From Donna Haraway’s Cyborgs to digital architecture and art.
DS.WRITER:
Sophia Throuvala
Image: Woman's House, 1972 | Source: moma.org
First-wave feminism brought the issue of visibility to the forefront, aiming to restore female presence in a male-dominated history in all areas, from social life to human rights, cultural production, accessibility, activism and politics. This political spirit gave birth to a discussion concerning the architecturally structured space, which, due to inequality in the field of production, remained male-dominated and male-oriented, while the conception and implementation of architectural projects, remained voyeuristic, one could say, and demeaning towards women.
It’s been observed that 98% of housing and working spaces are designed and implemented by men, and serve -intentionally or not- inequality, creating a binding space for women, who are apparently “accommodated” through the reproduction of stereotypes (man-made environment). In this context, Dolores Hayden ponders the possibility of a non-sexist city, insinuating that if women had the chance to design and build a world based on their point of view, based on needs and not vested interest, the definition itself and the shape of the city would possibly be overturned and with it, tradition, culture, philosophy and of course psychology.
The harsh dividing lines between (just the two) genders led to second-wave feminism, which, in a more post-structuralist logic, proposes the re-appropriation of space by changing them radically. It ideologically embraces the need to disrupt power relations and gendered divisions as they emerge from the study of architecture. In this context, architecture could criticise and somewhat define inequality, given that the issue of “nature” is interwoven with the philosophy of building from the beginning and has subsequently created a respective tradition that even the few women designers who existed could not escape. Besides, what are we referring to when we talk about “functional spaces”?
However, despite the discussions and actions of feminists (such as Mary McLeod, Catherine Ingraham, An Bergrein etc.) -barring the innovative and inventive projects and installations such as the iconic WomenHouse of 1972 by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro or TranSit & SoftCell by Diller+Scofidio, and especially the 1987 withDrawing Room, which can be broken down into small, alterable and ephemeral structural elements within a room, which serve and ensure a presence-absence that directly inscribes the ideas of Donna Haraway (Cyborg Manifesto '85) and Julia Kristeva (powers of horror, '80)- the materials and mind frame in architectural construction did not really change. The ideas did not turn into action or radically shift from philosophy to design and implementation.
The withdrawing Room Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio 1987, Photography by Ben Blackwell, Courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Despite the academic presence of feminists in the 80s and 90s, it was not only architecture that remained the same but also the non-inclusion of queer people in these theories persisted. In the more than 30 volumes, books and gender-related anthologies, there is no room for the queer space movement. An exception is A Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway, who, with the phrase "in short, we are all cyborgs", envisages the future of feminism and implicitly speaks of the problems ultimately brought about by the separation into two, and only, basic genders. Combined with Julia Kristeva's psychoanalytic theories of the body as non-essential per se, an ideological corpus is created that broadens the discussion from architecture to cyberspace as well as from body to machine, from material to transparency and from the binary gender theory to the most possible fluid form of gender.
As the world-wide-web was becoming more and more widespread in the early 90s and co-existed with the aforementioned views, Cyberfeminism started appearing in art and criticism, conceiving cyberspace as yet another “space” created by men for men (“computer made by men for men”). VNS Matrix (1993), a women's collective from South Australia, began to elaborate on concepts related to cyberspace and asked the important question: Could we use technology to hack the codes of patriarchy? Could we escape gender online? Can a new space into which all "earthly" problems -such as sexism, discrimination, transphobia, homophobia and racial marginalization- have been transferred, be defeated and democratised?
VNS Matrix 1991 A Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century | Image Source: monoskop.org
In the following years, digital art and digital design and fabrication (even the now widespread NFTs) became the main "vehicle" of queer and feminist visual artists and designers. There is a significant increase in the production of 3d-printed ceramics and textiles and a general trend towards knitting and the re-appropriation of domestic work as new media design. It is a re-appropriation and re-evaluation of the traditional, historical methods of producing objects, which are directly related to how women in history spent time in their homes and created spaces within the space, decorating and classifying the space they inhabited in micro-regions, each with its own semiology and symbolism. We can still trace Haraway's presence very vividly within this new way of continuing tradition, viewing the "producer" as an organic part of the physical space.
According to Donna Haraway, a cyborg is borderline, both an organism and a machine, that is, it is an organic part of society. We could say that cultural heritage, beyond architecture, on the scale of the domestic and "folkloric" element, was created historically and essentially by women, with the use and exploitation of each technology at the exact moment it became accessible, with the aim of producing both visual and utilitarian goods such as carpets, ceramics, textiles, embroideries, baskets, etc. In other words, objects that today are absolutely connected to design.
Silkworm-spun pavilion, Neri Oxman | Image Source: oxman.com
Digital design and fabrication works are not exclusively created by women. Gender segregation does not exist in the augmented era, although some of the most important examples, such as Neri Oxman's "Silk Pavilion" and Jenny Sabin's "Lumen", have been made by women. In fact, in these two cases, the "folkloric" and traditional element acquires architectural dimensions, turning “inside” to “outside” in a way that has never before been applied to construction. Gender, here, is inherent in the creations as a "homage". Gender is traced within the methods deployed by new media as a reference to the legacy of domestic work, in a grand, monumental and contemporary way that envisions futuristic cities through a deeply feminist lens.
Image Source: jennysabin.com
Fabrication and architecture meet in the space of the now widespread NFTs, in a completely new way, while gender divisions persist. Recently, Alycia Rainaud, a graphic designer that creates some of the highest-paid NFTs, stated that even in the case of NFTs, an unprecedented - unlike others- form of art, it is no secret that men are favoured once again in relation to women or queer individuals, who, according to the latest studies, make up only 15% of crypto-users.
Tied Up to the Past, «Maalavidaa» courtesy of «Maalavidaa» | Image Source: vogue.com
Finally, Krista Kim, the first creator of an "architectural" NFT, Mars House -a house inspired by an entirely new conception of architecture-, believes that NFTs are here to teach us about the evolution of design in an unprecedented way. As she states: “Soon we will adorn our lives with NFT art, fashion, poetry, music, collectables, and interactive experiences using exclusively A.R. technology”.
It is still not clear whether we are talking in terms of reality, utopia or dystopia but we can say that Haraway predicted and perhaps guided (as an inspiration) a part of what is happening today in the field of design, art and architecture. Are we still situated on the borders between nature and technology or do we tend to leave a digital footprint more often than a “physical” one, thus blurring the lines between body and non-body, and presence and absence, more than ever before?
Krista Kim’s Mars Housecourtesy Krista Kim | Image Source: vogue.com
SOURCES:
Hayden, Dolores (1980). What Would a Non-Sexist City Be Like? Speculations on Housing, Urban Design, and Human Work. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 5(S3)
Shelby Doyle & Leslie Forehand, “Fabricating Architecture: Digital Craft as Feminist Practice,” in the Avery Review 25 (September 2017),
DORA EPSTEIN JONES, Extreme Makeover; or, How the F-word Shaped Contemporary Architecture Southern California Institute of Architecture
