ADDS DONNA is pleased to present

diffused stream, unfelt shadow

opening online on Dec 12 at 7pm @ http://diffusedstream.online/

We want to begin by changing our relationship to the built environment. Not the one above ground, but the one underneath made up of metal tubes and cables that stretch across the earth underwater and underground. We want to occupy the space that is nowhere and everywhere, to advocate for the development of autonomy in the ubiquity of code. Rendered rhetorical, we are interested in peeling back the devices that constrain our understandings of ourselves, to move away from fixed systems and instead cultivate discursive environments that continually remake themselves. We are invested in infiltrating these spaces of power because we recognize that no space is neutral, no system is neutral, and those technologies that mediate our bodies through lines of code can never be neutral.

Following these provocations, CQDELAB (a collaboration between alejandro t. acierto and KT Duffy) is pleased to present diffused stream, unfelt shadow, an experimental intervention in the ways we understand and cultivate space for others in physical and digital environments. Offered as an interactive online installation work following a month and a half long residency at ADDS DONNA (IRL and URL), this iterative project was developed following a series of workshops and tutorials with creative coders, artists, and curious participants. A sort of durational performance and installation, we worked with participants to build works of synthesized process following a group of readings on carceral technologies, algorithmic oppression, and destabilized definitions. In this reflective iteration, visitors to the online work are able to interface with participant’s in-progress contributions, navigate a 360-camera of an installation mapped in the physical gallery, and access materials discussed in the working groups.

CQDELAB is an ongoing collaborative project co-facilitated by alejandro t. acierto and KT Duffy that is invested in developing and sustaining queer-feminist digital spaces, systems, and toolsets. We facilitate creative coding workshops, open critical conversations, and produce installations and web-based projects that draw on our shared experiences as educators, youth advocates, and digital media artists.

Our most recent projects include an exhibition and residency at ADDS DONNA (Chicago, IL), workshops and tool training at the Border Control Symposium hosted by the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design, and presentations for the New Media Caucus at the College Art Association. Their recently published book CQDE: A Feminist Manifestx of Code-ing is issued by Sybil Press as an artist book and online as a PDF.