Core Questions: Now that artists don’t have to go to physical galleries or have physical studio visits to promote their work to galleries, will using online spaces instead of these traditional physical modes allow freedom from gender bias?
– Do new digital tools (ie, youtube training videos) allow artists to cross/transgress gender lines/stereotypes/expectations/assumptions more easily?
– How will gender be represented in future digital archives? Also, how might past work be re-thought based on this (re-working of historical language? Building current language?)

Discussion: Gender & the concept of archiving & labeling…
→ What are the choices for the “gender box”? (Is it ONLY male/female?)
→ Is there freedom in an “uncategorized” category? (…but how do we search that?!)
→ Using “tags” to get around this (oh, the possibilities & difficulties of finding the right tags…!)
→ Artist statements: A way to avoid check-box labels?
→ The role/responsibility of the curator in respecting the artist’s (gender) representation
→ Gender of the artist; “gender” of the artwork
→ Categorizing as a way to discover something new – discussion about netflix categories – when labels/tags are helpful…
→ The problem of relying on language to do categorization for things that are not words (ie, visual or sound art). Exploring: Google Image Search; Sound (copyright + google/youtube); Shazam; Spotify

Suggested Article: “My TiVo Thinks I’m Gay”

ACTIVITY:
– Separately, each person draws a picture.
– Together, we all look at each image & try to categorize it: Was it drawn by a male, by a female, or is it uncategorizable in this way?

Game Results:
– We guessed that 3 of the images were drawn by men – It turns out, all 3 of them were drawn by women!
– We guessed that 5 images were drawn by women. It turns out: Three were drawn by men & 2 were drawn by women
– We placed one image in the “uncategorized” category. It was drawn by a man.
(There are 9 of us in the room; the group is approximately ½ male & ½ female.)
So, this means we guessed 2 images right & 7 wrong!

Discussion during the game:
(1) Will anyone try to trick the system & intentionally draw for/against a gendered reading? …
(2) What factors do we use to assess gender? Are any of them relevant/accurate?
(3) This is hard! And it’s awkward, b/c many of the people in this room generally resist this type of categorizing! It’s a great activity because of this – brings up some questions/assumptions & challenges us!

Game #2: A combination of “telephone” & “Pictionary”
Focused on a gender & technology theme
Results: Surprising!

…

Thanks for designing & facilitating a great session, Jennifer!