Queer Space Lab, directed by Aidan Flynn (SMArchS ‘21) & Okki Berendschot (MCP ‘22). Logo design by Angelica Door (MArch ‘22) and Alice Jia Li Song (MArch ‘22).
Aidan Flynn (SMArchS '21) and Okki Berendschot (MCP '22), along with a team of undergraduate and graduate student researchers have launched the first-ever Queer Space Lab at MIT. The Lab seeks to highlight, examine, and complicate the relationships between queer identities, ephemeralities, and experiences at MIT and beyond through a spatial lens towards a new methodology of architectural research, study, and practice. All student projects and further information can be found at www.queerspace.mit.edu.
About the Lab
The Queer Space Lab began in an effort to create a living archive of queer lives, selfhoods, experiences, and memories at MIT. Led by Aidan Flynn and Okki Berendschot, a team of undergraduate and graduate students participated in weekly seminar- and workshop-style discussions and exercises to uncover content and (re)consider ‘the archive’ as a receptacle of knowledge and celebration. By illuminating LGBTQIA+ voices within and beyond the MIT community, the Lab questions the very format of an archive, reimagining its content and structure by highlighting the historical invisibility of queerness. Our primary goal is to uplift LGBTQIA+ voices. We approach this work through a series of informed principles, led by various questions… and perhaps without steadfast answers. Our principles function as provocations, leading us to create and to wonder:
Archives have embedded power structures.
Who created these archives? Who maintains them? Who are they about? What was the purpose of preserving these particular perspectives? How does that shape our understanding of history and the present moment?
Diversity should be uplifted in the process of memory making.
What voices have been historically excluded? How might we disrupt and recreate archives to center queer voices? How are they represented? How can we bolster their representation towards celebratory ends?
We center lived experiences and strive to create new forms of knowledge production.
How can we respect and honor each person’s lived experiences as legitimate sources in the production of history? How might these lived experiences lead to new modes and methods of documenting?
Archives are always in progress.
Is there a complete definition of what an archive can or cannot be? As a process–a tool for examining the heretofore under-examined–how does ‘queering’ the archive create a new pathway or re-orientation in the pursuit of history?
Acknowledgements
This experiment of creating a queer archive would have been impossible to do alone. It is a collaboration with many brilliant individuals, whose questions, energy and expertise were instrumental in shaping the project. This work was made possible by the support from the MindHandHeart Innovation Fund Grant from MIT’s Office of the Chancellor. Wonki (Kii) Kang took on the role as web developer even when the project always felt like a moving target; this website would not exist without his dedication. Alice Song and Angie Door were instrumental in developing the design of the logo and walking us all through the development process. And last but not least, we want to thank the many researchers in the Lab for their eagerness to engage in conversations about queerness, their lived experiences, and for taking the time to research, to learn, and to push boundaries in their archival processes. To all, we are grateful that you came to this space, and honored to learn from and with each one of you.
The Queer Space Lab, funded and created at MIT, acknowledges Indigenous Peoples as the traditional stewards of the land, and the enduring relationship that exists between them and their traditional territories. The land on which we sit is the traditional unceded territory of the Wampanoag Nation. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced occupation of their territory, and we honor and respect the many diverse indigenous people connected to this land on which we gather from immemorial.
Research and Media Contact
Aidan Flynn, Co-PI can be reached by email: aflynn@mit.edu.