pandemic daddy
This is a Critical Design research project where I apply Queer Theory to a non-identity based context: civic data and evictions. I looked at Ann Light’s HCI work on troubling, and Sara Ahmed’s work on queer use, to conceive of an oblique use of tree violation data on Atlanta’s civic data portal. This work is under review for ACM CHI 2023
Abstract:
This paper explores the notion of queer use and applies it to the context of housing and digital civics. We use techniques of queer reading, or queering, to read socio-technical systems of eviction and histories of racial disposession. We first detail the generation of an eviction record from field notes in our research. We then trace histories of housing segregation, discrimination, and injustice, to the technical blockages we encountered pushing an eviction answer through our local system. Identifying these blockages allows us to possibilize and design a critical artifact that demonstrates one way queer use may be designed. We conclude by describing the design process of a fictional, critical artifact and provide reflections on what a queering approach towards design in civic contexts forces us to consider.
Abstract:
This paper explores the notion of queer use and applies it to the context of housing and digital civics. We use techniques of queer reading, or queering, to read socio-technical systems of eviction and histories of racial disposession. We first detail the generation of an eviction record from field notes in our research. We then trace histories of housing segregation, discrimination, and injustice, to the technical blockages we encountered pushing an eviction answer through our local system. Identifying these blockages allows us to possibilize and design a critical artifact that demonstrates one way queer use may be designed. We conclude by describing the design process of a fictional, critical artifact and provide reflections on what a queering approach towards design in civic contexts forces us to consider.
a
