Motherboards @ San José Museum of Art

Join Assistant Curator Juan Omar Rodriguez for a guided gallery talk on Motherboards, an exhibition highlighting women’s vital yet often unrecognized contributions to the technology industry. The discussion explores how artists reveal the social, economic, and gendered structures underlying the technologies that shape our daily lives.

About the Exhibition

Motherboards explores the foundational contributions of women’s work to the technology industry. From the first human computers and programmers, to the women working at electronics factories in Silicon Valley and beyond, to today’s global network of ghost workers, women have been deeply involved with the technologies that undergird our daily lives. Yet their contributions are often left out of official histories of technology.

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 vital work performed at looms, desks, kitchens, and assembly lines across the globe. Motherboards features installations, videos, textiles, and more by Sarah Buckius, Tania Candiani, Priyageetha Dia, Rhonda Holberton, Charlotte Johannesson, Ahree Lee, Amor Muñoz, Hương Ngô, Mimi Ọnụọha (with Charlene Eigen-Vasquez), Sonya Rapoport, Cara Romero, Sarah Rosalena, Analia Saban, Marilou Schultz, the Superkilogirls (Camila Galaz, Ana Meisel, and Lua Vollaard), and Mika Tajima, as well as archival objects from the Computer History Museum.