Amber was compiled from a wide variety of sources, creating juxtapositions that reflect on the contradictory representation of the female body in the electrical age. Collated over five years, images explore how femininity came to be closely associated with electric energy in witch-hunts, physics experiments, decorative designs, domestic labour, telecommunications, advertising, medicine, cyborg modeling, electrotherapy, and other areas affected by the second industrial revolution. Tracing the “female body electric,” the book’s visual sequence forges a tension between different eras, techniques and methods of reproduction in order to question the dubiously gendered body-objects that are hardwired into the technologies of our society.

The cover image is borrowed from the astronomical symbol for Venus, the alchemical symbol for copper and the biological symbol for the female sex.

Author(s): Robin Watkins, Nina Canell
Year: 2020
Pages: 176
Dimensions: 25.5 x 16 cm
Cover: Softcover
Language: English