The Infrastructural Drag

In this workshop, we will break down the binary idea of gender (thinking of gender as being just male or female). To do so, we will use drag, a performance of exaggerated gender expressions. The gender binary has been upheld and maintained by things like environmental hormones, contraceptive pill containers, electric cables, public bathrooms, hotel rooms, brothels, suburban areas, and even Wikipedia.

In the workshop, we'll use drag as a strategy of appropriation to take apart and put back together these normative structures playfully. We'll also use Meta Spark as a strategy of publication. Meta Spark is a digital toolkit made by Meta for creating augmented reality. Even though Meta Spark itself can sometimes reinforce a certain representation of gender, we'll talk about what it means to publish using such a tool and what agency we still have in the process. The workshop's goal would be to take a bathroom selfie with the Infrastructural Drag makeup that we created together during the workshop. 

This workshop will take place right next to the gender-neutral bathroom at the Van Abbemuseum. The session will be in English.

About the facilitators

Noam Youngrak Son will lead the workshop on behalf of The Office of Queer Affairs, a queer community from Eindhoven. Noam Youngrak Son is a communication designer practising queer publishing. In their work, Son explores revolutionary ways to spread narratives that challenge the usual and the mainstream. They aim to express the voices of marginalised bodies, which often include that of themself, into designs that do not conform to the cis-hetero-normative and colonial power structure.

Practical information

You can register for this event by using the Make a reservation button on this page. A museum ticket or DDW23 ticket is not required. Check in on the day at the museum's ticket counter, where you will receive a sticker to participate in the program.

• costs: free
• duration: 120 minutes
• start: 2 PM
• language: English