Theoretical perspectives on technology—or the daily scattered perceptions of it—are often wrapped in a haze shaped by binary divisions. These include binaries such as the natural vs. the artificial, romanticization vs. demonization, salvation vs. inevitability, species-level finitude, and others. Such dualistic thinking marks technology as a radical “other”—something that at times appears only  as an object for our manipulation and consumption, and at other times, as a condition for a fatalistic, dystopian future in which the fate or role of the human is unclear and questioned.

The hope and fear embedded in these dualistic perspectives make it difficult to critically grasp the reality in which, from the past century till today, technology increasingly layers itself over our bodily, socio-political, ecological, and economic existence, shaping and attempting to define it.

Through feminist imagination of technology, we aim to take a broader and more critical look at the complexity of our co-existence with technology. We would like to explore how technology participates in shaping our bodies, sensory and cognitive capacities, and impulses; and what possibilities and challenges it creates in forming and developing collective and cross-species relations, solidarity, and resistance.

On the other hand, thinking about technology from a feminist perspective also involves a reorientation—an attempt to formulate new directions beyond dualism, which recognizes and names the risks and power asymmetries related to technology in contemporary global techno- and information capitalism. At the same time, this perspective seeks to identify systemic ruptures—cracks from which new connections and possibilities may emerge.

                                                                ***

This year’s fourth Feminist Forum is thematically centered around the interrelation of gender, power, and technology— technology that is both fundamentally embedded in and phantom-like within our lives. Critical reflection, knowledge production, and the sharing of knowledge about technology are still limited in our reality, including in feminist circles and discourses.

The forum opens with a participatory dialogue with the audience, through which we aim to collectively map and define, from a “zero point,” the ways in which technology enters and shapes our present—our individual and collective realities. 

The second day of the forum returns to and introduces feminist knowledge accumulated across different times and contexts— knowledge that not only analyzes the pros and cons of technology, but also examines the labor, social, and cultural orders it mediates. It also rethinks the potential that lies beyond dualistic (including gendered) views, presenting the feminist subject as one capable of continuous becoming and the formation of connections.

On this same day, we will also discuss feminist visions of the collective future imagined in art, film, and literature—visions that liberate technology from masculinization and militarization. —and visions that imagine new kinds of orders, ones that are gender- and socially equitable.

The final, third day of the forum follows two main thematic directions. The first part of the day outlines the power asymmetries and new class systems that accompany the growing role of informational technologies. We will also touch on another related process—the recent rapid development of artificial intelligence and its declared transformative impact on multiple aspects of our life.

After outlining the long-established and/or still emerging power asymmetries within the digital ecosystem, workshops planned in frames of the forum will introduce practical knowledge, skills, and digital tools that enable the production and distribution of decentralized knowledge and support possibilities for collective self-organizing and self-governance.

The second half of the day—and the final sessions of the forum—will bring together local and global expertise and experiences regarding digital media as a primary field for the production of politics, propaganda, and resistance.

All three days of the forum will include artistic components, some of which directly or indirectly engage with the theoretical and activist perspectives expressed around the theme, offering alternate articulations of these thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

Overall, this year’s forum, through its thematic diversity, aims to create a space for inquiry and reflection—a space that marks the zones of resilience and action in an era defined by modern technology, power, and information asymmetry.

Registration is necessary to attend the forum (the form will be open until June 30th, 2025)

Agenda coming soon!