2002

“Undercurrents: a dialogue by Maria Fernandez, Irina Aristarkhova and Coco Fusco.” Fine Art Forum, Volume 16, Number 08, 2002.

Launched earlier this year, Undercurrents is an online discussion list about how cyberfeminism, new technologies, postcoloniality and globalization are interrelated. Moderated by Irina Aristarkhova, Maria Fernandez, Coco Fusco and Faith Wilding, Undercurrents seeks to challenge the utopian ideology of cyberculture and explore the many practical and philosophical reasons to question libertarian characterizations of electronic culture and virtual reality. In their opening statement to the list, the moderators said, "As much as we support the democratic goals of many who have contributed to alternative discourses within net.culture, we do not agree that the ideal of a digital commons, feminist or otherwise, necessarily transcends the problematic logic of race and racism. We are deeply skeptical of such assumptions because we understand that race and racism involve much more than skin, bodies, overt segregation or physical violence. We argue instead that race is manifest in both the essentializing ventures of law and science and in the arenas of performativity that denaturalize and de-essentialize embodiment, including cyberspace."

In this dialogue, three of the Undercurrents moderators, Maria Fernandez, Irina Aristarkhova and Coco Fusco discuss their reasons for initiating this project as well as some of the political objectives and implications of the list.
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