Cyberfemme - The Future Manifesto
Brace yourselves in the orbit of NOIRANCA’s new campaign Cyberfemme, while excavating the elusive intricacies upon the theory of Cyberfeminism, reloaded into Cyberfeminism 2.0.
The internet has become the space that we inhabit, to an extent a second natural habitat for humans. Its vigorousness, however, resembles mycelium in its rampant growth that connect us all but rather tear us apart. Put another way, it is a paradoxical platform of shaming and endorsement. While #MeToo posts have been a silver lining blasting in spades, the cyberworld remains the way it was. Male gaze, if not trenchant patriarchy, in a digital form.
We emerged from the cyberswamp…on a mission to hijack the toys from techno-cowboys and remap cyberculture with a feminist bent.
We’ve been warned of its destructiveness to the landscape of gender, as a matter of fact, more than 20 years ago by a gang of cyberfeminists. As much as Cyberfeminism holds its mystique in its origin, most attribute its root to feminists like Lynn Hershman Leeson and Donna Haraway. Haraway penned her classic A Cyborg Manifesto (1983) pondering technology and gender, feminism, and as well a vision where females “are all cyborgs”, leading a new world expunging patriarchal traditions.
Such futuristic – deconstructed – notion appears vague to some, not to mention a little bit overreaching to the sci-fi post-apocalyptic department. Yet that exactly is the essence of Cyberfeminism: a limitless pool of possibilities. By definition Cyberfeminism is undefined, just like how NOIRANCA’s new collection embraces femininity as a fluid form, one creates its definition, unbothered by others. LISA, one of the new bags, boasts an unconventional form that speaks to the unconforming attitude in cyberfeminists. Cyberfeminism could be anything, an attitude, a place, a community, to name but a few.
Could we use technology to hack the codes of patriarchy? Could we escape gender online?
Computers were dominated by men in the 1980s, it was made by and for them. Though females did contribute to the process, their names were crossed out in the rollout. In combat, an online connection of female thinkers, coders and media artists all around the globe came together, backgrounded by an ultra-rebellious ambition towards the power dynamics of the internet. It wasn’t until the 1990s that Cyberfeminism took over, as the period saw rising artists embodying the ethos. VNS Matrix, a four-women collective was at the vanguard of Cyberfeminism, writing Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century (1991) which was exhibited across Australian galleries.
Cyberfemme: The Prelude opens NOIRANCA’s campaign, reimagining Cyberfeminist Manifesto with a modern twist, and thereby engineer Cyberfeminism 2.0. New members of the NOIRANCA bag collection pop out in glitches, whilst the AI reads out the infamous 100 Anti-Thesis of Cyberfeminism, altogether with new iterations that resonate with the Cyberfeminists today. Cyberfemme is interwoven with different chapters that embody the digital feminine experience; a new digital era of femininity has been heralded, right here, right now.
Recent Posts
Attention, females. This is our time to rise. The cyberfeminists, the women, the girls. We are the resistance, all of us, fighting for our place in tech.
Breaking the codes of the digital male gaze, C.A.M. (a shorthand for Cyber Alpha Male) proffers a moment of introspection for all of us upon the gender hierarchy in the contemporary world. Surrounded by video recorders is the new NOIRANCA collection crafted in PETA-Approved vegan leather, representing the female sensibility – free and unbounded – under the surveillance of invisible gender rules that hampers an expression of self.
Seeing offensive comments against females is no shocking news, let alone posts being blocked due to their skin-showing element, or as Instagram puts it, “violation of nudity or sexual activity regulations”. The design of the new collection takes on a boundary-pushing motif, as ALTHEA boasts a triangular silhouette speaking aloud an I-don’t-care attitude. In the face of digital patriarchy, women also deserve an equal place online. C.A.M. is thus a mirror, and too, a protest to such.
The internet could be a place of confusion, for there seems to be a blurred line between what’s real and fake. 20/20 Vision, thus, embodies the feminine intellect in seeing beyond online. Wearing various kinds of lens, our model tumbles through the cyberspace awash in hues of blue. Calm and prudent, and too, empowered by the new bags, she transcends online superficiality into seeing truths with an ever-clearer headspace.
To become a cyberfeminist is not just about finessing your feminine intellect and sensibility online, but also coalescing with others in freeing the unbounded mind as a collective – to rebel against the cyber norm.