Vernacular and Opaque Queer and Trans* Human-Machine Configurations

• In Event: Hooking Up and Turning On: Queer Communication and Technology for Digital Dissidents

Abstract

This paper explores queer and trans* epistemologies with regards to performing, disclosing, and operationalizing identity online that have thus far gone underacknowledged and underemphasized in discussions of identity online. This article will focus on popular and mundane queer and trans* vernacular techniques of identity enactment online that counter the policies and encoded protocols of dominant uses of the internet. As we continue to be reminded of the ways that digital information is in many ways permanent and accessible to powerful institutions and actors, awareness campaigns and news reports often focus on the ability for these data collectors to use our sexual and gender identities against us. What does considering the tactics and epistemologies of queer and trans* human-machine configurations with regards to identity enactment contribute to our understanding of a heavily surveilled and "securitized" world?

Author

• Bryce Renninger, Rutgers University