growing affinity
growing affinity is my in-progress MA Research thesis within the Individualized MA program at Concordia University. It’s intended to explore the intersection of transgender health, fetishization, and material culture through the lens of trans-corpomaterialism and feminist science studies. By using bio-media design and critical material practices, this research seeks to examine how the materiality of transgender bodies/experiences are fetishized and become embedded within cultural and societal norms. Through interviews, ethnographic narratives, and artistic experimentation, this research-creation will investigate how material cultures can be used to tangibly translate embodied transfeminine experiences into critical spaces of expression, providing vital spaces for questioning relationships between lived experiences of violence and critical bio materiality.
The research will draw from theories in queer media studies, transfeminist studies, and critical material practices, exploring how media narratives shape our understanding of sex, power and violence, how physical properties of bodies influence gender norms, and how biotechnology can be used to abstractionalize perceptions of nature and sex. By engaging with the embodied experiences of transexual communities, the research will center the intersections of structural domination, biopolitical violence, sex/gender-based discrimination, and fetishization.
Through the use of emerging biosynthetic technologies and material practices, this research-creation aims to create a scaffolding of heterogeneous structures that Grow Affinity with transness and hold space for the gestating of alternative material realities. By reorganizing our relationship with nature and rematerializing experiences, this research-creation provides nuanced strategies that are reflective, response-able, and expressive of the critical entanglements between materials, fetishization, and our world. Ultimately, the research aims to contribute to the wellbeing of transgender communities by creating critical spaces of expression that challenge dominant socio-cultural systems and provide new affective value for the experiences of transgender people.
Supported by
Canadian Graduate Scholarship Master’s Award (SSHRC). CA 2023
Concordia University Graduate Award CA 2023