After Man(ifestos): The Android Goddess Declaration

Feb 15, 2018

Technology scholar, artist and theorist Micha Cárdenas will speak at Grinnell College on Tues., Feb. 27. Her talk, titled "After Man(ifestos): The Android Goddess," is free and open to the public and will begin at 7:30 p.m. in of the Joe Rosenfield ‘25 Center, Room 101.

There will also be a roundtable discussion with Cárdenas and Grinnell College faculty beginning at 4:15 p.m. in Burling Library Lounge,. The panel will discuss arts and activism as they relate to gender and identity. Panelists will include:

Jeremy Chen, senior lecturer in art - studio;
Anson Koch-Rein, visiting assistant professor in the Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies (GWSS) Program;
Craig Quintero, associate professor and chair of the Theatre and Dance Department;
Jennifer Shook, assistant professor of English and a postdoctoral fellow in the Mellon Digital Bridges for Humanistic Inquiry Program; and
Elias Vitulli, assistant professor of GWSS.

In her evening talk, Cárdenas will explore how digital media opens new possibilities for thought and action. Within this broad discussion, Cárdenas will offer examples from popular media and her own practice-based research of the many ways algorithms make their way into the most intimate parts of our lives—and how they can serve as practical tools for art and activism as interdisciplinary scholarship and practice.

Cárdenas is an assistant professor of interdisciplinary arts and sciences and interactive media design at the University of Washington-Bothell. She directs the university’s Poetic Operations Collaborative, a design research lab using inclusive design for social change.

In addition, she is an artist/theorist who works at the intersections of gender, race and technology. Her book in progress, Poetic Operations, uses practice-based research to develop strategies for using media to reduce violence against trans women of color. She has been described as one of "7 bio-artists who are transforming the fabric of life itself" by i09.com.

Cárdenas co-authored the books Transreal: Political Aesthetics of Crossing Realities and Trans Desire/ Affective Cyborgs. She received the 2016 Creative Award from the Gender Justice League. She also was the recipient of the inaugural James Tiptree Jr. Fellowship in 2014. The fellowship provides support and recognition for new voices in science fiction who are making visible the forces changing our view of gender.

The College’s Center for the Humanities is sponsoring Cárdenas’ talk and roundtable discussion.