© Moritz Schottmüller and Desirée Kabis
The seminar “Women in Computation” took place during the summer semester of 2019.
It provided a historical introduction to feminist theory and to its intersection with natural sciences and information technologies in the 20th century, discussing the genealogy of notions such as cyborg, technoscience, and posthumanism. Through looking at the present time, the students discussed body and gender politics in the age of AI and new biometric technologies of capture and identification.
The foundation for the course was built on the historical and yet invisible role that women and their labour practices have played in the development of computer technologies, such as during the industrial revolution, during WWII and in the development of the first mainframe computer ENIAC in the United States.
The displayed exhibition is the result of collective research to “write women back into the history of computation they were always part of” (Jennifer S. Light).
The project presentation is a collaborative work by the students Vanessa Bosch, Ulrike Barwanietz, Emma-Lilo Keller and Carmen Westermeier. The seminar was organised by Ariana Dongus and Prof. Dr. Matteo Pasquinelli.