Dismantling the Patriarchy, Bit by Bit: Art, Feminism, and Digital Technology

by Judith K. Brodsky

Overview

In Dismantling the Patriarchy, Bit by Bit, Judith K. Brodsky makes a ground-breaking intellectual leap by connecting feminist art theory with the rise of digital art. Technology has commonly been considered the domain of white men but-unrecognized until this book-female artists, including women artists of color, have been innovators in the digital art arena as early as the late 1960s when computers first became available outside of government and university laboratories.

Brodsky, an important figure in the feminist art world, looks at various forms of visual art that are quickly becoming the dominant art of the 21st century, examining the work of artists in such media as video (from pioneers Joan Jonas and Adrian Piper to Hannah Black today), websites and social networking (from Vera Frenkel to Ann Hirsch), virtual and augmented reality art (Jenny Holzer to Hyphen-Lab), and art using artificial intelligence. She also documents the work of female-identifying, queer, transgender, and Black and brown artists including Legacy Russell and Micha Cárdenas, who are not only innovators in digital art but also transforming technology itself under the impact of feminist theory.

In this radical study, Brodsky argues that their work frees technology from its patriarchal context, illustrating the crucial need to transform all areas of our culture in order to achieve the goals of #MeToo, Black Lives Matter (BLM), and Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) representation, to empower female-identifying and Black and brown people, and to document their contributions to human history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350243521
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/20/2022
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.15(w) x 9.15(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Judith K. Brodsky is Distinguished Professor Emerita (1978-2001) in the Department of Visual Arts at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA. She is the founder of the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper. The RCIPP, established by Brodsky in 1986, was renamed the Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions in her honor in 2006. Brodsky is also the co-founder of the Rutgers University Institute for Women and Art, the only one of its kind in the United States.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface

Introduction

1. Reinserting Women into the History of Digital Art: Pioneer Feminist Artists
2. The 1970s: Feminism and Digital Art Inside and Outside the Academy
3. Reimagining the Binary Nature of Digital Technology
4. Using Websites and Browsers to Deliver Social Justice Messages
5. Provoking the Patriarchy Through Digital Language
6. Queerness, Race, and Digital Art
7. The Avatar
8. The Female Body Disappears
9. Creating Feminist Paradigms of Knowledge through Digital Technology
10. Surveillance
11. Feminist Artists and the Gaming Industry
12. Japanese Feminism, Video Games, and Anime
13. Artificial Intelligence (AR), Facial Recognition, and Virtual Reality (VR)
14. Digital Public Art and Augmented Reality (AR)

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

At last! A book that restores women to the history of digital art and shows how they transformed it. What is unique about Brodsky's brilliant book are the firm lines of connection from the feminist art movement of the 1970s to the digital art of today. Brodsky highlights women digital artists informed by feminist theory, who are
'dismantling the patriarchy,' subverting and replacing the hierarchic binaries at its root.” —Norma Broude & Mary D. Garrard, Professors Emeritae of Art History, American University, USA, and authors of The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s

“Dismantling the Patriarchy, Bit by Bit is a broad look at women who embrace feminist theory and use technology to create art. Brodsky argues that these artists have influenced the development of technology, which is widely considered a male domain.” —Kathy Rae Huffman, Curator, co-founder of the online community FACES: Art, Gender, Technology

“This book reclaims and contextualizes important female practitioners of technology-like Joan Jonas, Charlotte Moorman, Jenny Holzer, Vera Frenkel, Muriel Magenta, Laurie Anderson, Dara Birnbaum, VNS Matrix, subRosa, and countless others-and resituates them on a par with their male contemporaries. This is a must-read for all interested in Feminist Art and New Media.” —Maura Reilly, author of Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating

From the Publisher