start

For your information:
this website was designed to be a presentation for a university seminar
"WHAT CAME AFTER CYBERFEMINISM? TECHNOPOLITICAL UTOPIAS OF A FEMINIST INTERNET"

You can find a more simple and

accessible version of this

website by scrolling right

>>>>

First of all:

How this website works:

Just keep scrolling and see the content that I have provided for this presentation

If you are wondering what the topic of this presentation is...
Let´s get started!

>>>>>

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THERE

this way >>>>

Welcome!

Warning! Queer Content Ahead!

Warning! Queer Content Ahead!

Warning! Queer Content Ahead!

my contact for questions or other matters:

hmotaesa@uni-muenster.de
hannah.motae@gmail.com

Welcome!

QueerOS: A Users´s Manual

Fiona Barnett, Zach Blas, Micha Cárdenas, Jacob Gaboury, Jessica Marie Johnson, and Margaret Rhee (2016)

What is QueerOS?

The text consists of 8 parts
But I will only present 5 of them, as I think they are the most essential to understanding the manifesto

When being tasked with presenting this cyberfeminist manifesto, the first thing I asked myself was:

The idea of "QueerOS" was originally presented by Kara Keeling in 2014:
- "scholoarly and political project"
- `queer´ as an operating system, in contrast to the normal/corporate operative systems we know
- the idea is presented as a challenge
> both a challenge to existing technologies and (social) injustice
AND a challenge to those who want to take this idea to another level

- sms

And that is exactly what the authors of this manifesto (QueerOS: A User´s Manual) try to achieve...

An operating system REIMAGINED under a QUEER lens

What would it look like?

What are its ethics?

How does it work?

"Getting Started"

"Interface"

"User"

"Kernel"

"Memory"

"Warning"

- the text outlines its policies and self identifies itself
> "QueerOS diverges from the network culture, widely accepted today (...)" (p. 2)
> consensual agreement as the basis for progress, new architecture, possibilities and the realization of dreams

Before we dive in...

QueerOS Terms of service:
"By agreeing to the QueerOS Terms of Service the user binds themselves in a relational network of queer kinship with and between people and systems, bodies and objects, one and another." (p.2)

- important because it is the gateway between the human and the machine
- but there is a problem...
> "the interface is (...) a site of control, of restriction; it is a black box that accepts limited input to produce minimal output, the workings of which remain hidden." (p. 2)

the QueerOS values transparency

But what would this interface look like according to the QueerOS?
It is pretty abstract but...
- it would not be static, but instead transformative and responsive to the individual
- fluid, creative
> the opposite of the "black box"
- consensual (transparent, respectful)
- roles like "machine" and "human" wouldn't be as fixed
AND
- it would allow us to communicate with each other as a community

"A queer operating system might take as its premise an interface in which (...) we might acknowledge (...) our interactions as between and among one another." (p.3)

- users are free in their identity and can adopt multiple users or avatars
- users are influenced by QueerOS
> QueerOS is influenced by the users
- consensual interaction with the system by agreeing to the terms of service
- users "offer their `flesh´" to the OS (p.3)
> symbolic for the transaction between the system and the user that isn't only digital
- encouragement to bring your story, wishes, vulnerability with you and embrace the chaos
> rejection of productivity over everything else
- users can and should challenge, resist and chance the OS
- finding community with other users

"The OS will invite all to play and support play in all forms." (p.4)

Responsibility and accountability:
- The OS is liable to reform "content generated by hierarchical ontological pasts; those rooted in slavery, settler- colonialism, prison and military industrial complexes (...)" (p.4)

The content that the users consume is also important to the QueerOS:

The core of an operating system

- reflects the manifestos ideology and queerness
> not only a technical part as a system but a social/philosophical part as well
- core characteristic: unstable, wild and liberated from the construct of other systems
> "It demands we imagine otherwise." (p.4)
> this can be directly translated to the queer experience as well
> QueerOS reflects and embraces queerness in its design, execution and morals
- focuses on building relationships and transformation of itself and its users

"QueerOS thereby embraces uncertainty. It welcomes crashes." (p.4)
- Just like Keeling´s original idea of the QueerOS, its execution is also a challenge in itself
> its not easy to engage with the OS, but it makes the experience very unique and has a learning effect

What I think the kernel is:
A reflection of queerness itself
... Not only queerness but other marginalized experiences as well
- instability and vulnerability, which are seen as a weaknesses by societal norms
> but the QueerOS turn it into its own system and gives those aspects strength and validity
- it defies expectations and prioritizes transformation, participation and non-conformity

This website is a work in progress,
a more accessible version will be added shortly!

"Memory is the mechanism by which the system can store data for later processing (...)" (p.6)

"QueerOS also recognizes the right of the user to be forgotten, erased, or made otherwise unmemorable." (p.6)

"QueerOS understands memory as a site or event of becoming." (p.6)

- data processing and storage
- not only memory of data but also memory of lived experiences
> mainly marginalized people
- recognizes the struggles that come with memory as a marginalized person
> dosent ask you to leave it behind but embrace it and make it a part of the system

Intersectional Feminism
because it

- acknowledges that there isn't only queer and not queer, but many marginalized identities in-between that also suffer under conventional systems
- also considers the different lived experiences of marginalized people
> they have different needs when it comes to technology which the QueerOS pays attention to

I think this manifesto speaks to the...

Thank you for your time and attention!

Are there any question?