SubRosa

rdf:langString SubRosa

rdf:langString subRosa is a cyberfeminist organization led by artists Faith Wilding and Hyla Willis. In the late 1990s at Carnegie Mellon University, Faith Wilding organized an on-campus reading group that discussed digital culture and technologies, feminisms, postcolonial theory, body- and bio-politics, and reproductive health. It was from this reading group in 1998 that the cyberfeminist collective subRosa formed, with founding members María Fernández, Wilding, Hyla Willis, and Michelle M. Wright. As outlined by members of subRosa, challenging the utopian ideas associated with technology and the internet is the foundation of subRosa’s practice. subRosa’s work is connected to – but differs from – the broader cyberfeminist movement of the 1990s and Donna Haraway’s cyborg theory. Many of subRosa’s works are performance-based and participatory, and encourage members of the public to think deeply about technology and its role in their lives. As the group consisted of artists, activists, and scholars, the collective’s practice reflected the individual backgrounds of its members. Other participants in the reading group at Carnegie Mellon (and at different points, members of subRosa) include Emily de Araujo, Krista Connerly, Steffi Domike, Camilla Griggers, Christina Hung, Carolina Loyola, Laleh Mehran, Elizabeth Monoian, Ann Rosenthal, Suzie Silver, Lucia Sommer, and Rebecca Vaughan. At The Next Five Minutes 3 Festival in Amsterdam in 1999, subRosa introduced their manifesto, outlining the collective’s histories, purpose, and practices: "subRosa's name honors feminist pioneers in art, activism, labor, science, and politics: Rosa Bonheur, Rosa Luxemburg, Rosie the Riveter, Rosa Parks and Rosalind Franklin. subRosa is a reproducible cyberfeminist cell of cultural researchers committed to combining art, activism, and politics to explore and critique the effects of the intersections of the new information and biotechnologies on women's bodies, lives, and work. subRosa produces artworks, activist campaigns and projects, publications, media interventions, and public forums that make visible the effects of the interconnections of technology, gender, and difference; feminism and global capital; new bio and medical technologies and women's health; and the changed conditions of labor and reproduction for women in the integrated circuit. subRosa practices a situational embodied feminist politics nourished by conviviality, self-determination, and the desire for affirmative alliances and coalitions. Let a million subRosas bloom!" Hyla Willis writes: "subRosa is a mutable (cyber)feminist art collective combining art, social activism and politics to explore and critique the intersections of information and bio technologies on women’s bodies, lives and work. Since its founding in 1998, subRosa has developed situated, trans-disciplinary, performative, and discursive practices that create open-ended environments where participants engage with objects, texts, digital technologies, and critical learning experiences interacting with each other and the artists."