-collective manifest for a feminist server compiled from the events THF (2012), (and Autonomy (im)possible, Darmstadt Delegation (2013), THF (2014), Ministry of Hacking (2014), Feminist Server Summit (2013), Samedies (2006-12) and others...

A feminist server ...

Is a situated technology. Her sense of context results from a federation of competences

Is run for and by a community that cares enough for her in order to make her exist

Has an awareness of the materiality of software, hardware and the bodies gathered around it

Treats network technology as part of a social reality

Is able to scale up or down, and change processing speed whenever resources require

At the risk of exposing her own insecurity, opens up processes, tools, sources, habits, patterns

Does not strive for seamlessness.
Talk of transparency too often signals that something needs to be made invisible

Radically questions the conditions for serving and service;
experiments with changing client – server relations where she can

Avoids efficiency, ease-of-use and reliability because they can be traps

Knows that networking is actually a parasitic, promiscuous and often awkward practice

Is autonomous in the sense that she tries to decide for her own dependencies

Takes control because she wants networks to be mutable and read-write accessible

Faces her freedom with determination.
Vulnerability is not an alibi

Is a paranodal (we did not mean: paranoid) technology. A feminist server is both inside and outside the network

Does not confuse a sense of false security with providing a safe place

Tries hard not to apologise when she is sometimes not available

Feminist Server Stack (privacy a écriture féminine perspective)
Feminist Servers of the Internet - a networked series of self made videos of toilet doors opening and closing, hosted on different feminist run servers and jumping from one server to the next as you watch the URL. Each of the images in this animation is hosted on a different server. The animation exists nowhere in its entirety and can only be seen online.

Nancy Mauro-flude asked a cohort of feminist hackers to film themselves opening their toilet doors and uploaded the videos for her to create the piece. Using the toilet as metaphor to think about why want privacy is important, the Feminist Server Stack foregrounds our deeply intertwined relationship with technology, the ephemeral conditions of a network and our embodied position within it. Dismantling gender codes in traditionally male oriented media through performative interactions with new technologies.

Drawing up on the "toilet effect" - the illusion of privacy that is created in public toilets. Toilets are so-called private spaces, however they are built with flimsy walls, you can lie on the floor and look up into the next stall/booth, and you can hear everything going on. Rustle of clothes, wind and bodily functions. Each handle is different. It's a bit like the internet - we have an illusion of privacy when in fact it is potentially a very public space. Feminist server stack, features different toilet doors of écriture fémininists opening and closing around the world.

Thank you:
Sophia Lycourious, Penny Travlou, Helen Varley Jamieson, Sara Platon,
Cornelia Solfrank, Donna Metlzar, Reni Hofmüller, Linda Dement, Peter Westenberg,
Anne Roth, Spideralex, Rosa Menkman, Audrey Samson