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Science, technology and utopias in the work of contemporary women artists
Descriptive
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Text
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Title
Science, technology and utopias in the work of contemporary women artists
Identifier
ETD_1705
Identifier
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http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.2/rucore10001600001.ETD.000051344
Language
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eng
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theses
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Name
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Aycock, Alice--Criticism and interpretation
Subject
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Name
(authority = LC-NAF)
NamePart
(type = personal)
Denes, Agnes--Criticism and interpretation
Subject
(ID = SBJ-1)
Name
(authority = LC-NAF)
NamePart
(type = personal)
Rosler, Martha--Criticism and interpretation
Subject
(ID = SBJ-1)
Name
(authority = LC-NAF)
NamePart
(type = personal)
Schneemann, Carolee, 1939- --Criticism and interpretation
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(authority = RUETD)
Topic
Art History
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(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Science in art
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(ID = SBJ-1);
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Technology in art
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(ID = SBJ-1);
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Utopias in art
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(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Women artists
Abstract
This dissertation examines the work of artists Alice Aycock, Agnes Denes, Martha Rosler and Carolee Schneemann, created between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s, which incorporated science and technology as subject and media. It represents the first focused examination of the conceptual use of science and technology by American women artists during the Cold War. I argue that, for these artists, science and technology represented a realm of investigation replete with negative associations in the wake of the Vietnam War, but also ripe with opportunities for change. Motivated by the contemporary American women's movement, these artists leveraged theories in physics, cosmology and systems, as well as new technologies such as video, in order to subvert modernist, male-centered, heroic, painterly styles, in addition to the traditional economic structures of the gallery, museum and dealer. This study sheds new light on conceptual art by re-centering the use of technology, generally treated as a conservative trend and excised from avant-garde histories, as a means for critique of Cold War society and as a method for imagining alternative concepts of human community. At stake in this investigation are domains of knowledge and power from which women have been historically excluded.
Informed by New Left and counter-culture criticism of nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War arising from influential theorists, such as Herbert Marcuse and Lewis Mumford, these artists associated the industries of science and technology with the military-industrial complex, which was reviled as representative of a closed, mechanistic "technological society." However Marcuse, the media-acknowledged guru of the New Left (a left-wing international movement composed of social activist groups formed in the 1960s), also inspired the counter-culture to imagine an alternative society in which "science and technology are the great vehicles of liberation." Thus, while these artists subjected the patriarchal institutions and industries of science and technology to withering attack, they also redeployed their implicit notion of progress in feminist utopian visions of a different future.
Informed by New Left and counter-culture criticism of nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War arising from influential theorists, such as Herbert Marcuse and Lewis Mumford, these artists associated the industries of science and technology with the military-industrial complex, which was reviled as representative of a closed, mechanistic "technological society." However Marcuse, the media-acknowledged guru of the New Left (a left-wing international movement composed of social activist groups formed in the 1960s), also inspired the counter-culture to imagine an alternative society in which "science and technology are the great vehicles of liberation." Thus, while these artists subjected the patriarchal institutions and industries of science and technology to withering attack, they also redeployed their implicit notion of progress in feminist utopian visions of a different future.
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xviii, 335 p. : ill.
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Ph.D.
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 304-331)
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by Christine Filippone
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Filippone
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Christine
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Christine Filippone
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Joan
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Joan Marter
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Yanni
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Carla
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Carla Yanni
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Sharp
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Jane
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Jane Sharp
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Stiles
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Kristine
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Kristine Stiles
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Rutgers University
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Graduate School - New Brunswick
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2009
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2009-05
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xx
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Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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doi:10.7282/T38052T2
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ETD doctoral
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The author owns the copyright to this work.
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Copyright protected
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Open
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Author Agreement License
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I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
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2017-06-30
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Access to this PDF has been restricted at the author's request. It will be publicly available after June 30, 2017.
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