All-women initiatives in art and technology 1986-2020. Atenea: mentoring and networking project in steam

• Autores: Elena Robles Mateo
• Directores de la Tesis: Nuria Lloret Romero (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de València ( España ) en 2020
• Idioma: español
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Rosa San Segundo Manuel (presid.), Margarita Cabrera Méndez (secret.), Susana Adelina Moreira Carvalho Bastos (voc.)
• Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Arte: Producción e Investigación por la Universitat Politècnica de València
• Materias:
  • Historia
    • Historias por especialidades
      • Historia del arte
  • Ciencias de las artes y las letras
    • Teoría análisis y critica de las bellas artes
  • Sociología
    • Sociología cultural
      • Sociología del arte
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: RiuNet
• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen

  • This dissertation explores a series of all-women self-organised initiatives that have emerged at the intersection of art and technology internationally. These grassroot initiatives have continued to appear in places where there is a new media arts scene, generally male-dominated and low in diversity. This research work is a mapping of this techno-social and artistic phenomenon, attempting to identify its earliest practices. Through interviews, surveys and ethnographic research, this thesis seeks to comprehend the context that has given rise to such initiatives over three decades and half, examining the different typologies by formats, extension, space and structure that they have adopted to address the situation of women in these fields.

    There is a void of references on all-women curatorial and organisational forms in art and technology. Moreover, general literature points at digital subcultures of the 1990s such as cyberfeminism and DIY movement as first referents for women's alliance and translocal activism in the digital age. However, collaboration and segregation strategies in new media arts have not been discussed in feminist scholarship from a deeper historical perspective. Therefore, this dissertation elaborates the linkage of such initiatives to early history of all-women art groups and alternative art spaces, history of women in new media arts and to network cultures. New information and communication technologies have enabled new forms of communication and connectivity cross-borders; however, this work investigates in which measure these initiatives are dependent upon ICT for the establishment of a community, compared to analog formats. With the results, this dissertation aims to become a source of references that enriches the scarce bibliography on the topic, providing a list of curatorial and organisational forms with the earliest and unpublished practices that altogether contribute to current women's historiography.

    Lastly, while discussing the current situation of women in art and technology fields, this works presents Atenea, a mentoring and networking platform for women in Arts and STEM careers. Atenea is comprised of a programme having different organizational, curatorial and networking activities. Additionally, the platform has a project focused on teaching STEM skills to girls through new media arts with female artists as mentors.

    Keywords: All-women, self-organised, initiatives, new media arts, digital arts, electronic arts, art, technology, activism, mapping, alternative art spaces, collaboration, segregation, ICT, digital age, virtual, community, network cultures, feminism, cyberfeminism, Atenea, STEM, STEAM, girls, organisational, curatorial, networking platform, mentoring,