HUMANE
l
e o
c
o
s
c i
s
o
l
o
g e
o
e
s
l
g
e
c
i
a
-
a
a
o
i o
EMOTIONAL
g
g
else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where else/where
bear cleancut daddy discreet geek jock l e at h e r otter poz r u g g e d
ACCELERATE
COMMUNITY
CYBERNETICS
RESEARCH
Intimate Strangers A video Installation which studies the evolution of Grindr, and its users. But in more depth explores the way geolocation apps have forged a network culture which is defining and designing new ways of interacting and behaving. It shows a series of stories on how the app has changed the way we experience and view our own cities, in which our cultures live and our identities evolve. Jaque, who is primarily an architect has shown an interesting view of Grindr he commented in an interview saying that apps like Grindr “eliminate drama and multiply experience. What people find in hook up apps is not sex but a sense of opulent serendipity, and that is more than a new step in capitalist obsession for urban availability”. While also creating interesting links between the language used on Grindr profiles and how this effects the preceding interactions. Furthermore he states “places like New York or London have been reshaped by [apps like Grindr]”, in the way it has made the whole world a chat room, no longer bound to the isolation of the bedroom. Instead creating a digital sphere within a physical space and vice versa. This interesting account of Grindr, which is largely different to most of the research done on Grindr, as his research uses many personal accounts to show a different more intriguing side of Grindr. In contrast to the sweeping generalisations that are made my many non-queer researchers on this topic.
Proximity Awareness Proximity awareness and the privatization of sexual encounters with strangers; The case of Grindr. Within this paper, the Licoppe et.al. has looked at how Grindr has changed the daily lives of its users. Using the banal daily commute and regular visits as an example, but with the addition of Grindr to ones life they have “become fishing expeditions and the city itself a hunting ground for this new kind of urban wayfarerâ€? (Licoppe, Rivière and More, 2016) adding excitement and uncertainty to mundane activities. However I question does this thrill not wear off? But this research will help give me different aspects as to how Grindr has changed the landscapes of cities for its users. A helpful resource that is also within this paper is the very basic explanation to what Grindr is at face value. As it is easy as a user myself, to forget that Grindr is not an app which most people are familiar with, if they are outside or unknowing about the queer community. So this basic explanation will help pin point my research to others.
Mapping Cyberspace Mapping the cyberspace of Grindr is something which I will have too look at to understand how I can look at the app as a physical landscape, furthermore as to how it plays into the physical landscape of reality that it overlays and interacts with. “There are many definitions of cyberspace. According to one of them it is a virtual space created by global computer networks connecting people, computers and documents in the entire world and creating space that we can move in.� (Dodge & Kitchin, 2001) This book mainly looks at many different aspects of cyberspace and how it can be visualised or mapped out. From the geographies of information to spatialising cyberspace in imaginative ways. Although this book mainly talks of websites, which are accessed though the means of desktops, their means of tackling the space which lays between connected screens is incredibly interesting, visualising media and virtual connections with a creative lens. Which will be helpful to reapply to the virtual world of geosocial apps like Grindr.
Between Men Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire - Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick Although this book was written before even the invention of the internet, let alone geosocial apps. Kosofsky talks of something that I think is very important when dealing with homosexual relationships, and furthermore specifically male and male relationships, encounters and communities. Kosofsky looks at heterosexual male friendships, to homosexual male relationships, calling all of the encompassing homosocial, while she does largely focus on how these can have massively oppressive effects on women. Kosofsky also points out the intense nature of men’s same-sex bonds - within the realm of homosexual relations - due to the absence of a classic gendered power dissonance. In other words; in the absence or the wake of dismantling a traditional patriarchal relationship what kind of relationship can occur. For which I think is an interesting point to look at, for my research. Why has such a large and strong gay and queer male community arouse though the fruition of an app? Why is there not such a community for gay and queer females? Or for heterosexuals?
