QUEER BUBBLES DISCUSSION
Subcultures have always known the need for spaces that allow them room to thrive and blossom, think, re-think and create. Their constant struggle for continuity is part of their reality and in some ways defines subculture as such.
When we speak of spaces that serve the purpose of a specific group’s safety, we often speak of bubbles – the encapsulating worlds that promise relief from the daily threat of erasure, discrediting or even violence.
Most of the time these bubbles are temporary. They can burst easily as the walls which protect their inner living from the outside world are often thin and fragile, and still they are separating their inside living from the outside world. Their inclusion is exclusion from the other side.
In this contemporary climate that has seen increased extremism on the left and right across Europe, the rise of the online echo chamber, call out culture, and social tribalism, what purpose does the queer bubble serve?
Is our role as artists and curators to create safe spaces for the queer community? Ephemeral utopias that offer relief and protection? Does this ever perpetuate queer isolation, or division?
Or do we need to create contexts for dialogue with a wider society? To burst the bubble and connect beyond our comfort group? How do we manage these different approaches and work collectively to build a positive queer future?
Join us for a long table discussion about queer performance and curatorial practices exploring different approaches to queer world making. We’ll be joined by Uta Lambertz who is a programmer from Kampnagel in Hamburg and who recently curated a GenderMainstreaming festival, and Daniel Chelminiak a queer artist and curator of the Queer B-cademy in Hamburg, as well as a range of Scotland based artists and organisers, for a cross Europe exchange.
On 22nd May 2019 at Take Me Somewhere Festival in Glasgow we hosted a long table discussion on different approaches to queer world making. This was the invite:
As well as discussing vocally, the participants were invited to write down thoughts and questions that were resonating with them on the paper table cloths. Here is the transcript of this element of the discussion:
My head feels like a bubble that’s about to pop.
Where do I go…
At 21?
At 30?
At 56?
At 72?
Will baby queers exclude me for being outdated/outmoded?
I’m tired, are you?
How do I support you when, lately, I can’t seem to support myself?
How many people do you need for a QB? 1, 2, 3?
Do multiple bubbles make a foam? - YES
We needs QBs to see people like us being desired… so we can feel desirable.
The festival as a space for artists to connect.
What is the difference between
-Micheal Jackson
-David Bowie
-PWR BTM ?
Everyone is exhausted. Ignoring issues and cancelling people are both low energy/spoons responses. Is it possible to find an alternative that is similarly low effort or easy?
What happens when we’ve all been cancelled?
EXCLUSIVITY
How to make the offer
Intergenerational
…………………..
Bubbles
Bubbles:
How do we know when to be gentle and when to be angry?
How much is too much?
Queer clubs as going to curch?
Does queerness have to be about struggle?
(to feel held)
The internet as hosting containing educating training for bubbles?
Unconditional solidarity?
Who is in charge of inviting new people in?
Or keeping them out?
Do queer bubbles connect or talk to each other?
What are the rules?
Where do we go when the bubble pops?
Are they about fun or safety?
ARE WE TALKING ABOUT GATEKEEPERS OR GUARDIANS?
QUEER CLUBS ARE A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
Kind of yes!
GOING TO CHURCH
ARE QUEER BUBBLES
GENERATIONAL?
SITUATIONAL?
GEOGRAPHIC?
IN OUR ADVANCED TECHNICAL ERA, ARE THEY MORE EASILY CREATED OR DO THEY DISSIPATE?
NOURISHMENT
CLASS AND ITS PLACE
SAFETY
THE SPACES FOR INTERGENERATIONAL CONVERSATION ARE LIMITED.
How can we help queer spaces that aren’t clubs, cabarets etc to exist and thrive?
Bookshops. We want more of them.
People start them and keep them alive.
Colonialism.
Accessibility that doesn’t flatten.
SAFE SPACE / QUEER SPACE
“Queerness - something that’s meant to be about freedom has so many rules.”
WHAT DOES A “SAFE SPACE” LOOK + FEEL LIKE?
IS A SAFE SPACE THE MINIMUM WE SHOULD EXPECT?
WHAT MIGHT BE INCLUDED IN AN AMBITIOUS CLAIM ON QUEER SPACE?
A SAFE SPACE FOUNDED ON UNCONDITIONAL SOLIDARITY.
How do we allow for gaps in knowledge?
Seeing asking questions as something positive -> is this a chance?
What is our responsibility as artists / curators etc? Queering culture!? Sustaining cultural counter narratives?
Are “queer” spaces celebrating diversity or homogenetiy?
Have you ever felt completely safe in a safe space?
Is there a possibility of being safe and welcoming at the same time without compromising the idea of the safe space?
Does queerness contradict the idea of preserving safe spaces that it really needs?
Can we feel more safe than 10 years ago? What has changed?
Why do people feel safe?
BRAVE SPACE
Preaching to the
Does queerness have to include struggle?
What can queer politics/modes/ideas offer wider society? (Beyond being about spreading understanding)
Queer spaces as nourishment / caring
Making culture - culture is not fixed
WHERE ARE THE SPACES WHERE I CAN MEET NEW PEOPLE THAT AREN’T BARS AND CLUBS?
Intersectionality of identity - is queer just one of many identities we juggle?
What does it mean to feel different? Does the queer bubble celebrate difference?
Why am I here?
What does QUEER mean today?
Idea of NATION without the state?
Bubbles + Borderpolitics ? -> identity + borders -> can se positive + negative
Why do you think bubbles are necessary?
What makes you feel secure?
INTERNET created a dehumanised version of interaction
Intergenerational conversation is often limited ----> it needs spaces in which you can learn from each other
How do we know what is an innocent question and what is an attack?
Increasing extremism
Queerness is positionality vis-a-vis the normative - David Halperin
Programming & commercialisation ------- you can’t just put me on your bill to gaun queer points
NEW MEANING OF QUEER
Offer from an arts org’ perspective
-agenda
-sensitivity + delicacy in a mad fast machine
WHAT ARE OUR MODES FOR SPACE MAKING?
Intergenerational
DOES TECHNOLOGY HELP OR HINDER TOGETHERNESS
Big bubbles + little bubbles
Vulnerability
Does queerness have to be about struggle or just non-conforming
Where are all the lesbian bars? Have they disappeared because everyone has coupled off and is at home watching Netflix? --------> or is lesbianism disappearing because of queerness?
Unconditional solidarity
Superficial
Glasgow specific queer bubbles?
Ways of getting to know one another ------ dynamics of how we speak to one another on the internet---- we need new forms of speaking to each other
What do we need form a queer bubble?
What is it good for?
Differences in knowledge for internet natives or not
What is my/our responsibility in creating queer bubbles assuming we want/need them?
SAFETY FROM ERASURE VIOLENCE QUEER ISOLATION
POSITIVE QUEER FUTURE
DO WE ALL WANT TO BE IN QUEER BUBBLES?
DOES BELONGING = HAPPINESS?
If we have queer bubbles can we ever exist in the mainstream? Do we want to?
Linear progress as neoliberal model
Who does it leave behind?
“Reaching back and pulling people forward”
Where do non-internet literate people get their gender knowledge
Ideas of queerness vs ways they are expressed
Twitter format vs open forum
Hard to think the best of people
Make sure you’re trying to empathise online, not win
Ideas of queerness vs ways they are expressed
INTERGENERATION so important
“Gegan im Hass” book
Queer introductions before queer shows