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Let's imagine/map/draw a feminist internet!
2024-06-08 , NewYorck Room 3
Language: English

Many people are not aware of the physical infrastructure of the internet and how it relates to them but give them a map and ask them to look at the place where they live, and they are hooked and stunned. By looking at a single submarine cable, for example, we can understand how some infrastructures may bear traits of colonialism, for example.

There are feminist mapping practices of the internet, with some examples being Ingrid Burrington's "Networks of New York", the "Cartografiás da Internet" by Coding Rights, and ARTICLE 19's "Internet Standards Almanac". But in general we lack a perspective on infrastructures that is as well feminist as taking into account colonialism and climate change and that situates itself outside of academia.

Maps can take different forms besides the classical map form. We can map things to find out how they are, where they are - but most importantly: how we relate to them. Where are we on this map, in this image or series of images, in this story? We can use mapping practices to tell graphical stories about networking technologies from a feminist perspective.

At /etc 2024 propose a collective ideation session about how feminist perspectives on the internet, or parts of the internet, could look like! I'll give a short introduction, will show some art, and I'll bring texts that we can get inspired by with the goal to possibly generate feminist, technopessimist, ecological, post-colonial perspectives of the internet.

This will be a hands-on session where we will collectively, potentially in small teams, generate a veriety of graphical outcomes. It's not necessary to know anything about drawing, we can also use photography, collage, and text as a technique.


What level is your session aimed at?

All

What to bring to your session?

ideas, art supplies (if you have some), a networked device to do research

In the past, Ulrike worked as a developer on Debian and Tails, and provided Holistic Security to medical abortion grassroots organizations in 20+ African countries. She currently works as a graphic designer and illustrator with a focus on internet infrastructures. Together with ARTICLE 19 and her co-authors, she published "How the Internet Really Works. An illustrated guide to protocols, privacy, censorship, and governance." The book has been translated into 5 other languages besides English and is archived in Github's technology library in Svalbard/Norway.