Queer people, and other marginalised communties often feel like we’re mere pawns - online and offline - in a game we didn’t design, with unfair rules, and no instruction manual. So instead, here's a game we did design. We’ve devised a toolkit harnessing the power of art and the world-building capabilities of games. For this hands-on session, you have to print out the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' tool kit available in the link below, print it out, and bring the physical copy to the session, along with glue and a pair of scissors. The toolkit’s based on real stories from queer people - we invite you to walk alongside the characters and stop at the crossroads of their decisions; to generate a larger conversation with perspectives from around the globe, and share strategies of resistance.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kZOKS8T6-Dg-1yy7tgp6CzW4XsBkfkox?usp=sharing
The primary goal of the session will be to enable the participants to strategise our resistance against structural violences that we experience across our 'phygital' (physical + digital) lives, and strategise how to take power back in the digital spaces we occupy and inhabit. The toolkit opens up a space for participants to encounter narratives that might be markedly different/similar to theirs - and both possibilities allow for a larger discussion on how we can learn from and support each other. Through this session we are also looking forward to leaving participants with a physical and tangible tool that they can use to help themselves and their community members.
We're hoping that many efforts and discussions will continue after Mozfest. Share any ideas you already have for how to continue the work from your session.:Participants who will have the toolkit can also use it in their work at the intersections of gender, sexuality and technology. Assembling the game and using the toolkit at the workshop will be a learning experience for everyone, which they are free to utilise in other workshops on digital rights. We also hope to document the strategies of resistance people use in different parts of the world, and produce digital material such as social media posts, or an e-zine that can be made publicly available.
How will you deal with varying numbers of participants in your session?:The game is thoroughly flexible, and enables us to play with as many - or as few - participants there are.
I'm a researcher at Point of View, a feminist non-profit organization based in Mumbai, India. Most of my work is at intersections of gender, sexuality, disability, and technology.
I am a journalist, researcher and poet who works on issues of technology, environment, and gender+sexuality.