Editorial



In September 1997 the First Cyberfeminist International took place in the Hybrid Workspace at Documenta X, in Kassel, Germany. 37 women from 12 countries participated. It was the first big meeting of cyberfeminists organized by the Old Boys Network (OBN), the first international cyberfeminist organisation.

OBN is dedicated to Cyberfeminism. Although cyberfeminism has not been clearly defined--or perhaps because it hasn't--the concept has enormous potential. Cyberfeminism offers many women--including those weary of same-old feminism--a new vantage point from which to formulate innovative theory and practice, and at the same time, to reflect upon traditional feminist theory and pratice.

The concept of Cyberfeminism immediately poses a lot of questions. The most important ones are: 1. What is Cyberfeminism? What is hidden behind the fusion of "cyber" and "feminism"? 2. What does Cyberfeminism have to do with Feminism? Will the addition of "cyber" give good old feminism another chance to fly, or is there a possibility for completely new content and new challenges? 3. How do cyberfeminists deal with the new technologies?

In order to start a discussion and possibly find answers to the above formulated questions, OBN decided to invite cyberfeminists from all over the world to a real life meeting. As expected, we couldnŐt agree on one definition of Cyberfeminism, but agreed NOT to define the term. The strategy of keeping the term as open as possible was consensual. As a substitute for a definition The First Cyberfeminist International formulated the "100 Anti-Theses".

The "feminism" in Cyberfeminism is obvious, it cannot be overlooked. And that's as it should be. Feminism's heritage is our life-blood, but its institutionalization in public life and in the academies makes it inaccessible to most women today. In addition, the mass women's movement of former years has been fragmented into a bewildering variety of feminismS. Identifying oneself as a woman is no longer enough to serve as a productive connecting link. We have to find new strategies for political action.

The new technologies have provided a powerful new imperative for the feminist discussion. On the one hand new technologies provoke a discussion, because they are historically male dominated, but on the other hand, they also contain new means and methods of fundamentally questioning received role models and power structures, of deconstructing concepts of subjectivity--as feminist theory has demanded already long before the raise of digial media.

Who is OBN and what do they do? The Old Boys Network was founded in Berlin in spring 1997 by Susanne Ackers, Julianne Pierce, Valentina Djordjevic, Ellen Nonnenmacher and Cornelia Sollfrank. OBN consists of a core-group of 3-5 women, who take responsibility for administrative and organisational tasks, and a worldwide network of associated members.

OBN's concern is to build spaces in which we can research, experiment, communicate and act. One example is the infrastructure which is being built by OBN. It consists of a cyberfeminist Server (currently under construction), the OBN mailing list and the organisation of Real-Life meetings. All this activities have the purpose to give a contextualized presence to different artistic and political formulations under the umbrella of Cyberfeminism. Furthermore we create and use different kinds of spaces, spaces which are more abstract. They grow out of the confusion which results through the interaction between virtual and real identities.

This Reader is a documentation of the First Cyberfeminist International and contains the lectures, texts, and works which were presented at the event. The meeting covered a whole range of approaches and perspectives, but it never claimed to be all-encompassing. Many important approaches are missing, but you are welcome to contribute to the next Cyberfeminist International.

At the initiative of Corrine Petrus from Rotterdam we are planning to hold the Second Cyberfeminist International in Rotterdam in March 1999. We look forward to a lively participation.

Cornelia Sollfrank
Old Boys Network



The Hybrid Workspace was a project initiated by Catherine David in collaboration with the Berlin Biennale, and located in the Orangerie in Kassel. The intention was to transform the Orangerie into a temporary media laboratory for the collection, generation, evaluation, cross-fertilization and dissemination of information and content. Those responsible for the organization and curation of the Hybrid Workspace included Eike Becker, Geert Lovink, Pit Schultz, Micz Flor, Thorsten Schilling, Heike Foell,Thomax Kaulmann, and others.

Additional thanks to: all who made our meeting possible, especially Geert Lovink for the invitation as well as (lovely) Thorsten Schilling, who supported us during our residency at the workspace with much patience and humor.

Special thanks to Diana McCarty and Faith Wilding for proof-reading and Tilman Baumgärtel for his support.

As well, our thanks go to the Berlin Senate Ministry for Scholarship, Research, and Culture, the Cultural Office of the City of Hamburg, and the Australian Council for the Arts, who provided the financial resources to make the First Cyberfeminist International possible. A grant from the Cultural Office of the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg provided partial funding for the production of this reader.



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