creativity/machine

Category: gender

  • Obligatory Google Buzz post

    Cross-posted to the Air-l list. In a discussion about Google Buzz, surveillance and privacy, Christian Fuchs said: Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently remarked about Internet privacy: “Ifyou have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnot be doing it in the first place”, which points towards a lack ofunderstanding of the online…

  • large and in charge

    This is not the parody I was looking for, but at least this very obviously calculated-to-provoke-youtube-responses fan ‘ad’ features women. I’m proudly reading very much against the grain here, but as much as I love cheap and nasty, the PS3 is way, way, sexier. Go Karaoke: Yeah, like the young people say, we don’t need…

  • new book: ham radio’s technical culture

    Ham Radio’s Technical Culture, by Kristen Haring, is a new book out on MIT Press, found via Anne’s del.icio.us links. From the blurb/summary: Ham radio required solitary tinkering with sophisticated electronics equipment, often isolated from domestic activities in a “radio shack,” yet the hobby thrived on fraternal interaction. Conversations on the air grew into friendships,…

  • more on the ‘get a mac’ ads and stereotypes

    In response to a bit of discussion going on about the ads reinforcing stereotypes, mainly started by Jill, who kindly linked to my last post on the topic: The Mac is one sort of instantly recognisable, vaguely urban, effortlessly cool white American guy, the PC is another, deeply unattractive, old economy nerd sort of (much…

  • my computer is just like me (not)

    Just in case I was too subtle last time about the race and gender politics of the personification of technology in the ‘Get a Mac’ ads, here are two new ones (one, two). I’m speechless. Thanks Anne. There are about a bazillion spoofs of these ads, of course – in fact, they positively beg to…

  • the gendered act of reading

    There is much to enjoy at Kristine Steenbergh’s blog Earmarks in Early Modern Culture, but today I especially noticed the gender of reading (lots of great images, too). It draws out in longhand what Jeanette Winterson sketches in breathtaking shorthand for Marylin, reading Ulysses in the sun. But I wonder how this other image of…

  • Announcing…BlogHer

    Dana Boyd is getting behind BlogHer – “a network for women bloggers to draw on for exposure, education, and community.” As well as organising a day-long conference on July 30, 2005, through establishing an online hub, BlogHer is “initiating an opportunity for greater visibility, learning and success for individual women bloggers and for the community…

  • …and more good academic obituaries

    Anne kindly forwarded me this piece posted by Pam Sykes to nettime: Much of what Andrea Dworkin had to say made me profoundly uncomfortable. For that, and for her courage in continuing to say it, she has my gratitude and my respect. She also had a deep understanding of and respect for the power of…

  • More Bad Academic Obituaries

    I just heard that Andrea Dworkin has died. Having had a bit to do with both the academic study of pornography and feminism, I’m not a big fan [of her books, that is]. But I think it’s pretty obvious that we can expect a rash of highly suspect obituaries about her, as we saw with…

  • geekgrrls misbehaving

    misbehaving.net is a new group weblog on women and technology – regular posters include danah boyd, Caterina Fake, Meg Hourihan, Liz Lawley, Dorothea Salo, Halley Suitt, Gina Trapani, and Jill Walker. Recent post titles: “simulating women”, “social construction of technology”, and “libraries, tech and gender”. Despite the common interest in tech stuff, the writing is…