NEW Gen NOW #1: Cyberfeminism and the Digital Diaspora

With Beth Siveyer and Girls Get Busy.

Cyberfeminism and the Digital Diaspora is the first in the NEW Gen NOW series of talks and events at The White Building exploring networked feminism.

This talk will question the circumstances under which online artist/activist communities emerge and exist, focusing on cyberfeminist art practice in relation to emergent digital diasporas.

Thu 5 June, 6.30pm-8.30pm at The White Building 

The expansion of social networking and its exploitation by cybercultural advertising throws our relationship to technology into crisis as it is compromised and obscured by these constructed modes of communication and consumption. This questioning of identity within networked culture reveals the potential political agency of digital diasporas; in particular, the use of Internet communications by activists for either reconstituting fragmented communities or to create oppositional virtual public spheres that circumvent state control of information and civic dialogue. Politically engaged digital diasporas present in various forms and address an expansive remit of religious, ethnic and gender–driven issues.

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Beth Siveyer, artist, curator and founder of the Girls Get Busy zine, takes the position that “the sort of feminism you see celebrated in the media is very one-way – it’s hetero, white, middle-class feminism… But now we can make our own media.” Beth’s talk will address some of the key issues surrounding representation online for female artists and creatives today.

Girls Get Busy is a feminist creative platform that supports female-identified artists, writers and musicians. 
Since December 2010, Girls Get Busy has expanded into a 15,000-follower-strong online platform that has self-published over 20 zines, released mixtapes as well as hosting issue launch parties, film screenings, live music, workshops, zine festivals, fundraisers and exhibitions.