Sonic Cyberfeminisms X and GendyTrouble:Cyber*Feminist Computer Music

In this work-in-progress presentation I will present two intersecting projects: Sonic Cyberfeminisms and GendyTrouble:Cyber*Feminist Computer Music. Sonic Cyberfeminisms has been a collaborative multi-modal project ongoing since 2015; its most recent formation is a forthcoming co-authored monograph with Marie Thompson (Goldsmiths Press 2027). 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? Relatedly, I will present the solo audio project GenDyTrouble: Cyber*Feminist Computer Music. The project began as a thought experiment which enacted a symbolic collision between composer Iannis Xenakis’ technique of sound generation, “Génération Dynamique Stochastique” (often shortened to GenDyn or sometimes GenDy) and Judith Butler’s foundational work of queer theory, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Positioning itself within the genre of computer music, the project asks what fusing the mathematical-generative power of computation with an emancipatory gender-politics could achieve. Following the presentation, I will invite discussion on the two projects’ contemporary resonances and possibilities for further integrating practice and research.