Trace: background

background

In the last few years there has been a renewed interest in issues around gender&technology. In this context, cyberfeminism is regularly referenced as historical predecessor. While there has been considerable academic writing on cyberfeminism, little has been preserved that would give access to the networking spirit of the time, the life and work of the Old Boys Network in particular. This lack of archival material has regularly led to misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the work of OBN which is why the insight matured that the historical files and documents that existed should be collected and prepared and transferred into an openly accessible archive.

The public discussion of this issue at several occasions, eventually inspired Nora Sternfeld to take initiative and get involved in the development of such an archive. In her function as documenta professor at Kunsthochschule Kassel (until 2020), she suggested the archive to become part of the documenta archive. Thanks to a grant by the Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts, the work could start in late 2020.