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Barbara Hammer

Created with a 16 mm film camera and an Amiga computer, No No Nooky T.V. (1987), by Barbara Hammer (1939, Los Angeles – 2019, New York) questions the heteronormative constructs of sexuality. Hammer explores the meaning of lesbian identity and its representation in contrast to prevailing structures. The film uses digital graphics, excerpts from films (including Hammer’s own Multiple Orgasm, 1976) and texts on desire or sexual intercourse to create a unique narrative via the computer. Hammer puns on the Spanish word amiga(female friend) presenting the computer as a potential liberating tool for women, and an object of erotism and connecting computing and lesbian sexuality. ‘Radical content deserves radical form’, the artist stated in 1993, as such No No Nooky T.V. reflects both the technological and social changes of the 1980s and explores the notions of romance, sexuality and love in the post-industrial age.