Manifestations

Manifestations was a group exhibition featuring work by ten artists working within or adjacent to the digital arts, exploring themes such as Trans revolutions, sex work, the disabled body and queer futures.

I was a researcher/curator on the Full Stack Feminism in Digital Humanities (FSFDH) collaborative research project and curated this final exhibition.

The curation of Manifestations was driven by three interrelated concerns. Firstly, it responded to one of the research project’s central questions, which concerned the benefits of the decentring of ‘traditional’ voices in the digital arts and humanities. Secondly, to my research into curatorial activism. And finally, to the practice I developed for the Messy Edge conference of bringing together artists and thinkers who are less often seen in this context into a polyvocal whole.

The exhibition was entitled Manifestations for two primary reasons. The Full Stack Feminism in Digital Humanities project sought to foreground intersectional feminist thinking in its research, and that was reflected in the artists and work selected for the exhibition. These ideas can often seem somewhat abstract but the work in the exhibition embodied those abstract ideas and manifested them in concrete ways that can be considered and explored by the viewer. Manifestations are also linked to activism, to demonstrations and to demands for change. The exhibition reflected the project’s recognition of the injustices baked into digital arts and humanities both via the technology that is used and the systemic prejudices that are inherent in the art world. The project called for change and the exhibition was a response to that call.