Not simply users of technology, women have played vital roles as inventors and makers across the history of technology. Yet their contributions aren’t always acknowledged in popular and official histories of technological innovation. Motherboards brings together artists whose work foregrounds the many ways that women have shaped the technology industry.

Motherboards highlights the central role of women in technology in three primary ways: by tracing the links between computers and the traditionally feminine practice of weaving; by exploring the legacy of women “computers” in the early twentieth century; and by attending to the women whose hands have materialized the technologies we use every day. Featuring artists from California and beyond, the exhibition maps an extensive network of women’s work in technology, connecting Silicon Valley’s laboratories and garages to looms, desks, kitchens, and assembly lines across the globe. 

Support

Motherboards is made possible by the SJMA Exhibitions Fund.

Operations and programs at the San José Museum of Art are made possible by principal support from SJMA’s Board of Trustees, and a Cultural Affairs Grant from the City of San José and the Skyline Foundation; by lead support from the Lipman Family Foundation, the Adobe Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Toby and Barry Fernald, Tammy and Tom Kiely, Yvonne and Mike Nevens, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Teiger Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the SJMA Director's Council and Council of 100; and with significant endowment support from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and the San José Museum of Art Endowment Fund established by the Knight Foundation at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.