In Mathew Arthur’s course GSWS 321 “Making Feminisms: Technoscience, Disability, DIY,” students explore concepts and methods from feminist science and technology studies, cyberfeminisms, and disability studies through hands-on critical making practices that include origami, crochet, beading, cooking, board game design, and more. Across disciplines and activist movements, feminist concepts inform and are formed around bodies, things, books, devices, artworks, buildings, and places. Together, we experiment with how feminist theories are made and what they can make.
Making Feminisms: ProTactile
By Mathew Arthur, Ella Tani, and Monica Fu
Protactile is an emergent language used by deafblind people. Unlike American Sign Language, protactile is not visual and is practiced on the bodies of those in conversation. In GSWS 321 “Making Feminisms,” we explored feminist science and technology studies methods through material practices like origami and crochet. Through these tactile practices we thought about and discussed disability, the body, and the politics of accessibility. We were joined by guest speaker Erin Manning, a philosopher and artist from Concordia University who writes that ProTactile is “a living exploration of how continuous, active interplay shifts the contours of expression” (2020, 265).
For the final assignment, Philosophy and GSWS student Monica Fu explored the language of touch through an artwork titled Apple. She made figures with pipe cleaners and a glue gun in order to ask the question: “How do people recognize an apple as an apple?” Looking at cultural, scientific, and etymological histories of the apple, Monica writes, “I thought deeply about the relationship between humans and nonhumans.”
For the same assignment, Visual Arts student Ella Tani dreamed up a planet called Tactilia as experienced from the perspective of a deafblind space adventurer, Suki. Inspired by disability studies, the explorative creativity of ProTactile, and a love for illustration and fictional worldbuilding, Ella designed a variety of flora and fauna.
Student Biographies
Mathew Arthur is a PhD candidate in GSWS and the instructor of GSWS 321 “Making Feminisms.”
Ella Tani, a second-year Visual Arts student, loves to create comics and try out cool vegan restaurants in Vancouver. Ella is constantly aimlessly wandering around Gastown or Yaletown seawall petting dogs.
Monica Fu is a fourth-year Philosophy and GSWS student. Monica is a bass player, has a band with friends, and loves DIY and taking pictures.
References
Manning, Erin. For a Pragmatics of the Useless. Duke University Press, 2020.