Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: Straight White males can’t do modern science and technology apparently.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
Crippled hackers gonna hack crippled. From the abstract:
“eXtended Reality (XR) technologies often embed ableist design assumptions, privileging hand-based interaction and vision-centric interfaces that presume a normative able-bodied user. As a result, many disabled people—including those with limited mobility or blindness—are excluded from the outset, with accessibility added only as an afterthought. We critique this dynamic through a critical disability studies lens, formulating the notion of a “bare-minimum accessibility paradigm”—a tendency to meet only minimal compliance requirements rather than rethinking access as a generative design concern. In response, we propose crip-hacking and crip-aesthetics as transformative frameworks for accessible XR design. Crip-hacking draws on disabled communities’ DIY technology adaptations while crip-aesthetics reimagines disability-centric creativity as a design asset. We illustrate these approaches through an autoethnographic account of an XR artwork co-created with disabled artists using mouth gestures. This case demonstrates how reimagining XR through disability experiences challenges entrenched ableist design norms and broadens the discourse at the nexus of disability theory, technology ethics, and inclusive design research.”
Physics is a mystery to anyone who isn’t queer, ‘twould seem. From interview intro:
“The abstract concepts and complex equations found in the study of physics can feel as esoteric as they do intimidating. But today’s guest believes that physics can actually be deeply poetic, philosophical and even political.
“Theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s new book, The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie, weaves together cosmology, quantum mechanics, history, queer theory and pop culture—from Star Trek to Missy Elliott—to bring readers on a mind-altering journey to the boundaries of the universe. By exploring the edges of what we know about spacetime, she argues, we can gain a new perspective on the limitless possibilities of our own existence.”
Maybe Western colonizers aren’t the biggest problem that a Malaysian Muslim “transwoman”. From the abstract:
“As a Malaysian Muslim transwoman and a social justice researcher, exploring her transgender identity in a conservative society positions Aisya within a long history of oppression and injustice alongside other global marginalised and vulnerable assigned-male-at-birth transgender groups. This paper offers reflections on Aisya’s lived experience of discrimination arising from her trans identity. It focuses on linking critical theory (decoloniality and intersectionality), methodology (autoethnography) and theological epistemology (a progressive Muslim standpoint), while the analysis ‘tells’ the autoethnographic ‘transgender identity’. By exploring her lived experience in a heterocisnormative neocolonial setting, this paper encourages a critical discourse of decolonising Aisya’s transgender identity by using intersectional feminist theory and critical authoethnography as methods of decolonial performance. This paper contests the colonial matrix of power by dismantling colonialism through rebuilding and rediscovering ancient and pre-colonial knowledge of Indigenous and colonised people to decentre heterocisnormativity, gender hierarchies and racial privilege. Ultimately, this paper invites readers to come along on a social justice journey through decolonial intersectional feminism, arise together in critical solidarity, and carry compassion, care, love, and the desire to heal from the grievances of colonialism.”
Hat Tip: Colin Wright.
TTFN.