Cold Intimacies “It is commonly assumed that capitalism has created an a-emotional world dominated by bureaucratic rationality; that economic behavior conflicts with intimate, authentic relationships; that the public and private spheres are irremediably opposed to each other; and that true love is opposed to calculation and self-interest.” (Illouz, 2007) In contrast to Jaque, Illouz solely focuses on heterosexual, romantic, heteronormative, relationships and encounters. Stating that “I am less interested in sites that have a more explicit sexual orientation, for the simple reason that I am interested in the articulation of technology and emotions.” (Illouz, 2007). Suggesting that sexual encounters cannot be in anyway emotional, to which I would largely dispute. Sex can be a very emotional activity. Illouz also makes a large number of other negative statements about online dating apps, with very little being said about them in a positive sense. However what does interest me in her writing is the links she makes between the sphere of economics and the sphere of the transactional relationship. Framing the search for a partner as a search in a market, and the setting up of profiles as the setting up of a brand. Advertised with selling points, and an attached lifestyle. Transforming the self into a contained product ready to compete with others with in the open-ended market, which is then regulated by the law of supply and demand.
M O O D B O A R D
WEBSITE D E S I G N
A R C H I V E
S C H E D U L E
I N F O R M AT I O N
GEO.ARCHIVE Large panel plays live streamed content from the archive, film screenings and live events.
S C H E D U A L
I N F O R M AT I O N
EXCLUSIVE TEXT IMAG VIDE DATA POD
COLLECTED TEXT IMAG VIDE DATA POD SOFT
SUBMITTED TEXT IMAG
TS GES EOS A DCASTS TWARE
TS GES
ARCHIVE
TS GES EOS A DCASTS
GEO.ARCHIVE
I N F O R M AT I O N
NOW
INTIMATE STRANGERS EPISODE: 2
NEXT
48HRS: FIRE ISLAND
LATER
VICE: CHEMSEX
A R C H I V E
SCHEDULE
X
GEO.ARCHIVE
GEO.ARCHIVE IS A RESEARCH BASED, MULTIMEDIA ARCHIVE. WITH A FOCUS ON GEO.SOCIAL APPS TARGETED TOWARDS THE QUEER COMMUNITY, IN PARTICULAR GRINDR. WITH A FURTHER FIELD OF RESEARCH CONCERNED WITH QUEER THEORY, ACCELERATIONISM, EMOTIONAL ECONOMIES, AND THE QUEER COMMUNITY. GEO.ARCHIVE WORKS WITH INVITED RESEARCHERS, FILM MAKERS, ARTISTS AND QUEER PEOPLE TO CREATE AND DISPLAY EXCLUSIVE COMMISSIONED MATERIAL THAT CAN ONLY BE FOUND HERE.
CONTACT LINKS
INFORMATION
A R C H I V E
S C H E D U L E
GEO.ARCHIVE
F E AT U R E D ARTICLES
List of some featured articles, and video to be featured on geo.archive. Barlow, D. (2003). Un/making Sexuality: Such Is Life and the Observant Queer Reader. Australian Literary Studies. Charles Rees, J. (2016). Andrés Jaque, sex apps, and Intimate Strangers - a candid interview. [online] Run Riot. Available at: http://www.run-riot.com/articles/blogs/ andrés-jaque-sex-apps-and-intimatestrangers-candid-interview [Accessed 4 Jun. 2017]. Chemsex. (2015). [DVD] Directed by W. Fairman and M. Gogarty. London: VICE. Dodge, M. and Kitchin, R. (2001). Mapping cyberspace. London: Routledge. Firestone, S. (1970). The dialectic of sex. William Morrow and Company. Fuller, M. (1994). Unnatural. London: Underground. Illouz, E. (2007). Cold intimacies. Cambridge: Polity. Jaque, A. (2016). Intimate Strangers. [Video Installation] London: Design Museum. Licoppe, C., Rivière, C. and More, J. (2016). Proximity awareness and the privatization of sexual encounters with strangers; The case of Grindr. In: Context Collapse: Re-assembling the Spatial. [online] Paris: Department of Social Science, Telecom Paristech. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ Christian_Licoppe/publication/284178979_ Proximity_awareness_and_the_ privatization_of_sexual_encounters_ with_strangers_The_case_of_Grindr/
links/564e3b3c08aefe619b0fb66b.pdf [Accessed 12 Jun. 2017]. Miles, S. (2017). Hand-held: thoughts on locative media. [Blog] Sexuality and The City. Available at: https:// sexualityandthecityblog.wordpress. com/2016/05/10/hand-held-thoughts-onlocative-media/ [Accessed 21 Jun. 2017]. Paris Is Burning. (1990). [film] Directed by J. Livingston. New York. Roth, Y. (2015). Zero Feet Away: The Digital Geography of Gay Social Media. Journal of Homosexuality, 63(3), pp.437-442. Sedgwick, E. (1985). Between men. New York: Columbia University Press.