FEMINIST HACKING: Building Circuits as an Artistic Practice

FEMINIST HACKING: Building Circuits as an Artistic Practice aims to establish feminist hacking as a strategy and method for emancipation in the field of art, science and technology. The project addresses the disbalance in presence and engagement of women* and non- binary artists. This bias is ubiquitously present in the field of media art, where male artists have received significantly more recognition than their female and queer peers. The project proposes to examine the potential of feminist hacking and feminist hardware as a medium of diversified artistic expression. The project uses feminist hacking as art-based research method in order to enable female* artists to develop their own tools, aware of intersectional forms of discrimination. The final stage of our project will hopefully give an answer to the question: what is feminist hardware? We will observe how feminist hacking informs art practice and how it helps to envision, conceptualize and make different kinds of art. We intentionally create a collaborative environment in which unorthodox alliances can emerge. We are a group of female* artist researchers that will intervene in the hardware production cycle by connecting with ethical hardware manufacturers. We will work in a systematic manner with manufacturers who are specialized in open and ethical hardware enabling production to be conducted in mindful architecture. In a first phase specific tools for media art projects will be developed taking into account fair modes of hardware production and its future open access and modification (licensed as open hardware). In a second phase, the hardware will be used and implemented during artist residencies at our national collaboration partner Mz* Baltazars Laboratory. The outcome will be presented in a mid-term presentation at our national collaboration partner ESC media art lab. This feedback will inform the next phase in which we host a series of workshops on the development and use of feminist hardware. Finally, we will publish extensively on documentation of our research process, focusing on the collaboration with ethical manufacturers demonstrating the particularities of the feminist hardware we developed in the form of an exhibition.

The project used artistic processes to unravel the ecological impact and human rights violations inherent in hardware production. The goal was to raise awareness and generate knowledge on alternative commodity chains for hardware production. Following principles of de-growth, it called for decentralised, ethical and sustainable forms of manufacturing electronics. Building on their expertise in queering technology through feminist hacking, the artistic research team aimed to decolonise technology using feminist hacking principles. The researchers gathered insights on mining, extraction, contamination, conflict and worker exploitation within the electronics industry. They worked with activists, critical makers and artists to produce hardware, rather than producing hardware with professionals from the hardware manufacturing industry. One of the strongest partners in this project was the feminist hackerspace and art collective Mz* Baltazar's Laboratory, based in Vienna, Austria. Feminist hacking involves questioning the assumptions embedded in technology and advocating active participation in shaping its impact on our lives. It resorts to care economies and relies on commons and making with self-grown, self-made, collectively developed resources. It stands for the establishment of alternative economies of resistance, a vision achievable only through unconventional and unorthodox thinking. In practice, this entails exploring materials that are often overlooked for hardware production, such as plants, fruits, bacteria, fungi and food, to mention a few. The research team then suggested sustainable hardware production methods within the realm of art. It developed a PCB (printed circuit board) from natural clay and urban-mined materials that served as the core element of the Ethical Hardware Kit, which can be used to create hardware in the classroom or in artist studios, in the city, in forests or deprived regions. The Ethical Hardware Kit and the Clay PCB consist of things made consensually with others and with care, intentionally gentle on the environment and informed by knowledge from local communities. With that knowledge, the team organised workshops to teach peers how to create the hardware themselves. During the workshops, participants were asked to unpack, question and subvert traditional power structures within the field of technology. They were encouraged to invent speculative prototypes inspired by the notion of feminist hardware. The project outcome provides feminist futures through artistic research and hopefully inspires many to situate themselves critically towards technology to undo oppression and exploitation. The researchers developed a strategy and method for empathic, eco-sentient, decolonial and anti-racist action in the field of art, science, technology and gender. Embedded within our ethos is a feminist code of conduct for hardware manufacturing, encompassing the following principles: mining without harm; environmentally friendliness; fair working conditions; manufacturing from ubiquitously available materials, without generating e-waste; and with love, consent and care.