The Cyberfeminism Index
Reviewed by: Cecilia Knaub
Review started: March 2, 2024
Review last updated: March 4, 2024
Site Link: https://cyberfeminismindex.com/
Archive Link: unable to archive
Data Sources
- Interviews
- Submissions
- Documentary videos
- Audio recordings
- Illustrations
Partners and Funding Sources
- Rhizome
- Inventory Press (for printing of the physical Index)
- New Museum
Processes
Resources collected through conversations with thought leaders in those respective spaces (e.g., hackerspaces, digital rights activist groups). The creators also accept submissions through the website.
Presentation
The architecture and presentation of the Cyberfeminism index supports its provocative, inclusive ideology. It was intentionally designed for longevity. Seu, in collaboration with web developer Angeline Meitzler selected default design elements and little advanced web technology. Employing little Javascript, Python, and a markup library helps ensure the index will continue to be a resource even if the requirements for web technologies evolve. The index lists the year of publication, title, and authors/creators of each resource in three large text columns. With the resources listed chronologically by year of publication, visitors can scroll down to browse currents of cyberfeminism through time. When a user selects a resource, it gets added to a sidebar that acts as a history or a unique path through the index.
Digital Tools Used
The website uses HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Python.
Languages
- English
Review
The Cyberfeminism Index is a collection of critical texts, projects, and art pieces from the late 20th and 21st century centering feminism and technology. Although rooted in feminism, cyberfeminism is an imperfect umbrella term due to the Western attitudes dominating the history of feminism, making it complicated and exclusionary.First appearing online in 2020, the Cyberfeminism index is the result of collaborative efforts between Seu, a curator and educator who has taught at Rutgers University, Yale Design School, and the University of Southern California Los Angeles, and developer Meitzler, with additional support from Janine Rosen and Charles Broskoski. The project was commissioned by Rhizome and exhibited online by the New Museum. Seu states that the work is incomplete and ongoing, alluding to the project’s commitment to adding new content to the index, improving citations, and gathering non-Western voices to contribute to the collection. All of this sets inclusivity, longevity, and provocation as core goals of the work.
Artifacts included in the collection span Cyberfeminism 2.0, black cyberfeminism, xenofeminism, post-cyber feminism, glitch feminism, Afrofuturism, hackfeministas, transhackfeminism, 넷페미 (netfemi), and 女权之声 (feminist voices), among others. As the curator, Seu calls out the project for a Western bias, admitting that the limits of English, the adoption of the Internet, and varied terminology all influence the context from which the resources were taken.
The look and feel of the site was considered just as much as the content was.The responsive web design and use of simple, futureproof technology lends the index a flexibility to expand and exist over time. Visitors browse the index chronologically, seeing how the fields expand and evolve over time, or sort title and author through the many nodes and offshoots of cyberfeminism collected so far.
In summary, the Cyberfeminism Index is a valuable resource that helps elucidate a complex and evolving philosophy and creative practice. The open invitation for user contributions allows it to grow as an increasingly global and pluralistic archive. Seu's curatorial candor about the index's inevitable gaps and biases is refreshing. Overall, it's a well researched and documented starting point for mapping the cyberfeminist terrain, with ample opportunity to broaden its perspective through an expanded community of contributors.
How does this project address information?
As a resource, the Cyberfeminism Index proves a helpful tool in curating and collecting resources. The project also goes to lengths to cite the creators of the original materials and give contributors credit for their work.
How well does this project handle information?
While the site is simple, and doesn’t transform information from each resource, it accomplishes a difficult feat in providing a tool to navigate the information (or lack thereof) out there on the subjects.