Gynadome, 2002 website screen captures [Enlarge in New Window]

Dyke Action Machine (DAM!): Gynadome: A Separate Paradise

Ever since their early days as the self-described "lesbian propaganda spin-off" of the 1990s activist group Queer Nation, visual artists Carrie Moyer and Sue Schaffner have used the quick wit and cutting-edge graphics of pop culture and advertising to subvert media stereotypes of lesbians. The latest endeavor of this dynamic duo, who work under the moniker of Dyke Action Machine!, is Gynadome [www.gynadome.com], an interactive website that follows three lesbian action heroes as they try to save the planet in a post-digital age. The project also involves printed materials such as removable tattoos, postcards, and t-shirts, as well as a street-based poster campaign on outdoor bathroom kiosks in San Francisco in May 2002.

Speaking from Schaffner's Girl Ray photo studio in New York City, the two artists say that it is the substantive critique underlying their humor that keeps Dyke Action Machine!'s work fresh. "We still have content here," says Moyer. "We continue to do work that's meaningful."

In Gynadome that's evident in the project's concern with technological dependence and the environment. "You might laugh -- but how many of you could survive without your Palm Pilots (personal digital assistants or PDAs), cell phones, or unlimited web access that you are enjoying right now???," the website asks its readers. "Prepare yourself for the post-digital age in Gynadome when your battery pack dries up and the only communication left is a primal scream."

Through streaming video, Flash animation, live chat, and hypertext stories, web users can watch and read in 'real-time' as Gynadome's three "Techno-Resisters" -- Wombawaccka, Ditto, and Medea -- battle their way through this post-digital world in which there are "no computers, no electricity, and no men." Banished to a remote biosphere "for further study" by The Man, the three "mountain mamas" plot their return to Earth, then find the beloved planet has no signs of life, having been reduced to a digital dumping ground for obsolete technological tools. In order to survive, they must "go back to the land and learn to love their Mother. (Earth, that is)." The three women vow never to restore electricity, never to touch another keyboard, and to be true to Mother Earth and her ways.

Gynadome is more than simply an inventive riff on technology, identity, and the history of lesbian culture. The artists say the project springs from "nostalgia for a time that was pre-information age, that was sincere," explains Moyer. And they are aware that in the 10 years since Dyke Action Machine! began, the age of irony has made such discourse increasingly difficult to pull off. Or, as Moyer puts it, "We don't know what sincere, radical rejection of stereotypes would look like any more -- it would seem antiquated, like seeing Simon and Garfunkel in concert."

Moyer and Schaffner say users have logged onto Gynadome from all over the world. "One of the reasons we've gravitated to the Internet," says Schaffner, "is that we have access to so many of different people." In contrast, the duo's groundbreaking poster campaigns in the '90s were seen exclusively on New York City streets.

Both accessibility and generosity have made Dyke Action Machine!'s work stand out. "The key is to make it free," says Moyer, explaining the ephemeral objects and printed materials that are distributed as part of each campaign. "We've always maintained this ethos of giving away the final project." That also provides an important distinction between Dyke Action Machine!'s art and the pure commercialism of advertising. "Nothing is for sale, there's no identifiable product," says Schaffner. Or, as Moyer adds, "That is the ultimate subversion of marketing: there's nothing to buy."

The two artists are currently touring a Dyke Action Machine! retrospective, Straight to Hell: 10 Years of Dyke Action Machine! which includes highlights from their various street campaigns and web projects, beginning with their early days with Queer Nation. Straight to Hell kicked off at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in the spring of 2002, with its next stop scheduled for the following November at DiverseWorks in Houston, Texas.

Looking back at their work together, Schaffner recalls that they began before desktop publishing gained currency. "We started out doing Xeroxes, and those were incredibly effective at the time. Today here we are in the post-information age, and we all have the tools. Now the question is, who's going to make something happen?" True to its name, we can trust that Dyke Action Machine! certainly will.

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THIS PROJECT'S CATEGORIES: Visual > Installation | LGBT | Products & Consumerism | Americana | Politics | New York | 2000