User:Alice/Special Issue V

Reader #1

Title and topic

Techno/Cyber/Xeno-Feminism The Intimate and Possibly Subversive Relationship Between Women and Machines

My reader explores topics from women's introduction into the technological workforce, the connection between weaving and programming, and using technology in favour of the feminist movement. One major concept that appears throughout the reader is an almost mystical connection between women and software writing, embedded deep in women's tradition of weaving not just threads, but networks.

Production

I built this reader using only free software. It was designed using HTML and CSS, compiled using Weasyprint, and the cover was designed in GIMP. The printing was done at WDKA. For binding, I decided to keep in line with the concept of weaving, and use Japanese binding with cotton thread.

Research

Research questions:

• Does software have a gender?
• What elements and concepts are revealed when exploring the connection between weaving and programming?
• How have women challenged the imbalance in gender representation in technology?

List of works

In order of appearance in the reader:

1. When Computers Were Women, Jennifer Light

2. The Future Looms, Sadie Plant

3. Zeros + Ones, Sadie Plant

4. A Cyborg Manifesto, Donna Haraway

5. Where Is the Feminism in Cyberfeminism?, Faith Wilding

6. 100 Anti-Theses, Old Boys Network

7. Xenofeminism: A politics for Alienation, Laboria Cuboniks

Software experiments

Exploring further the relationship between weaving and programming, I looked at the perceived similarities between the two. First output:

Second output:

Code

<source lang=python>

import linecache import textwrap import sys from sys import exit

class LeavingProgram(Exception):

   pass

def parse(program):

   cmds = program.split(',')
   splitted_cmds = []
   for cmd in cmds:
       splitted = cmd.split()
       splitted_cmds.append(splitted)
   return splitted_cmds

   #return tokenize(program)

def tokenize(s):

   return s.split()

def repl():

   while True:
       try:
           val = eval(parse(input('> ')))
           if val is not None:
               print(val)
       except LeavingProgram:
           break

text = None line_number = 0 last_index = 0

def eval(cmds):

   global text
   global line_number
   global last_index

   for cmd in cmds:
       if cmd == []:
           line_number += 1
           last_index = 0

       elif cmd[0] == 'load':
           contents = open('output.txt').read()
           text = textwrap.wrap(contents, 40, break_long_words=True)
           print('\n'.join(text))
           line_number = 0
           last_index = 0

       elif cmd[0] == 'show':
           print(text[line_number])

       elif cmd[0] == 'under':
           current_line = text[line_number]
           char_number = int(cmd[1]) - 1
           char_list = list(current_line)

           x=range(last_index, char_number + last_index + 1)
           for time in x:
               if time < len(char_list):
                   char_list[time] = u'\u21e2'

           last_index += char_number + 1

           joined = .join(char_list)
           text[line_number] = joined

       elif cmd[0] == 'over':
           last_index += int(cmd[1])

       elif cmd[0] == 'pattern':

           pattern = text[0:line_number + 1]
           print('\n'.join(pattern))

       elif cmd[0] == 'quit':
           print('Adios!')
           raise LeavingProgram()
       else:
           joined = ' '.join(cmd)
           print('Did not understand command {}'.format(joined))

if __name__ == '__main__':

   repl()

<source>