The idea for this project came from an essay I wrote about Grindr. i became obsessed with Sharif MOwlabowcus' study of Gaydar, specifically his theory of Cybercarnality. Cybercarnality essentially holds that queer online interactions are defined by the psycho-social conditions of queerness in the corporeal world. IN more simple terms, physical and cyber spaces overlap and interact, they are not independent or separate.
cybercarnality is what inspired this piece and will be the conceptual foundation of the ideas it explores.
I believe this is the exact moment to be creating art which tackles this subject. With facebook, arguably the most important mass cyberspace on the internet, rebranding as 'Metaverse', Cybercarnal spaces are no longer an idea for sociologists, but an observable reality.
“Cybercarnality refers to the formation of a particular discourse that has
come to structure and permeate gay male digital culture. This discourse
operates at the level of content (via digital images, official and unofficial
language, user-generated content and user-created content) and at the
level of form – what we might otherwise call the ‘architecture’ of such
spaces. [...] Cybercarnality can perhaps best be understood as providing a
means of acknowledging and identifying two specific tropes prevalent in
gay cyberspace. These tropes coalesce in the production of online
subjectivities and fashion interactions between those subjectivities.
Inevitably they also influence gay male subculture as it exists across a
myriad of digital, physical and ‘hybrid’ spaces. These two tropes are
identified as: a) the pornographic remediation of the gay male body and
b) technologies of self-surveillance and corporeal regulation.”
come to structure and permeate gay male digital culture. This discourse
operates at the level of content (via digital images, official and unofficial
language, user-generated content and user-created content) and at the
level of form – what we might otherwise call the ‘architecture’ of such
spaces. [...] Cybercarnality can perhaps best be understood as providing a
means of acknowledging and identifying two specific tropes prevalent in
gay cyberspace. These tropes coalesce in the production of online
subjectivities and fashion interactions between those subjectivities.
Inevitably they also influence gay male subculture as it exists across a
myriad of digital, physical and ‘hybrid’ spaces. These two tropes are
identified as: a) the pornographic remediation of the gay male body and
b) technologies of self-surveillance and corporeal regulation.”
Chapter 3, Gaydar Culture : Gay Men, Technology and
Embodiment in the Digital Age (Taylor & Francis Group, 2010)
Embodiment in the Digital Age (Taylor & Francis Group, 2010)
