Survival by Sharing (2024)
“Survival by Sharing” describes moments of tenderness and generosity in queer publishing, written as a series of scenes, non-chronologically. It’s a cinematic timeline, told in queer time. The piece was originally commissioned as a talk for the Korean Society of Typography, delivered on June 17, 2023 at their conference “Publishing as Worldview,” in Seoul, Republic of Korea. It was then published in the book LetterSeed 24 New Season: Publishing as a Worldview in September 2023. I also published the text as an edition of 50 zines, which were distributed in Seoul. Another edition of 50 was re-printed and distributed freely at Printed Matter’s Sunday Zine Fair at The Brooklyn Museum on November 19, 2023.
Updates were written for talks given at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and the University of Texas, Austin. The Austin text is the most current and incorporates current events and introduces my research around queer typographies.
“And I guess I’d just like to leave you all with this final note, about survival by sharing. I know that many of us, and many of you here in this room, listening to this talk today, are going through a range of emotions right now about the long, ongoing moment of crisis that we’re in—however you define crisis in your life. It is certainly not the same for all of us. Survival can mean so many different things. Regardless of your politics, these are confusing, difficult times, especially here in a place like Texas. Right now, all eyes in the US are on your state, as I’m sure you know, where all kinds of limits are being tested with regards to language in academic expression, race, gender diversity, reproductive rights, and immigration. As a design educator, my deepest wish is to share this with you: that you might be open to other histories, other voices, other ways of seeing, reading, writing, and making. And of other futures. We need this so badly right now. Whatever your networks are, the people for whom you care, whether you call them social networks, or survival networks, or queer kin, or community, or simply family—think about how to connect what you’re doing here in design school to the needs and desires of those around you, who you care about, as you build and share all of your possible futures.”
Continue reading “Survival by Sharing (scenes and provocations)” (2023, Seoul) →