Come explore the intricate and interlocking world of Sarah Buckius’ “!!!techn010ffspring!!!” where feminist art meets science and the history of invention. On view at Lane Hall as part of U-M Arts Initiative’s themed semester on Arts & Resistance, “!!!techn010ffspring!!!” critiques the patriarchal paradigms of the STEM field by highlighting the history of women inventors. This exhibition brings conceptual invention in fine art and performance to the disciplines of information technology, robotics, and engineering. Buckius creates “technoffsprings”: complex machines that weave together the history of inventions related to the gendered labor of women, especially regarding women’s social roles as caregivers and subjects of care themselves.
Trained as an engineer and an artist, Buckius’ machines are intentionally complex, layered, and illogical or absurdly logical. In the nature of women’s caregiving, they teeter between order and chaos. Her “digital tinkerings” tell epic tales of motherhood, technology, female bodies, and commerce—both personal and externalized through women’s inventions and early forays that bridged caregiving and commerce. Buckius' work proposes improvisation as a form of absurdist resistance to, and alternative to, patriarchal, capitalist, production-based, and seemingly rational, useful, logical systems.
“!!!techn010ffspring!!!” is open for viewing M-F, 9am-4pm or by appointment. University of Michigan instructors can email LaneHallExhibits@umich.edu to request a group tour or schedule a class visit.
This project was made possible by a grant from the Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan and co-sponsored by U-M’s Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender with support from the Santa Cruz County Arts Council.
