Presenting 'Desire Lines: Encoding Queer Digital Futures'
What does the digital future look like? Who gets to imagine it, shape it, and make it real? Building a freer, more inclusive digital age requires not only challenging systems of surveillance and control, but also making space for creativity, community, and radical imagination. That's why earlier this year with the queer arts collective , we put out a call for submissions inviting people to…
The digital future is a topic of significant debate, particularly when it comes to who has the power to envision and create it. A recent project by a queer arts collective seeks to challenge existing systems of control and surveillance, while also celebrating creativity, community, and radical imagination in the digital realm. This project, titled "Desire Lines: Encoding Queer Digital Futures," invites people to explore the complex relationship between technology, identity, and digital liberation.
The initiative calls for submissions that address underrepresented issues in digital justice efforts, share personal experiences of joy, sorrow, or resilience under surveillance, and envision the potential of technology for the benefit of communities rather than entrenching control and oppression. The collected works, featuring seven artists, present a vision of a digital world that is more inclusive, imaginative, and liberated.
Each essay and story within "Desire Lines" highlights the ways in which digital rights are not merely about the existence of technology, but about how these tools enable people to express themselves freely, find supportive communities, explore diverse identities, and create safe spaces to celebrate joy without fear. The project aims to break away from the narrow focus on innovation and efficiency that often dominates discussions around technology, and instead center the perspectives of those most impacted by the systems being developed.
By launching this magazine, the queer arts collective wanted to create a space for alternative digital futures rooted in queer creativity, resistance, and possibility. At Mozilla Festival, they co-curated a community privacy plan centered on digital fairness and shared it alongside the magazine launch. The stories in "Desire Lines" ultimately demonstrate that we have the capacity to envision and build a better digital future, rooted in our collective experiences and aspirations, rather than succumbing to the limitations imposed by oppressive governments and powerful tech corporations.
Written by urgent.news from EFF Deeplinks's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
