I got a big rejection today - of course, it’s part of the work, but this one in particular has me ruminating on what space I’m trying to carve out in the world. I keep coming back to my thoughts on the need for interactive, online, live art made by and for queer, disabled people. I wrote about this last year, and it’s as true as ever.
I feel drawn to make work that serves those of us at these intersections, and that addresses the need for a flourishing online arts and culture sector.
One of the things I’m enjoying about getting into the indie web and fediverse is that I have so much more agency over the form that my content takes.
Every social media platform inscribes a specific format. Many of them are defined by it, particularly in their early years, e.g. vertical short videos on Tiktok, square photos on Instagram, 140-character messages on Twitter. This has many benefits: it shapes the culture that emerges, and provides enough creative constraints to make the task of creating a post feel manageable.
A week ago, it was announced that former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg would be leaving his role at Meta, to be replaced by Republican Joel Kaplan. Clegg was responsible for the creation of Meta’s Oversight Board, and subsequent announcements have indicated decisive shifts in content moderation policies. In addition to ending its fact-checking programme, Meta has dropped its DEI programmes and changed its rules to permit hate speech on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, in response to what it calls “political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality”.