Week 12 Notes:
Garnet Hertz’s Disobedient Electronics is a collection of “critical makers’” artwork as protest in response to the former American President Trump’s election in 2016.
Disobedient Electronics: Protest (Hertz, 2016) is a limited edition publishing project that highlights confrontational work from industrial designers, electronic artists, hackers and makers from 10 countries that disobey conventions. Topics include the wage gap between women and men, the objectification of women’s bodies, gender stereotypes, wearable electronics as a form of protest, robotic forms of protest, counter-government-surveillance and privacy tools, and devices designed to improve an understanding of climate change.
Disobedient Electronics highlights artistic works that “can be as social argument or political protest.” By combining critical thought and “making,” Hertz emphasises the need for “progressive arguments” and “legible and engaging facts.” The idea that artists have an opportunity or responsibility to thoughtfully critique social norms and government is nothing new — Picasso’s “Guernica,” Ai Wei Wei, Robert Mapplethorpe’s skulls, Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece” *insert author/literature* Vonnegut? are just a few examples.
New technologies presents opportunities for protest art to manifest in novel, imaginative ways and, inherently reach larger and more diverse audiences.
“…the process of being critical starts by denaturalizing standard assumptions, values, and norms in order to reflect on the position and role of specific technologies within society. However, in addition, a specific goal of each is to tactically intervene and disrupt traditional models of technological development by giving engineers, designers, and in some cases, the public, an opportunity to break out of the cycle of overworking, overproducing, and overconsuming — to step back and reflectively reconsider a broader spectrum of human experience and culture.29 If tech- nology is to improve society, it must be critically reflective and designed for the complexities of what it means to be human…”
Matt Ratto & Garnet HertzCritical Making and Interdisciplinary Learning: Making as a Bridge between Art, Science, Engineering and Social Interventions
While “Disobedient Electronics” is a “highlight” of “confrontational work,” its compactness negates Hertz’s general emphasis of the critical process and its need for specificity. The onus is on the reader to investigate each artwork’s context and meaning. But, “Disobedient Electronics” is aligned with Hertz’s idea of “critical making” as “a mode of materially productive engagement.” It is an artefact that allows readers a path to meaningfully learn about techno-artists’ work.
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