CODED FEMINISMS IN INDONESIA
www.codedfeminisms.org
This project is about a feminist movement changing the world, how this change was undone and how it lives on coded in online culture.
Article in German:
Essayband “Wer deutet die Welt?”
Article in English:
Entangled Futures
ABSTRACT
Today, in an ubiquitously digitized Indonesia, many feminist culture initiatives operate mainly online, target an international community, but at the same time live on the periphery. The vibrant feminist scene has got deep roots within the independence struggle against colonial powers and a million strong feminist movement that emerged in the 1950s. Back then female students joined forces with farmers, educators and artists. Together they set up grass root groups for mutual self-help, culture activities, literacy workshops, thus steadily building up a solid collective infrastructure. The most outspoken group among these feminist organizations was Gerwani. All their ideas, activities and knowledge sharing platforms got banned in 1965, thousands of their members got murdered. Decades of state propaganda led to their continuing stigmatization and made it necessary to codify their activism. Young Indonesian feminists today have to position themselves towards this past, find their own strategies of being visible (online) while not getting too exposed and how to protect themselves. I collected interviews with surviving Gerwani members and young feminist Indonesians on Java. At the end of this art-based research project I will create an animated documentary movie.
This Post-Doc position
was made possible by:
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Digital Program Berlin / TU Berlin ︎︎︎
> art based research stefanie wuschitz
> research assistance nilu ignatia, astrid reza
> translation astrid reza
> advisors michelle christenssen, florian conradi
