CN:FM is an online/offline network of researchers and digital creative practitioners interested in feminist methodologies, which was initiated in 2014 by Penny Travlou (University of Edinburgh, CIRCLE) and Sophia Lycouris (University of Edinburgh, CIRCLE) in collaboration with Helen Varley Jamieson (Genderchangers, Upstage and FLOSS Manuals), Cornelia Sollfrank (University of Dundee) and Daphne Dragona (transmediale). In our on-going research, we are using a feminist approach grounded on notions of care and affect, which are nomadic, fluid, reflective, playful and non-profit to explore and debate the process of ‘commoning the networks’. In transmediale 2015, we will explore further how distributed networks intersect with those on the concept of the ‘commons’. By commons, we mean knowledge resources that are collectively created, owned or shared between the members of the network, and are available to third parties. Commons, therefore, are there to be used and reused, rather than to be exchanged as a commodity. We will bring together scholars, practitioners and artists who are members of cyberfeminist collectives such as Genderchangers and Constant Association for Art and Media to develop a feminist methodology that facilitates movement, processing and exchange of ideas and practices in multiple directions amongst and across diverse networks, within an ethos that engages with creativity as a commons.
How could we undertake a process of ‘commoning the networks’ to co-create and share knowledge, as a form of resistance against the neoliberal understanding of productive labour? How could this be implemented in practical terms? Which are the techniques, technologies, language requirements and relevant methodologies to make this possible? What can we learn from the ways in which interactions occur amongst networks, both vertically/horizontally and rhizomatically/progressively?