[Nettime-nl] trans / gender symposium

trans / gender symposium

11th of January 2003

10.00 am - 6.00 pm

Zaal de Unie

Mauritsweg 34
Rotterdam tel. 010-4141666

"Transgender is a term whose exact meaning is still in dispute, and I consider that a very healthy sign. The most widely accepted definition is that transgender includes everything not covered by our culture's narrow terms "man" and "woman"." (Sandy Stone)

Since the beginning of the '90s, the discussion surrounding the process of defining sexual identity has gained momentum.
The introduction of the term gender, which permits a wider interpretation of masculine and feminine, and the concepts of queer and transgender are good examples.
The trans / gender symposium is an interplay among gender (theory and practice) and archaeology, new media and art. Furthermore, it takes a closer look at the space between trans and gender, the space around the symbol "/". This is the space the symposium will explore.

for information and reservations:

Nina Hoechtl and Suzanne van Rossenberg, organization:
trans_gender@hotmail.com

or

Anke Bangma, course director Piet Zwart Institute, fine art:
A.Bangma@hro.nl /(0031)-0-10-4045054
admission: ¤5,00/students ¤2,50
(reservation is recommended)

Gender, Material Culture and Time

Marjolijn Kok - Theoretical archaeologist M.A.
Co-founder and editor of the journal 'p.i.t.: archaeological experience'. Currently working as a Phd-student at the University of Amsterdam, on the subject: Iron Age offering sites in a watery context in Noord-Holland.

"Archaeology is a social science. Most archaeologists are generalists, this means that we attribute more significance to similarity -which gives us the chance to define cultures- , than to difference -which may tell us something of how individuals dealt with their culture. Studying gender in archaeology means to stop generalizing and look at the so-called noise. For only this way we may be able to get a glimpse of the complexity of social life." (Marjolijn Kok)

A Transgender Body: The Construction of Body and Sex

Marieke van Eijk- feminist political scientist, M.A. (Women's studies) and student M.A. Social and Cultural Theology at the University of Amsterdam; currently a teacher at Women's studies at the University of Amsterdam.

We lay without speaking for a long time. I broke finally the silence with a question: "Do you think I'm a woman?"
Edna got up on one elbow and looked at me. "What do you think?" she asked gently. I sighed. "I don't know. There's never been many other women in the world I could identify with. But I sure as hell don't feel like a guy, either. I don't know what I am. It makes me feel crazy"*

*from: Feinberg, Leslie, Stone Butch Blues, Firebrand books, New York 1993

"Through the works of Thomas Laqueur, Michel Foucault and Judith Butler and through examples of people who are living in an area between the sexes male and female, I would like to make clear that a person's sex is as unnatural as the body." (Marieke van Eijk)

"Are There Any Women Here Today?"
Beyond the Stone Butch Blues. Fe/Male Troubles Revisited from a Feminist Point of View

Verena Kuni - Art & Media Theorist M.A.
Research, teaching, projects & publications in the field of contemporary art, electronic media, and gender studies. Currently ass. researcher & teacher at the university of Trier as well as for the project <gender/media/art> at HfG Offenbach and the Centre for Gender Studies in the Arts at the HfMDK Frankfurt/M.

"No doubt, images of transgression are en vogue. When looking at what's circulating on the displays of contemporary art and popular media, from the galleries to MTV, it seems like our society is starving for the chance to get in touch with "Gender Blenders" and "Gender Benders", "Drag Queens" and "Kings", "Transvestites" and "Transsexuals"- at least as long as this encounter takes place in the neat framework of the media, of course. However, the question is not only: What happens when we decide to leave the surface to enter either the realms of the imaginary ruled by diverse economies of desire or the social spaces ruled by diverse politics of power? Even when pretending it is "just the images" we want to deal with, we won't be able to avoid to ask: How do you look at it?" (Verena Kuni)

About the Production and the Representation of Gender Identities in Exhibitions

Doris Guth - art historian (Phd) at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna (Institute of Theory, Practice and Mediation of Contemporary Art); leader of a study-group for equal treatment questions.

It is Not a Matter of Choice.

Risk Hazekamp - fine artist based in Rotterdam

In her photographs and videos, Risk Hazekamp attempts to create a reality in which a different identity rules. By uniting the archetypal images of man/woman, there is a focus on the androgynous personality, unlike society's so-called 'boy meets girl'.
The borderline where the 'masculine' and the 'feminine' brush shoulders, is a dominant factor. Another aspect is the impossibility of defining one's own gender without reference to 'the other'. Within the distinction between 'us' and 'them', Hazekamp prefers to be 'one of them'.

Who is afraid of...? Feminist Interventions in the History of Art

Mirjam Westen - art historian, art critic and since 1991 curator of contemporary art at Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem.

"Art history could be understood as a series of representational practices which actively produce definitions of sexual difference and contribute to the present configuration of sexual politics and power relations. In my lecture I will go through 30 years of feminist interventions in the history of art: interventions that make gender central to terms of historical analysis. Referring to influential publications (a.o. Linda Nochlin, Griselda Pollack, Christine Battersby, J. Kristeva), to exhibitions (a.o. Women Artists. 1550-1950; Feminist Art International; Inside the Visible) and discussing the interventions of some important women-artists I will highlight issues such as gender and genius; gender and canon; gender and avantgarde and gender and representation. Are we witnessing a paradigm shift which will rewrite all cultural history, as art historian Griselda Pollock states it?" (Mirjam Westen)