Feminist Unboxing

Dancers in Vibrant Lives unboxing Woojers (from left to right): Tim O’Donnell, Julie Akerly, Danielle Feinberg, Eileen Standley

Dancers in Vibrant Lives unboxing Woojers (from left to right): Tim O’Donnell, Julie Akerly, Danielle Feinberg, Eileen Standley

 
 
 

What is Feminist Unboxing?

Feminist unboxing is a facilitatory structure for introducing a new technology into a creative process, research project, and/or collaborative working group. The purpose of this process is to slow down and take the time to document your personal experiences receiving, unboxing, setting up, and finally using a new tech device or software platform for the first time. This included looking at the product website before opening the item and reading the privacy statement before creating an account. These activities do a few things:

  1. Unveils possible risks incurred when engaging with the technology so that we may build awareness and have a chance to voice objections to its use.

  2. Cultivates a preliminary critical analysis of the item, its designers, and the communication strategies used to entice potential users.

  3. Provides a method for introducing new technologies into a group setting and fosters dialogue about any issues and concerns.

  4. Cultivates generative tension between artists and technology before and during the creative process.

  5. Situates a technology within one’s own lived experience and amplifies the role of the technology and its designers in limiting the choices afforded by the software or hardware in question.

Where does feminist unboxing come from?

The idea of feminist unboxing was first introduced to me by my colleague and collaborator Jacque Wernimont, who currently sits as the Distinguished Chair of Digital Humanities and Social Engagement at Dartmouth College. Jacque and Liz Losh crafted feminist unboxing assignments for their collaborative teaching at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute with the history of unboxing in media in mind. I’ve expanded upon the process to consider creative and artistic research practices as well as somatically-informed practices, largely within research intersecting dance and computing.

where has feminist unboxing been engaged?

Since expanding upon the work, I have presented and facilitated Feminist Unboxing in the following contexts. If you use Feminist Unboxing, please let me know so I can track where it is being engaged!