These Mean Images (2023)

These Mean Images is a project about the (im)possibility of reparative queer history through generative image-making. During a period of several months I created thousands of photographs using a popular generative image-making tool. I wrote text prompts that asked for images of queerness at different moments in history, and I was especially interested in visualizing situations that were not possible, not allowed, or otherwise not typically included in archives. At the same time, I was generating a large collection of images that tried to visualize a real-world incident that occurred to me in October 2022, where I was injured in an accident and then remained unconscious in public for an unknown period of time.

These Mean Images tries to locate impossible-to-see moments of vulnerability and tenderness in a blurry other reality of queer becoming. Referencing Hito Steyerl’s “Mean Images,” I remain unconvinced that these images are useful or needed; I wrote about this in Survival by Sharing, concluding that we need to devote more attention to the images and artifacts that are neglected all around us (in archives known and unknown). Mean images do not repair; rather, it’s possible that they may even damage our understanding of queer history. Still, I am fascinated that they now exist, by the relative ease with which they are created, and by their power to change our collective relationship to traditional archives forever.

The project is featured in Thinking through Graphic Design History by Aggie Toppins, published by Bloomsbury.