Today we continue our Summer Reading series with an article from our friends at Hyperallergic. Author Ben Valentine worked with writer/curator Dorothy Santos to send a questionnaire to women of color (WOC) and queer or trans women of color, and the responses were included in “Where Are the Women of Color in New Media Art?” This article was originally published on April 7, 2015. 

Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke. The 3D Additivist Manifesto, 2015 (screenshot).

Not long ago I wrote an article celebrating the work being done by cyberfeminist collective Deep Lab. In a post-Snowden world that’s seen few legal or structural changes since the first leaks, and one that’s filled with male-dominated tech conferences that sound more like advertising than critical discussion, I still consider Deep Lab’s work to be invaluable.

However, after the piece was published, Dorothy Santos—a writer, curator, and friend who’s currently organizing an exhibition on privacy and surveillance and their relationship to gentrification in the Bay Area—wrote to me to express concerns about the lack of women of color (WOC) and queer or trans women of color (QTWOC) artists in Deep Lab. She questioned why I didn’t discuss that lack of representation in my article.

With Santos’ encouragement, I decided it would be valuable to do a follow-up piece and include perspectives from WOC and QTWOC artists and writers regarding Deep Lab, new media and technology-based art, and representation. We emailed a small questionnaire to twenty such women. Seven responded, and their comments are featured below along with Santos’ own answers. We encourage any WOC/QTWOC readers to comment on this article or email to share your perspectives. As Deep Lab continues its work in 2015, with exciting partnerships with the MIT Media Laboratory and NEW INC, we hope these voices will be taken into account.

Read the full article here.