TROUBLE-MAKING PLACE-MAKING: Towards a Queer Urbanism? (original) (raw)

2023, Book of Extended Abstracts - IPAU 2022

Queer Urbanism deserves a place in any sort of conversation about our built world, examining how we traverse, alter and think about our relationship with cities. Rebellious movements in the past such as Dadaism, Situationism and Fluxus gave free reign to artistic practicesin our cities by merely occupying space on the sidewalks. The AIDS epidemic in the 1980s brought the LGBTQ+ community into the spotlight, at that point, ACT UP! and Queer Nation implemented performative protest, taking back the streets for a marginalized community. The fine/performing arts have upheld this practice of subverting public space. But what do these actions signify? Beyond the "city as a stage", we see them for what they are: seismic changes in the urban fabric. The planning of cities and streets takes place within the safe confines of an office; however, this paper argues that urban design should not be approached without taking the uses of the spaces into consideration. Combining the disruptive methods of Queer Theory, Queer Urbanism is much more than a protest. It is a recognition beyond "We're Here! We're Queer!": "We're here! Now this is queer!" In its contradictory nature, Queer Urbanism fights back the heteronormative patriarchal power system that shapes our cities. But will it cannabalize itself? A popular talking point for queer space is the "safe space", yet if we hold a critical queer lens to this, does queer fight for safety? Is it not born from a desire to design, redesign and reconstruct the idea of what most people consider safe? This paper tackles various works of artistic practices, both historical and contemporary, with a special eye to how they changed a given space by occupying it, if even only for a brief moment. As queer bodies move through a space, are we defining that space? Or are we designing the space?