders 
16.30 - 17.00 Jasmina Al-Qaisi: Listening together to Applied Tactics Of Self-Absolution  
17.00 - 17.30 Sebastián Gómez: The gamification of the ideal ‘man’: Human optimization and algorithmic governmentality
17.30 - 18.00 Magdu "xenoheka" Magdy and Tara “Terrabyte” Tarakiyee: (In)visibility: queer traces and cyborg doppelgangers

Night program

OHM

00.00 - 1.30 Yantan Ministry
01.30 - 2.15 Bunny Michael (live)
02.15 - 3.00 Via App (live)
03.00 - 4.30 Odete
04.30-end BabyBlue

Free entry for the workshops (registration required*), day program 3-5€ on donation basis. Tickets for the night program will be available at the door from the official box office at OHM.

Contact: interrupted@creamcake.de

For more information click here.

This project is made possible with the support of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, and in cooperation with the Gunda Werner Institute in the Heinrich Böll Foundation e.V.