Interferences of the Multitude: Transfeministhacking research team chairs a track at POM conference in Berlin

During 13-17 September 2021 our team chair a track entitled “Interferences of the Multitude” in the frames of the Politics of the Machines: Rogue Research conference edition in Berlin co-organized by Aalborg University, Denmark, Aalto University, Finland, the institute of visual communication of the International University of Beirut, Lebanon and hosted by the Einstein Centre Digital Future, Berlin.

The POM – Politics of The Machines is a conference series founded by Laura Beloff (Aalto University Helsinki) and Morten Søndergaard (Aalborg University Denmark).

Interferences of the Multitude track explored, how in an era of ongoing crises made visible and sensible in the recent global turmoil, the question of ‘normality’ is increasingly under scrutiny. One can no longer be sure what ‘matters’ the most, as the normal was the problem in the first place. ‘There can be no return to normal’ has become the new social and political mantra – we might rather need to give attention to the experimental conditions of our observations. To accomplish this task, artists and researchers search for methods and tools to intra-act with and care for what matters in the realms of a potential future. We take this call as a chance to feel those who question established disorders – an invitation for people from diverse fields working in theory and/or empirical methodologies and practices for critical (art) making.

Forthcoming: track introduction paper by research team members in POM conference proceedings

Sketching the Ethical Hardware Kit

Tile-shaped little 5-edged boxes

The kit consists of urban-mined hardware, and electronic components that don’t need soldering and can be assembled like puzzle pieces. It will all be connected to a fairly and sustainably produced ATTINY. It is powered by a large ceramic bowl, resembling the kitchenware at Judy Chicago’s dinner party.

The power source includes soil with the bacteria that breathes electrons. It should be stable 5 Volts if you water is regularly added. We don’t know yet if there are enough of those bacterias in the clay – will need to check back with the biologists. The colours should be natural colours like blueberry, henna, etc. We can make our own ATTINY programmer with a PCB.

Workshop at New Materialist Informatics 2021 Conference, University of Kassel

In “What is Fem­in­ist Hard­ware? Fem­in­ist Hack­ing: Build­ing Cir­cuits as an Artistic Prac­tice” workshop on 23-25 March 2021 in the frames of the New Materialist Informatics 2021 conference organized by the University of Kassel, Germany, we intervened in the hardware production cycle by connecting with ethical hardware manufacturers. We worked in a systematic manner with manufacturers who are specialized in open and ethical hardware to find as many fair sourced hardware components as possible. In this workshop, we proposed to experiment with circuits that consist entirely of these special materials we have collected in recent months. We believe the development of individual positions through collaboratively developed hardware to be the most appropriate way to demonstrate what feminist hardware entails. This methodology aims to support, on the one hand, the production of new knowledge acquainted by the interaction between artists, hardware developers/manufacturers, and, on the other, the playful prototyping with fair-traded open hardware.

Salon of Open Secrets – SOS: “New Materialisms, Feminist Practices

First talk in the series of events dedicated to the 100 year anniversary of the admission of women at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

with Karin Reisinger, Patricia J. Reis, Taguhi Torosyan, Stefanie Wuschitz, Barbara Huber and Karina Jarrett

SOS stands for “Salon of Open Secrets”, the salon for open secrets*. And what does that mean?

What are open secrets? The proverbial elephant in the room? Aossip? Publicly censored and stigmatized issues? All of this, but not exclusively. We define Open Secrets as a very situated niche for embodied experiences, knowledge and fun in being a woman*, breaking down binaries with/through/in arts, technologies, engineering and materials science and connecting with each other in the most unexpected and life-affirming ways.

SOS is a virtual version of our cozy hackerspace studio. A place, a conversation, a happening and a connection. Our salon wants to reconnect with all those out there doing and creating, succeeding and failing, formulating new thoughts through things, staying fascinated by the eternal promise of all technology to create a better and more livable future for all .

Format: Each month we will have an open online conversation with an artist, feminist, hacker, maker, scientist about the existing challenges and their solutions – and a connected web of material, hardware components, their ecologies, Weaving economies, labour, geography, ethics and politics of becoming in our more than human world.

www.mzbaltazarslaboratory.org 

www.feministhacking.org 

Karin Reisinger – feministische Ökologien

Event link: https://www.akbild.ac.at/de/universitaet/aktuelles/vortraege-events/2021/salon-der-offenen-secrets-geheimnisse-sos-201cneuer-materialismus-feministische-pratiken201d