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 research on and something that would definitely require an IRB to produce any sort of proper history. Which may well be worth the effort…

While I’m focused on becomings in the digital moment through these intimate technologies, the practices did not suddenly spring, fully-formed, from Larry Page’s forehead. There are definitely material histories and trajectories that could greatly enrich my research approach and help document the epistemic break I am examining as a digital sea change in how these communities of practice form and grow. Something to keep considering.