Panel Four in Kick Magazine Panel Series at the Harbourfront Centre's Beats, Breaks and Culture Festival - August 2005

Representations of Women and Female DJs in Electronic Music

From documentaries on female djs, to music television coverage, print journalism, popular culture theory, and testimonials from DJs and other women in the industry: this panel opens a discussion about the representations of female djs and how they intersect with the larger issues of feminism and subcultural production. The debate is many fold and multi-facetted.



Date: Sunday July 10th
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 pm

Panelists:

MalikaShara has been DJing the flavours of deep.dark.n.dirty.'achari.psy.tek' that are easily distinguishable from the rest since 1996. With a strong affinity for community activism, Malika holds ties to the Toronto techno scene, Sister DJs (San Francisco), the Female Pressure base (Austria) run by DJ Electric Indigo, Sisters of Saraswati (Toronto), and Phoniq (Montreal). Currently she is artistic agent for Torontodub.poet, actress, playwrightd, bi.young, and Director for The Medina Collective: A Women's Mentorship Movement. Previously she has worked with Suhana www.suhana.ca, several local Anti-Racism groups, and On A Move Toronto (creating awareness around political prisoners).












Jackie Pelle made good use of her studies in Film and Mass Communications, having worked in the film industry as a camera assistant for a decade. She joined PanavisionCanada where she decided to make a documentary (her favourite medium) about one of her loves - music. She centred on female djs because she noticed certain interesting dynamics involving how women were represented in the electronica world. That was the inception of "Spinsters", which she shot and co-directed with Jane Walker. Jackie is currently researching her next documentary about the black Britons who now live in North America.








Jane Walker has worked as a filmmaker, editor, script supervisor, researcher and teacher. In 2000, Jane co-directed the award-winning Spinsters, a film about female DJs, which has screened in Canada, the United  States, England and Switzerland. In 2003 she made Two Eleven, which explores corporate logos in art, and in 2005 completed two short documentaries: Raw Material and Traffic Jamming in Kensington. Jane has presented her work at conferences in Toronto and Montreal, and is completing a Master of Fine Arts in film at YorkUniversity.
Monique McGoey has a degree in Communication Studies and Political Science. For over five years of work in the music industry she has worked alongside artist managers for musicians such as Hayden and Hawksley Workman. She also co-runs Polaris Records (http://www.polarisrecords.com), one of Toronto's flagship techno labels. In 2002 she switched to Blue Bookings (www.bluebookings.com), one of North America's primary techno booking agencies.  At Blue Monique facilitates the tours for artists such as Mauro Picotto, Chris Liebing and Marco Carola, but also represents her owns artists: Jake Fairley, Jeff Milligan, Jeremy Caulfield and Caspian Rabone throughout North  Ameri
Moderators:
Amanda Connon-Unda is a wünderkind of Toronto's techno Scene, passionately in it since age 15. Her curiosity about culture, music, and theory (social justice and identity politics) have led her on an interesting path. Her preference for entertainment media that seamlessly incorporates these fun and critical elements has led her in the same pursuit in her projects. Amanda is the creator of two original 'zine series, including The Women of Techno Project - which was about female djs and was sponsored by a Much Music VJ, and she hosted an Internet-TV Show called Pure Integration. Having interned in publicity for big-name DJ booking agencies for internationally touring house and techno djs, Amanda attended McGillUniversity before returning to Toronto to finish a degree in Anthropology and Semiotics.
Amanda, now 22, contributes to her own Women of Techno Online 'zine: www.womenoftechno.com. Amanda is also the co-producer/host for die Maschine radio show on University  of Toronto's CIUT (89.5 FM www.ciut.fm). dieMaschine features eclectic artist interviews, cutting-edge techno tracks, and guest dj appearances. Her freelance writing has appeared in Klublife, Kick, the McGill Daily, Peace, Neksis, Exclaim, Rice Paper (Vancouver), and Lexicon Magazine (UK). Amanda is the new host for Electronica on BPM:TV. She hopes to eventually catch up on some sleep by the time she reaches age 30!
Sara Scruton is pathological technician with a near messianic love of techno. A Toronto-based DJ and graduate of the Harris Institute for the Arts, she started DJ'ing at age 17. Inspired by the sound, she relocated to Windsor/Detroit in 1996, holding residencies at room 213 and Eros before her 2001 club tour of Switzerland, where she performed in Basel, Thun, Freibourg and Zurich. Since hosting her own Internet radio show on twelveinch.com and djshows.com, she can now be heard on www.xanuradio.com, on the show LocaleII. She?s played with some of the biggest names in techno at events regarded as mainstays, including the B-side, The Opera House, clonk, Chicks Dig It, Girl Toronto, Pride Parade, System Sound Bar, Nasa, RoxyBlu and Toronto?s first electronic music festival in 2004. When not writing for Kick Magazine or adding mixes to her website www.ninaflower.com, her tiny but mighty frame can be found helming decks and dance floors while breaking hearts everywhere.