Sonic Cyberfeminisms: Steering from alternative origins towards sonic counter technologies

In this talk, I will introduce the project of Sonic Cyberfeminisms, an ongoing collaboration with Marie Thompson and others since 2015. At the core of the project are the questions: What might cyberfeminism, as a nebulous, ironic and irreverent feminist critique of early internet cultures have to offer contemporary sonic cultures? What might sound, listening and aurality reveal about cyberfeminism? The talk will have two parts: firstly, I will outline what Thompson and I call the ‘dotted line’ of pioneers, as the conventional way in which a feminist approach to the historicisation of experimental and electronic music is often conceived. I will then outline some alternative speculative origin stories we propose one might instead turn to. Secondly, I will draw on examples from the project from music, sound arts and media technologies to propose three critical ‘tools’ central to the project: de-tuning, attuning and retuning, illustrative of the ethos of sonic cyberfeminisms.