GENDER &
TECHNOLOGY

SOFT KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION

ON THE FRINGES OF HARD SCIENCE

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> Eevi Rutanen

> Aalto University 27.05.2024

> slides.eevirutanen.com/gt

BACKGROUND

> Aalto ARTS Visual Communication Design BA 2011-2017 (1)

> Aalto ELEC Bioniformation Technology BSc 2012-2015 (2)

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> Goldsmiths Computational Arts MFA 2017-2019

BACKGROUND

> Teaching Creative Computation at Aalto ARTS 2020- (1)

> Visiting lecturer at Estonian Academy of Arts 2020- (2)

> Various workshops on electronics, robotics and
e-textiles (3)

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BACKGROUND

MY PRACTICE

> Softening the "Hard Sciences"

What kind of knowledge can be produced on the fringes of scientific enquiry?

What would "femme" or "non-binary" computational practices look like?

How to include more diverse voices in the fields of computation and engineering?

How are technology and gender intertwined? How do they shape each other?

> Grasper (2018) at Binary Codes group exhibition at Seager Gallery, London

SCIENTIFIC
EPISTEMOLOGY

> “Masculine”

> Intellectual

> Mental

> Abstract

> Cognitive

> Institutional

> Positivist

> Disruptive

> “Objective”

> “Feminine”

> Manual

> Sensual

> Concrete

> Intuitive

> Domestic

> Experiential

> Collective

> “Subjective”

TACTILE
EPISTEMOLOGY

> Uncanny Dimple Theorem by Eevi Rutanen (2019) based on the Uncanny Valley theory by Masahiro Mori (1970)

> Uncanny Dimple (2019) Computational Arts MFA Degree Show at Goldsmiths, London

> Fuzzy Logic (2022) solo exhibition at Huuto Gallery, Helsinki

FORMAL LOGIC 

FUZZY LOGIC

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TRUE

FALSE

> Kodinhengetär (Homemaker) Solo exhibition at
Salo Art Museum 18.5.2024—1.9.2024

What IS technology?

Who are responsible for developing new technologies?

To whom (and to what end) are new technologies created?

> Maiju Gebhard, head of the household department at the Finnish Work Efficiency Institute. Invented the dish drying cabinet in 1945.

Are these technologies?

τέχνη (tékhnē, “art, craft”)

λογία (-logía, “study, knowledge”)

TECHNOLOGY =

"knowledge of how to make things"

> Digihinkki (Digi-jug) (2024)

> Edistys (Progress) 2024

> Angelus Novus (2024)

> Täysin automatisoitu pyykinkäsittely I & II (Fully automated laundry handling I & II) (2024)

> Niin makaa kuin petaa (You have made your bed, now lie in it) (One cannot live outside the machine for more perhaps than half an hour) (2024)

> Detail from
Niin makaa kuin petaa (2024)

THANK YOU!

> eevirutanen.com

> @eebiru

> Kodinhengetär at Salo Art Museum until 1.9.2024

> Slides slides.com/eevirutanen/gt