The Complicated Legacy of Barbie in Art #ArtTuesday
Barbie, Barbie, Barbie. The world is abuzz. Beyond just “a toy for girls,” Barbie has been a cultural symbol for over 60 years. Over the decades artists have used the doll to evoke, critique and question society at large. Hyperallergic goes through some of the history of Barbie and art:
Hollywood’s treatment of its workers is contrasted by the optimistic — and very pink — cultural moment surrounding Mattel’s new film, largely spurred by the movie’s extensive marketing campaign: Excited fans are throwing Barbie-themed parties and the Internet is flooded with memes. But long before Gerwig took on Barbie, visual artists were incorporating, critiquing, and reimagining the doll to question gender roles, body expectations, and double standards surrounding female sexuality.
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.