[From an article at brainpickings.org] “Le Guin writes:
I am a man. Now you may think I’ve made some kind of silly mistake about gender, or maybe that I’m trying to fool you, because my first name ends in a, and I own three bras, and I’ve been pregnant five times, and other things like that that you might have noticed, little details. But details don’t matter… I predate the invention of women by decades. Well, if you insist on pedantic accuracy, women have been invented several times in widely varying localities, but the inventors just didn’t know how to sell the product. Their distribution techniques were rudimentary and their market research was nil, and so of course the concept just didn’t get off the ground. Even with a genius behind it an invention has to find its market, and it seemed like for a long time the idea of women just didn’t make it to the bottom line. Models like the Austen and the Brontë were too complicated, and people just laughed at the Suffragette, and the Woolf was way too far ahead of its time.”
The HTMlles 10
RISKY BUSINESS
Feminist festival of media arts + digital culture
10-18 November 2012
The 10th edition of the HTMlles will take up the notion of risk. To risk: to gain or to lose (it is uncertain), to expose oneself to a possibility… Risk is a potential. Whether used positively or negatively, the idea of risk implies that of evaluation, action and distribution, and thus, power. While the term “risk” evolved with the development of capitalism, the concept of “risk society” is about twenty years old and has been used by scholars to describe how modern society organizes around the idea of risk, that is, in response to a future (which society should be able to manage). By simply invoking or imagining the future, one immediately engages in risky behaviours. Anything and everything can become risky… Indeed, there exists a global economic and industrial complex organized around monitoring and moderating “risk”, from insurance companies to investment products, as well as technologies and approved, standardized methods of risk assessment and risk management. There are also whole sets of techniques of calculation, “optimization” and social control that rely on the presence of a notion of “risk,” from so-called “at-risk populations” to who are considered “vulnerable,” “suspect” or, increasingly so nowadays, “insolvable.”
In such a critical moment, it is perhaps crucial to ask (ourselves) some questions. How does the language of risk articulate itself today? What is at risk today? How can one take risks today? What are the different levels of risk in our various (trans)actions? What is the relationship between risk, technology and power? How is risk both managed and created? How is it distributed? Since when does one “invest” in one’s future and what does it actually mean? Do “crises” serve to pacify the communities being affected by these “crises”? Who are they? What do artists have to say about these so-called risks and crises? How is making art risky today? Who speaks? To whom and in the name of what?
The HTMlles 10 welcomes project proposals from self-identified women, trans and gender non-conforming artists of all origins on the theme of risk, as well as proposals for risky projects…
The HTMlles is a feminist festival of media arts and digital culture produced in Montreal by Studio XX, a bilingual feminist artist-run centre for technological exploration, creation and critique. Initiated in 1997, the HTMlles is an international platform dedicated to the presentation of women’s, trans and gender non-conforming artists’ independent media artworks from all facets of contemporary technological creation, including but not limited to: digital storytelling, cyber art, short film and video art, audio and electronic art, radio art, installation, locative media, 3D animation, game art, augmented reality, electronic publishing, design, bio art, public interventions, community-based practices, performance and interdisciplinary practices.
The HTMlles 10 will be a multi-sited festival, which includes Studio XX’s new gallery space, the XX Files radio show, .dpi electronic periodical and Matricules online feminist archive. RISKY BUSINESS will be co-presented with several partner artist centres (to be announced) that focus on either (or both) media arts or feminist practices, in
Montreal. Participants receive honoraria.
OPPORTUNITY FOR EMERGING CURATORS: The current call is also open to project submissions by self-identified emerging curators.
To submit a proposal to the HTMlles 10, please follow the guidelines and email it to: festival (at) htmlles (dot) net
*Deadline: Monday, 2 April 2012*
Download submission guidelines http://www.htmlles.net/2012/Call_HTMLLES_2012_EN.pdf
Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick is one of Australian delegation of women in attendance at the 53rd Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the annual summit which is being held in New York City in March.
One of the critical areas of international discussion at the summit is the gender perspectives of the financial crisis. Commissioner Broderick said that there is growing concern around the world that women will fare badly in the current economic crisis, that initiatives aimed at promoting gender equality will begin to be abandoned and that already vulnerable people will experience increased hardship.
“Women have played a critical role in the world’s economic growth in recent decades, and as such, are a crucial factor in rebuilding a strong and sustainable global economy,” Ms Broderick said. “Australia’s important role in reforming the global economy means we must ensure that domestic initiatives intended to encourage women’s workforce participation are not adversely affected by the economic downturn.”
The Commission on the Status of Women is convened by the United Nations to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies that will promote gender equality and the advancement of women worldwide. Many thousands of women and men from around the world attend each year.
Commissioner Broderick is joined by two Aboriginal women from the Marninwarntikura Fitzroy Women’s Resource Centre – CEO, June Oscar, and Chair, Emily Carter – as well as federal Minister for the Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek.
