Creating hybrid queer spaces using immersive tools to invite new practices of community building

B+B R+D has commissioned this article as part of our ‘test’ and ‘reflect’ inclusion action research. All of the articles in this series represent the views of the author and not of B+B R+D or our partner organisations.

Some of the articles describe experiences of discrimination that readers may find upsetting.

After exhibiting an augmented reality piece about queer fashions at a creative tech project festival at Bristol Beacon in the summer of 2021, ‘we’ (Lilly Parr and Mitchell Wilson) were happy to receive feedback from some audience members about wanting to see more space like this carved out for representing the lives of LGBTQ+ people. We took this as an incitement to begin to imagine, on a much larger scale, how having ‘hybrid’ queer spaces (hybrid in that they have a physical location but are accessed virtually through tools such as mobile AR) mapped out across the city may invite new practices of community building.

To begin the process of creating inclusive digital spaces, we ran workshops with members of the community exploring how to co-design for these spaces using immersive tools, and what social purpose a hybrid space might be able to serve.

Our first aim then was to figure out how to make this technology-focused approach to community building inclusive of LGBTQ+ people, in terms of both the process of making the piece and the end goal. In the following piece of writing we explain our approach to tackling inclusive tech through five touch-points: the idea and creation of safe spaces, the importance of representation, allowing time for digesting new information, understanding intersectionality, and creating a shared language.

Inclusive Technology through five touch-points

1. Creation of Safe Spaces

Engaging LGBTQ+ individuals in activities to make your project more affirming for them is naturally going to be a cathartic process, requiring an amount of emotional labour on their behalf, so create spaces of care parallel to this activity to talk through this catharsis.

Our initial questions asked what it means to design virtual spaces to be open and safe. Through the process of running workshops, we realised that the desired outputs of our design (openness and safety) needed to be reflected in the workshop process. The workshops therefore needed to provide a separate space for reflection. For the venues that we occupied, these spaces were outside spaces still within the confines of the venue; private spaces only occupiable by those attending the workshop. This more informal space allowed for open discussion to unfold in a safe setting.

2. Importance of representation

Be authentic in your approach and connect your work with a shared desire for social change and/or advocacy

Always be representative of those you are trying to engage. If this cannot come directly through you, use your social network and their social networks (snowball sampling) to create safe spaces where trust links people together. Reaching out to LGBTQ+ groups that neither you nor a close relation have a connection to can trouble the idea of trust and intent.

Key here is the idea of trust being at the heart of a session feeling safe to participants from an underrepresented group. People trust people/groups/institutions that they know. We learnt early on that despite ourselves identifying as LGBTQ+, “brashly” reaching out to queer groups through social media in order to tap into their communities, having not engaged with them before, was not the best approach. Instead, we used our own networks to find venues that are trusted by queer communities, having hosted LGBTQ+ events in the past, which in turn attracted participants who felt they could trust us because we had partnered with a trusted venue. Building connections with groups and networks can therefore be a good first step, rather than straight away reaching out for participants.

3. Allowing time for digesting new information

Understand what is appropriate to be made into a workshop activity, and what participants may in actual fact benefit from being a separate, perhaps more informative session.

Use a separate session to challenge the exclusivity of things that may seem inaccessible to participants without prior knowledge - i.e. anything tech related.

We learnt that with tech-related projects, “bombarding” participants with a range of new tools and jargon can close down the creative freedom and openness that you ask of them, and try to cultivate, in the creative activities that follow. There is no harm in having an informational session exist as a separate pre-cursor, giving participants time to digest and reflect so that they can more openly engage with a creative follow-up session.

4. Understanding intersectionality

Identifying as LGBTQ+ allows people to come together and create a shared language for how they experience social inequality in relation to their gender and sexuality. These are but some experiences of social inequality that intersect with other experiences of social inequality as understood through race, ethnicity, class, and disability to name a few. Think about the social purpose of your project, and identify how broad or specific your remit is with regard to the LGBTQ+ community as a whole and the intersections of lived experience that exist within this.

If you have limited time to work with people but want to take an intersectional approach, it may be more appropriate to work exclusively with particular intersections in order to give particular discussions the time and energy that they need. Lumping a broad classification of people into a short community session may limit the depth at which you can tailor your project to engage, include, and be accessible for those with more intersectional needs.

5. Creating a shared language

Create a shared language, and understand what language is appropriate to be shared and appropriated by yourself, and in what context.

The power of language must lie within appropriate intersections of the LGBTQ+ community and therefore wide consultation with members of these groups is necessary before using such terms. Most importantly, the word itself almost isn't relevant, but the energy with which it is being used is extremely relevant. My own use of the term queer has not been used as a marketing tool but a means for real engagement with a community for a project idea that has come from the community itself, and continues to advocate for this community. If you do not feel that your intentions have achieved this, then more work is required before you can use such a term.