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Thesis Info

LABS ID
00895
Thesis Title
All-Women Initiatives in Art and Technology 1986-2020. Atenea: Mentoring and Networking Project in STEAM
Author
Robles Mateo, Elena
2nd Author
3rd Author
Degree
PhD
Year
2020
Number of Pages
445
University
Universitat Politècnica de València
Thesis Supervisor
Lloret Romero, María Nuria
Supervisor e-mail
nlloret AT upvnet.upv.es
Other Supervisor(s)
Language(s) of Thesis
English
Department / Discipline
Departamento de Comunicación Audiovisual Documentación e Historia del Arte / Digital Art Theory-History
Languages Familiar to Author
English, Spanish, Italian
URL where full thesis can be found
Keywords
All-women, self-organized, initiatives, new media arts, art, technology, mapping, alternative art spaces, collaboration, segregation, ICT, digital age, virtual, community, network cultures, feminism, cyberfeminism, Atenea, STEM, girls, organizational, cur
Abstract: 200-500 words
This dissertation explores a series of all-women self-organized initiatives that have emerged at the intersection of art and technology internationally. These grassroot initiatives have continued to appear in places where there is a new media arts scene, generally male-dominated and low in diversity. This research work is a mapping of this techno-social and artistic phenomena, attempting to identity its earliest practices. Through interviews, surveys and ethnographic research, this thesis seeks to comprehend the context that has given rise to such initiatives along three decades and half, examining the different typologies by formats, extension, space and structure that they have adopted to address the situation of women in these fields. There is a void of references on all-women curatorial and organizational forms in art and technology. Moreover, general literature points digital subcultures of the 1990s such as cyberfeminism and DIY movement as first referents for women’s alliance and translocal activism in the digital age. However, collaboration and segregation strategies in new media arts have not been discussed in feminist scholarship from a deeper historical perspective. Therefore, this dissertation elaborates the linkage of such initiatives to early history of all-women art groups and alternative art spaces, history of women in new media arts and to network cultures. New information and communication technologies have enabled new forms of communication and connectivity cross-borders; however, this work investigates in which measure these initiatives are dependent upon ICT for the establishment of a community, compared to analog formats. With the results, this dissertation aims to become a source of references that enriches the scarce bibliography on the topic, providing a list of curatorial and organizational forms with the earliest and unpublished practices that altogether contribute to current women’s historiography. Lastly, while discussing the current situation of women in art and technology fields, this works presents Atenea, a mentoring and networking project for women in Arts and STEM careers. Atenea is comprised of a program having different organizational and curatorial activities and a networking platform. Additionally,the project has a program focused on teaching STEM skills to girls through new media arts with female artists as mentors.