In 1971 Rapoport discovered a series of vintage geological survey charts from an Idaho Snake River Dam project in an antique architect's desk she had purchased.

Objects such as a pool-cue holder signified an udder,  while a plastic uterus from an anatomy kit stood for the womb: a lexicon of feminine symbols she referred to as her Nu-Shu language.

Rapoport used this feminist pattern language extensively throughout the 1970s on large-scale paintings as well as mixed-media works on found continuous-feed computer paper.

In the late 1970s, Rapoport also developed a collaborative practice as her work moved away from painting and drawing into the realm of installation, performance, and research-based mixed-media projects.

For instance, as part her  collaboration with the anthropologist Dorothy Washburn during the 1970s, Rapoport incorporated archeological notations based on the study of Native American artifacts into her computer drawings.

[4] Objects on My Dresser marked Rapoport’s clear departure from her painting and object-making practice and anticipated her later interactive performance and new media work.

Rapoport collaborated with psychologist Winifred de Vos to interpret the personal significance of mementos and souvenirs that accumulated on her bedroom dresser, examining them through psychoanalysis, computer coding, and scientific methods.

Rapoport was an early adopter of internet technology and was affiliated with a community of like-minded creators associated with MIT’s Leonardo Magazine, including Judy Malloy and Meredith Tromble.

Sonya Rapoport: biorhythm, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California, 2020 [10] [11] Spotlight, Frieze New York, 2020[12] The Computer Pays its Debt: Women, Textiles, and Technology, 1965-1985, Center for Craft, Asheville, NC, 2020 Shifting Terrain – Works on Paper from the Collection, SFMOMA, 2020 Refiguring the Future, Hunter College Art Galleries, New York, 2019[13] Sonya Rapoport: An Aesthetic Response, Casemore Kirkeby Gallery, 2019[14] Yes or No?