https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fv80ydpwL0

Zone 1: Graz

To destroy refers to an action to annihilate, to make something disappear, to bring to a complete end the physical soundness, existence, or usefulness of something seen as undesirable.
To constellate is a practice that allows us to make sense, to align ourselves (Estela López Solís), or eventually to add stars in a sky already deprived of light (Adrienne Maree Brown, citing Martin Luther King)
A constellation is an ensemble of stars whose appearance from a specific/situated position make them look visibily close enough that civilisations draw links between them, creating meaningful shapes.

A gendered socialisation has associated virility with expertise of destruction and feminity with skills for caring, healing and reconstructing.
Feminist epistemologies have often use deconstructive approaches in order to critic and dismantle the long lasting patterns of power and domination dynamics between genders (machism), but also toward ecosystems (specism). In this mindset, technologies are seens as an extension of domination or exploitation, and a result of logical systematic rational efforts. In 1991, in her feminist, antispecist and socialist cyborg manifesto, Donna Haraway proposed the reunion, or more so a recogintion of the fallacy, of those long-standing artificial divisions. If they are united, always already as entwined relations, if there is no war here, what is left for feminism to destroy / deconstruct / unbuild ? Is destruction a virile attribute ? Can feminism be officialy rageous ? And happily killing, opening, destroying unwanted structures, imposed joyfulness (Sara Ahmed) and unclosed toys (Nancy Mauro Flude, 2008). Or is it in particular, exploitative patterns that feminism aims to destroy, in order to rebuild revolutionary structures and other forms of collective beings ? From a tactical perspective, Octavia Butler has powerfully depicted this battle between healing vs destroying practices within a patriarcial exploitative structure (Wild Seed) : feminist thought would need to bear some oppressive structures in order to navigate, transform and create new strengths. In order to bring circularity in this process, I d like to referee to a buddhist or dharma art perspective (Trungpa), where destruction is seen as the last of the 4 kharmic actions (pacifying / enriching / magnetising / destroying)… Destruction becomes the last stage of what resists to the other ones.
If we look at destruction and constellation as circular practices, what guides us to choose what to destroy, create, magnetise, constellate ?
How does contemporary technofeminism enact the destruction of oppressive patterns, while generating a constellation of hopes, solidarities and intersiticial practices, in order to dance forward to a desirable future ?

Destroy | Constellate aims at deepening the practices of destruction and the art of constellating from a decolonial, healing, and technofeminist perspective.

This reflexion will be held in six steps:

Step 1: Nov 8: GET TOGETHER: a feminist server get-together Exchange Meeting
how do we maintain/care for/look at a constellation of feminist servers ?
with other participants from DESTROYING

Step 2 : Nov 12. & 13 Discussion: What (pattern) do we need to destroy in order to dance forward ?
With Openmodes @forum stadtpark two-days exchange about knowledge and education
Collective discussion on the use of destruction/deconstruction/reconstruction/building in feminist practices and epistemologies (with sound recording)
( Around a diner table, served along with paper, pen and plasticine. (Drawing will be captured and conversations audiorecorded)

Step 3: Nov 14 : Workshop: Scavenging electronics / making sound instruments from a e-waste (wit video captures)
– Dumpsterdiving some electronic component (with a video recording of the quest with a go pro)
– A workshop where we will destroy/dismentel/rebuilt clothes and (dumpsterdived) electronic instruments and component. (some close up on experiments will be audio and video recorded)
With Ellen Foster

Step 4: Nov 16 : Collective Mind Mapping: From this position, what would a TransHackFeminist constellation look like ?
Production of a collective mind map, with material from TransHackFeminist 2016, wich was held in Montreal in august 2016 at StudioXX, and was co organised by the FemHack collective.
With Ellen Foster, other international and local feminist hackers, Femke Belgium feminist designer, from Constantz, Brusells, in the design of a constellation.
Discussion and drawing around feminist constellation design :
* What are constellation made of ?
* How are constellation designed ?
* What do we do with constellations ?
* Variation on vision and cultural interpretation of constellation .
* What would be a feminist constellation design ?
* Why looking at the sky from a feminist perpective ?

Step 5: Nov 18: Event: Sound and Dance Performance from destroyed patterns (performance built from projection and sounds from electronic instruments, followed by a dance party evening)
With Ellen Foster
– Exp(l)osed in a noise party, with wearable instruments and projections. (made of some of the video recordings)
evening of noise , projections and deconstructed movement

Step 6: Nov 20-28 : DOCUMENTING A CONSTELLATION , Mur.at

The third iteration of THF!2016 occurred in august 2016 in StudioXX, Tio’tia:ke, aka Montreal with the thematics : decolonize technologies, hacking with care, autonomy of infrastructure and feminist pedagogies.
The first iteration occurred in Calafou, a eco-industrial colony based in the mountains next to Barcelona.
In between, the 2nd edition took place in Mexico.

Due to minimal financial support and geographical distance, they’ve been very little crossing of attendance between the 3 editions.
This time together is aimed at documenting the 3rd edition, in order to produce a zine, as well as making connexion with what happened in the previous edition