Feminist Hacking Art.

Technology is not neutral. It is no secret that the hardware in smart devices contains not only plastics but also precious minerals such as cobalt, tungsten, tin, lithium, tantalum and gold. Often known as conflict minerals, these raw materials are mined and processed in regions afflicted by conflict. They are then sold to hardware manufacturers and used to create electrical circuits often involving harmful working conditions. But the devices all too quickly end up in toxic landfill sites. This cycle of exploitation within the hardware commodity chain has echoes of colonialism.! In Feminist Hacking Art: Consent, Co-existence and Collective Survival, the authors raise awareness of this cycle, opening their arts-based research project to anyone interested in sustainable and ethical tech production. They build hardware using existing or recycled materials, refusing to create technology in the standard (harmful) ways. Using unconventional and eco-friendly materials, such as locally sourced clay, and sustainable production methods that dont use electricity, the authors work with artists, crafters, engineers and activists to create eco-feminist decolonial hardware speculating about technology developed using feminist principles of care and consent.! Speculative design methodologies are found in this book at the intersection between art, science and eco-feminism, understood as a key tool for finding new materials and ways to create a harmonious future. The authors use the term ethical hardware to refer to technologies that dont harm the environment, instead applying renewable practices that benefit both nature and humans. As artists, the authors bring together different age groups in their research, connecting with various social movements comprising young people, female* and non-binary creative minds with shared values. These movements advocate everything from permacomputing to de-growth, solidarity economies, circular economies and open-source hardware.! The artwork developed in this project represents the nodes of an international network of hackers who embrace trans-feminist hacking as an artistic practice. Their hope is to ensure the collective survival of both humans and non-humans. The project was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) as part of the PEEK Arts-Based Research and the Top Citizen Science funding schemes. The interdisciplinary experiments, artwork and results presented in this book contribute to discussions of how artistic research and citizen science help to produce academic knowledge.