Queer Pixelation, Trans Coding

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course covers a range of texts and topics on queer and trans embodiments, representations, and productions in computational and digital media. We cover questions of identity and performance in networked spaces like YouTube and Tik Tok, queer histories of computing, artistic movements like the queer games avant-garde, and key representations of queerness and transness in digital film, games, and other media. Core questions of the course include: Are computers and digital media fundamentally queer? What do these technologies teach us about gender and embodiment? How have queer and trans people influenced the history and development of computing? How has the development of computing influenced the history of queer and trans communities? How do queer and trans people use digital media to explore their own identities and connect with one another? This class is grounded in queer of color and trans of color critique and approaches these topics from an explicitly anti-racist position.