Producing Futures

While in the 1990s cyber-feminism—a term coined by artist collective VNS Matrix—celebrated the cyberspace as a place of liberation and empowerment, one is now confronted with the fact that, rather, it multiplied and enforced existing hierarchies and power structures. Thus the question remains of whether the cyberspace can be appropriated when striving for gender justice, emancipation and social equality. As the virtual world(s) and real life are increasingly merging, artists reflect on and productively alienate the tools and platforms on hand to produce a future that is worth living in—offline and online. To relate historical claims and visions of cyber-feminism to the current situation, as well as to different feminist approaches which focus on the tension between body and technology and discriminatory gender norms, this publication gathers together works and approaches by Cao Fei, Cécile B. Evans, Guan Xiao, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Juliana Huxtable, Mary Maggic, Malaxa, Shana Moulton, Tabita Rezaire, Gavin Rayna Russom, Frances Stark, Wu Tsang, Anna Uddenberg, VNS Matrix, and Anicka Yi.