In today's dominant culture, digital technology is often valued more than the wisdom of the body, OR it is positioned as an autonomous threat to it.

What happens if we step back from the extremes of villainizing digital technology or placing it on a pedestal? What happens if we remember our power to shape it all?

call for submissions:
what’s your cyborg daydream?

What would it feel like if technology truly served you and mirrored your values? What new devices would you invent? Which aspects of today's internet would you keep, and what would you radically reimagine?

POETRY/PROSE > “JUST A RANT” > SCI FI > PHOTOGRAPHY > COLLAGE > DRAWING > TEXTILE > GRAPHIC DESIGN > ANY OTHER VISUAL/WRITTEN CREATIONS

inspiration

You Can Vibe Me On My Femme Phone by Kamala Puligandla

A Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway

The Solidarity Infrastructures Class Projects from School For Poetic Computation

Glitch Feminism by Legacy Russell

All of Qualeasha Wood’s creations

Emoji Totem Art on Instagram by Alexander Deleuse

Octavia Butler’s Notes

2001: A Space Odyssey Predicted the Future—50 Years Ago

an electric witness by G Weaver

and many more, & more to come!

Technology has always been part of the human experience; it started as sticks and stones and it’s escalted to satellietes amongst the stars. It’s all the same matter, rearranged. How could you imagine shaking it up? How do you think we could best put our materials to use?

We want your blueprints for a car that runs on sunlight, even if the math doesn’t math. Or maybe your math is on point for a mushroom machine that eats plastic and poops our nutrient-rich soil?! We certainly want that too.

We want to hear all about your unhinged fantasy dating app.

We want your brilliant idea that breaks the apple/android binary.

We want your hot takes on a future where AI does not destroy us.

We want your quantum computing conspiracy theories turned into utopian revelations.

We want your thoughts, whether it’s a few sentences on how headphones could be comfier or a whole manifesto about how to transform empire.

It’s a daydream! It doesn’t have to be “realistic.”

Back when I was a little kid (before smart phones) sometimes when I was doing something I thought was ~cool~ I would imagine pressing a button in my brain that allowed me turn my eyes into cameras and record what I was doing and show it to people I know.

I would mentally start ‘live streaming’ whatever I was doing (without having that language of course because it wasn’t a thing yet).

Sometimes I would say “everyone I know can see what I’m doing right now” and other times I would choose only select friends or crushes as witnesses.

I had no cell phone to actually text these people nor Instagram or other social media to post what I was doing as a ‘story’ or ‘reel.’ It was just my imagination. But it still felt thrilling and fun. And it would change how I was acting in that moment! It felt like people were really watching me.

Sometimes when I think back to those moments, I’m like…. omg I manifested social media. 💅🏻

It can really feel like I co-created these digital platforms into existence with my make-believe games as a kid.

Whether or not that’s “true” . . . It doesn’t negate the parallels. It’s like I’m playing the same game, now I just have a real button to press to record what I’m doing. I see something beautiful and I want to share it with my people? I whip out my phone, capture what I’m seeing, and snap it’s available to whoever I want it to be (everyone or just my select crushes 😉).

I don’t believe that every thought we have becomes real. I don’t ever want to perpetuate the harm that comes from that kind of manifestation logic.

Oh, but I do believe our imaginations are wildly powerful.

I do believe that what we make space to collectively dream about has real energy behind it, real weight, and REAL consequential viability. Especially when we PLAY with it repeatedly. When we get lost in it again and again.

share this with your people: