Crafting Digital Materiality: Feminism and Contemporary Culture of Making
Speaker Bio
Dr. Alla Myzelev is a lecturer of Art History at the University of Guelph. She is working on the book Canadian Architecture and Design 1910-37: From Vernacular to Deco, From Rustic to Polished. Myzelev is a co-editor (with Dr. John Potvin) of the Collecting Subjects in Britain, 1700-1914: The Visual Meanings and Pleasures of Material Culture (Ashgate, 2009). She has received numerous prestigious fellowships and grants including most recently two Paul Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2007) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Post-Doctoral Doctoral Fellowship (2007-08). Myzelev also published on Russian Avant-Garde designs, Craft and design revival in Britain, and 21st century knitting revival.
Abstract
Recent revival of the do-it-yourself (DIY) culture and its relationship to third wave feminism and post-feminism had received scant scholarly attention so far. Many political projects that involve DIY strategies and materials rely on digital communities of likeminded people, mainly women and advocate women involvement in the public politics. Actions such as "Knit Your Congressman a Vagina" and yarn bombings, considered to be implicitly feminist and therefore, the argument goes, do not require additional examination, attention and analysis vis-à-vis feminist ideas. My research looks at intersections of the digital communities produced through practice of DIY, such as for example www.countercraft.org and understanding of feminism that members of these communities adhere to. It looks at how these communities utilize implicitly or explicitly understood feminisms and empowerment while practicing craft techniques that traditionally considered part of patriarchal society and thus presumably contributed to disempowerment of women. In addition, I look at how these websites, blogs, and discussion groups involve women in the political realm through use of one of seemingly traditional and apolitical techniques of knitting, sewing, crocheting, etc.
Crafting Digital Materiality: Feminism and Contemporary Culture of Making
Recent revival of the do-it-yourself (DIY) culture and its relationship to third wave feminism and post-feminism had received scant scholarly attention so far. Many political projects that involve DIY strategies and materials rely on digital communities of likeminded people, mainly women and advocate women involvement in the public politics. Actions such as "Knit Your Congressman a Vagina" and yarn bombings, considered to be implicitly feminist and therefore, the argument goes, do not require additional examination, attention and analysis vis-à-vis feminist ideas. My research looks at intersections of the digital communities produced through practice of DIY, such as for example www.countercraft.org and understanding of feminism that members of these communities adhere to. It looks at how these communities utilize implicitly or explicitly understood feminisms and empowerment while practicing craft techniques that traditionally considered part of patriarchal society and thus presumably contributed to disempowerment of women. In addition, I look at how these websites, blogs, and discussion groups involve women in the political realm through use of one of seemingly traditional and apolitical techniques of knitting, sewing, crocheting, etc.