BECOMING DEVICES:
Technosexual Assemblages of Cybernated Flesh, Erotic Circuits, and Queer Becoming
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Complex Systems: Sociality and Digitality
Entering into the various layered networks of the PiShock user-dev community has provided numerous fascinating insights and clearly demonstrated the importance and accuracy of my dissertation argument. Many sexual experiences in our present historical moment are not only mediated by digital technology and networks, but the experience, the experiencing body, and the identity community (or public) centered on it are emergent from coconstruction with the technical objects themselves. What demonstrates this most plainly is that this ecosystem exists and functions at all: the diverse interactions happening between user-devs, regular users (both wearers and inputs), Discord, Reddit, StackOverflow, and the PiShock…
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IT LIVES!
I have been lavishing attention on my projects this week. Real, material things are happening, and people are surprisingly buzzing about my research. I have a working, functional PiShock, BOTH through the main web interface and through the API! IT LIVES! And what a tremendous journey these first few steps have been. Discords, web apps, documents upon documents, iteration upon iteration, Discord, Reddit, YouTube, Discord, Reddit, YouTube over and over. But the critical making process thus far has produced insights far beyond the exploration of the content communities through which these networked connections manifest; it has also helped me unpack…
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An Odyssey of the Mind
Not a reference to the Nolan film that I can only describe as a fever dream. Odyssey of the Mind (OM) was an incredible program for elementary, middle, and high school students where we competed with students from around the world in improvisational puzzle games and longitudinal combination playwriting and engineering projects. OM really did prepare me for this diss: a sorta robotics for art kids. We never did the actual robotics workflow per se, but we did code, engineer, build, and compose materially in response to challenges, strict rules, and specifications to functionally address complex philosophical and practical research…
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Plug ‘n’ Play
The critical making process for this project started with the object I (rather sheepishly) presented at the CRDM Symposium last year: He Wants This. HWT was created to explore the relationship between sexualized body and stimulus-generating digital systems when the human-subject is specifically decentered in the construction of the digital apparatus. As the project has evolved, a more streamlined version that highlights the various functionalities of the PiShock emerged, allowing for what I hope to be greater accessibility and interaction with an encountering public. The revised structure of this project as PnP (an intentional reference to both Party ‘n’ Play…
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…and we’re back!
John, I think this hat is still at Spencer’s… What a summer it has been. I am working on my responses to your emails, but importantly, as some of my extracurricular stressors alleviate, I’ve actually been able to get some sleep and find the capacity necessary to assess my situation and reevaluate various responsibilities. All that to say, I actually think I’m in alright shape at the moment. CRDMSA responsibilities have been largely delegated, and the Preparing the Professoriate program doesn’t seem too demanding. Following John’s suggestion from some months ago, I am focusing all of my writing energies on…
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Summer is Calling
At long last this lengthy semester draws to a close and I turn my full attention to drafting dissertation content. On 4/22/26 I was awarded the Outstanding TA Award by the Graduate School and GSA (yay!). I have also secured a teaching appointment for next Fall with two sections of COM-110, not the most exciting course, perhaps, but one I genuinely enjoy teaching. With those things settled and my grading responsibilities largely settled for the semester, I can reflect on all the additional work I’ve done over the last few months (not just planning events and traveling for conferences, but…
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Prospects
There always seems to be more to do than there is time to do it. All the same, it has been another productive week for my dissertation work. I have reached out to several folks who inspired me over the last few months of presenting and discussing my work (some even with committee membership requests). I also continued writing and made substantial progress on my critical making ideas to ground the projects more firmly in the things I am actually producing. So, I will take a moment here to echo a conversation I had with Helen about a current debate…
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Take a Deep Breath
[Updated 04/07/2026] Well, as usual, it has been a packed few weeks. But, at last, my self-imposed over-scheduling now draws to a close. This has been a week of reflection on the work I’ve done over the course of the semester, not just organizing events and attending conferences, but building out dissertation chapters and rethinking my prospectus in order to have content for all of these events and presentations. What is most heartening in all of this is the vigorous interest and excitement my research receives both from within and outside of the community. I think now I have a…
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You, Dog.
It has been another balefully blustery day in the Windy City (I certainly see where we got the name). I had the immense privilege of sharing my presentation with the conference today: You, Dog: Pup Play, Mediated Identity, and Queer Becoming. (It went well!). The audience was receptive to my ideas and had a number of questions about my research that, as usual, have greatly helped to clarify my own thinking and solidify my approach to this research project. Particularly the importance of the pre- and para- digital histories of these objects/practices, something that there is woefully little published academic…
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Concision, the ever-present colleague and inseparable companion of Clarity
Relevant video: It’s a big week what with the CRDM Symposium: CIRCUIT BREAKERS happening this Thursday and Friday. So, out of necessity I’m making my weekly update post a little early so save on spoon consumption over the coming 36 hours. While Symposium planning has taken up a lot of my time over the past week, my strategy of planning presentations and submissions around dissertation chapters has been exceedingly helpful in organizing my ideas and approaches. This Friday, I will be presenting my current research approach and project for Chapter 3—Shock Appeal: Sex with Machines (PiShock). This research presentation focuses…
About this Site
This site will serve as a documentary archive for weekly updates on the composition process, as well as a repository of building work for the Critical Making aspects of the project.
About Luke C. LeGrand
Luke C. LeGrand is a Ph.D. Candidate in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media at NC State University.