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Body, Space, and Digital Media: Contemporary Queer Potentialities in the Constitution of Political Counter-Spaces. 360° Ethnographic Studies in Brazil and France

This thesis explores the critical potentialities of queer corporealities, articulated around two main dimensions: a semiotic and poetic potential for the illegibility of gendered bodies, and a phenomenological potential for the disorientation of heteronormative spaces. These potentialities, conceived as capacities to denaturalize gender and question the social order, unfold both online and in urban spaces. In the Western context of neoliberal capitalism, characterized by an “iconomy” of visibility and the exploitation of subjectivities, the thesis also seeks to address the paradox of social recognition, which can simultaneously serve mercantile and political integration logics.

The research is based on “ethno-graphic” studies of situations crafted by artists in Brazil and France. These observations, filmed using videographic equipment, document and analyze perceptual and spatial experiences that involve the constitution of “political counter-spaces”: furtive and in/visible spaces of subjectivation and emancipation in two countries grappling with issues related to LGBTQ+ existences. This immersive approach offers a situated perspective which, in a feminist framework, also interrogates the scientific contributions of 360° cameras, enabling data collection without erasing the researcher’s body from the analysis.

The visual outputs of this research, in the form of a short film and a virtual reality experience, aim to convey scientific insights beyond written formats, inviting audiences to think through images by engaging with the image-making process.

Jordan Fraser Emery

PhD candidate at the Université Savoie Mont Blanc and the University of São Paulo, Jordan Fraser Emery focuses his visual research on the critical potentialities of queer corporealities.

He has published several articles, including “Reflexivity and Feminist Reflections on an Ethnographic Approach: 360° Capture and Visual Representation of Brazilian Queer Practices” for the journal ESSACHESS, and “Un/doing Queer Corporealities in a Neoliberal Context” for the journal Communication.

In November 2023, he was awarded Best Paper and Best Presentation for his proposal “The Ignored Bodies of the Data City: Poetic and Artistic Exploration” at the Hyperurbain 9 conference. In addition to his research activities, he teaches at the Communication and Hypermedia Department of USMB.

linkedin.com/in/emeryjordanfraser
instagram.com/fraser_emery

Infos

Production

  • International joint PhD in Information and Communication Sciences (Université Savoie Mont-Blanc) and Social Psychology of Art (Universidade de São Paulo).
  • Supervised by Jacques Ibanez Bueno and Arley Andriolo.
  • The jury includes Leny Sato, Marc Jahjah, Philippe Bonfils, Hafida Boulekbache, and Maria Elizabeth Antunes Lima.
  • The European Pépinières of Creation support Jordan Fraser Emery as part of their Arts/Sciences program.