Critical Transfeminist Design

“up on a pedestal or down on your knees, it’s all natural selection based on exclusively competitive dynamics” - a guy that neither Kropotkin nor Atwood like, probably

“I shouldn’t be explaining these things in here” - Laura, explaining things to us

This seminar featured theories of liberation, with a focus on decolonial and transfeminist theory, and many examples of creative practices that reflect such approaches.

Some of the theories I already knew, or had absorbed by osmosis. Others, I hadn’t. One example is the concept of ‘epistemological violence’ - which I found interesting. I’m planning to read about it.

In this context, Laura also talked about the poster a collective put up around Barcelona, which said “I wouldn’t wish an identity on anyone”. She used this to talk about the question of how privileged you need to be to be able to reject identities, the queering of identities, and the power dynamics that make a statement like that very different depending on who says it (e.g. if your identity has been denied in order to better abuse or kill you, if the identity is part of strategy of liberation, etc).

Carolina brought up James Baldwin, who according to her might make a statement like the one the collective put on the posters. I’ve been meaning to read some of his texts, and hearing about him in this context reinforced this desire.

But most of all, I enjoyed the many examples of projects given. I was especially struck by the biohacking / queer speculative art / critical design projects. Some used semi-ironic aesthetics, like using an uncanny ccorporate voice over a video presenting the project almost like a commercial. Some involved ‘cyborg’/ queer biohacker approaches that seek more possibilities of modifying one’s body, and of living together with other species. It was also interesting to see the combination of artistic forms of propaganda and interrogation with more practical appraoches, for example concocting hormone production protocols, or building artefacts.

My approach for what I plan on continuing to work on right after MDEF (urban cultivation for autonomy) is likely to use a similar combination of more speculative interventions and more practical ones. All of this also really reinforced my long-standing desire of becoming more involved with the biohacking scene, and learning more about other species in order to co-exist with other species while building autonomy. I was also inspired to learn more about various theories of liberation.