i just cross seeded this discussion to the cybernetics discussion on YASMIN
but thought
i would pick up the thread here re gender and cybernetics serendipity
this follows on with a discussion that marcia tanner has been asking about
whether
the "gender" issues in art and technology areas reflect the same gender
issues in the
science or technology involved
eg one would expect more women artists involved in art and social sciences
than
art and nanotechnology for instance, since the proportion of women
scientists in
social scientists is higher than women nanoscientists
within the sciences the gender balance ranges widely with larger proportions
of
women being prominent scientists in the life sciences say than the physical
sciences
( i was at a recent prestigious workshop of very high level young physicists
and it
was 30 men and 3 women, this is not unusual in physics)
marcia tanner is organising a panel at the college art association in LA in
february called
"soft squishy things" which asks whether art and biology has a larger
fraction
of prominent artists because biology is viewed as "gendered"
if this were the case then would would predict that art-science practice
would reflect
the underlying gender imbalance in the science or technology concerned
a countervailing situation is that working in art and science or art and
technology
was not a "career enhancing" move at many universities until recently, and
so women
were able to occupy territory " at the boundary" this is quite striking for
instance when
one looks as the prominent art holographers such as casdin silver
one specific example that is illuminating is the artist in residence program
at
space sciences lab uc berkeley= of the 5 artists hosted there 4 were women
( even though the lab is dominantly male phycisists)= an important factor
here
is that the artist in residence program there was hosted by a group led by
a woman astronomer ( and also thanks to the UK
arts council program...led by a woman....)
i dont know if anyone has looked at current art science collaborations to
see
if the number of women scientists collaborating with artists is larger in
fraction
than their percentage in the science field concerned= art-science practice
is
not a career enhancing move for scientists, so I wonder which career
pressures dominate
the gender issues in science are deep, pervasive and changing very very
slowly
its not surprising that art-science-technology practice reflects this
certainly when Jasia mounted cybernetics serendipity it was not a career
enhancing move for her !! and it was only the success of the exhibition that
changed history ( I remember Jasia telling me about her zero budget and her
typing and making the posters announcing the exhibit herself and by hand
at the last minute)= and the success of her exhibition did not lead to a
series
of exhibitions=the art and technology movement went into eclipse for a
variety
of reasons
if cybernetics serendipity were re imagined today= hopefully the gender
balance
in exhibiting artists in 2008 would be improved compared to 1968= yet
cybernetics
i bet is a very male field today as it was in 1968
a parallel discussion would be relevant about the national origin of the
artists concerned !!
roger malina
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