Queering the Quantified Self was a two-part workshop produced in collaboration with Radical Data. Over two sessions, we explored how mainstream body-tracking apps – particularly those related to menstruation-tracking – reinforce normative ideas about the quantified self that emphasise productivity. At the end of the first part of the workshop, we each chose something to track over the week – a habit, an emotion, a physical reaction or simply something we noticed in our day-to-day lives.
One week later, during the second part of the workshop, we shared the various data we had tracked and reflected upon this process together. We discussed how mainstream tracking apps ignore the complexities and messiness of the human body. Through a more personalised approach to tracking, we explored this messiness can be accommodated, shared, and embraced.
21 & 28 November 2023
affect lab studio, Amsterdam
About Radical Data
Queering the Quantified Self is a project by Radical Data, founded by Jo Kroese and Rayén Mitrovich. They are a collective of mathematicians, technologists, dancers and designers who believe that data, used with care, can move us towards a world that is autonomous, just and joyful. They create data analyses and digital tools that are infused with queerness and decoloniality, through community-based art, activism and research.
