we are transreal ///………….. our identities cross realities
February 27th, 2010

Thoughts on the Short Lived Occupation of the UCSD Chancellor’s office

While yesterday was beautiful, inspiring and invigorating in many ways, it seemed like it ended very problematically. I’m just going to copy here some of the discussion I’ve been having with people online about it…

Right now I think that our demands for Monday need to be 1. meet bsu demands 2. meet mach 4th strike demands 3. close the lit bldg. We have 2 act in solidarity to win!

Here’s a thread between me (azdel) and some friends on Facebook:

Azdel Slade

I feel totally betrayed, there was no collective process, no decision made, just mob fear, the cops couldn’t get us out, but the activists did, the plan is to come back Mon morn, I hope ppl come…
Yesterday at 9:19pm

Marcela Fuentes
What would you have liked to see happening, what kind of process or result?
Yesterday at 10:43pm ·

Azdel Slade
at the end, someone just came in and made an announcement and everybody left, there was no collective discussion of “what do we all want to do? who wants to stay? who wants to leave? how can we make this space our own space and a model of the kind of world/school/education we’re creating?” there was just an announcement “they think you should go now and come back monday” and a unity clap preventing discussion, and then everyone walked out. i want someone to have acknowledged the people who were trying to say “wait, lets discuss this, i want to hold this space and not give it up”, someone to have asked me what i wanted to do and acted in solidarity instead of just bailing asap…
Yesterday at 10:54pm ·

Autumn Hays
We talked at noon about what to do, and we decided we needed to keep our forces strong for March 4th.
5 hours ago ·

Azdel Slade
Who did? Where? I totally disagree with that decision, but no one asked me or any of my friends our opinions or informed us of that decision that was made.
3 hours ago ·

Autumn Hays
I think it’s important to understand that we are in this together. Sorry you didn’t feel the same way and that this hurt you. I don’t think they were trying to ignore you.
“We” was just a large group of the protest including many of the leaders of different groups in the middle of the crowd inside the office. They seemed to have a lot of reasons and be open to talk from anyone, sorry you didn’t get to talk. But lets be strong and be ready for next time.
Love you!
3 hours ago ·

Azdel Slade
Its not just me either, there were a lot of people in the room who were confused and tried to raise questions and concerns, but the small group of organizers near the door made the decision on their own without taking the time to actually ask all the people who had decided to stay and get arrested what they wanted to do. I saw multiple people try to say “who’s they?”, “wait? can we all make a decision together” and they all got overrun by the “unity clap” (ironically) and ignored. I think you may have lost the support of a lot of your most dedicated supporters in that moment. There has to be a collective process in the future if any serious action, beyond a daytime picnic in the chancellor’s office funded by donations, is going to happen.
3 hours ago ·

Autumn Hays
agreed. I understand. It’s not mine. I don’t own it. I was just there. I didn’t even say how I felt about it or was in on the process. But I didn’t have anything to say, unlike you.
I’m not happy your voice didn’t get heard. But it was confusing and tense times.
It’s good you had something to say.
and like I said, I don’t think anyone meant to cut you out. and i do agree that all must be involved. The only reason i’m saying something is i honestly believe though this is an important issue, and it should be addressed, I hope you don’t lose your faith over it.
all I mean is it’s not a time to fall apart..
Not that your voice/ideas should be hushed.
They is complicated as i think this was all just crowd behavior and hard to understand. But I don’t think anyone was trying to cut you off and I am sad you have been.
but please don’t lose your faith in this. This is not a time to divide.
55 minutes ago ·

Autumn Hays
and do remember we were all confused and tired. I think that was all it was.
and I heard them walking around the whole time we were there asking people, I am so sad you and others got skipped.
just know I don’t think it was personal or an attempt to control your ideas.
44 minutes ago ·

Azdel Slade
hey, well thanks, thats good to know. but i’m not just talking about myself, it seemed like lots of people i was talking to were seriously preparing to stay the night, to get arrested, calling their friends/family to walk the dog, people were talking to lawyers so they’d be ready, etc, so there were a lot of people who were not consulted. there just needs to be more effort to have an open, transparent process where everyone is involved and doesn’t feel, like i heard multiple people saying, that they’re being given orders. and yeah, it was definitely stress, we just need to learn to hold our space and take care of each other, all of us!
6 minutes ago ·

Autumn Hays
agreed. :)

And here are some earlier tweets during the situation…

everyone left, the administration produced timetable and a plan, we’re going to analyze it and come back
Yesterday at 9:16pm

people are discussing not resisting arrest to minimize police violence
Yesterday at 5:17pm

police have said that anyone here past 5 will be arrested, ppl r not moving, plz come support!

ucla cuancellors complex is now occupied in solidarity w ucsd
Yesterday at 2:49pm

we need as many ppl as possible here by 5pm when the cops come to evict us, to be witnesses and to help us control the doors!
Yesterday at 2:12pm

rally @ 2:30 outside the occupation @ chancellprs office
Yesterday at 2:10pm

we need a megaphone in here
Yesterday at 12:58pm

the occupiers demand that ucsd be shut down because of the racial state of emergency
Yesterday at 12:18pm

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May 15th, 2009

Critical Digital Studies Workshop and my MFA

First off, I can’t believe it, but I had my final committee meeting today, so I’m basically done with my MFA. Wow, I am so, so, so happy and relieved. Its still settling in. I’ve been in grad school for 4 years and now I have a “terminal degree”. Wild. I just have a few more edits to my catalog and video and then I’m done, but the committee already signed the forms! Hooray!!!

Secondly, I’m extremely happy to say that I’ve been invited to present at CTheory’s Critical Digital Studies Workshop at the Pacific Center for Technology and Culture in Victoria, Canada next month. I’ll be presenting a paper I’m currently working on entitled “Becoming Dragon: An Epistemology of Transition”. You can read more about the workshop, including a list of the other amazing presenters and their topics, here.

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May 4th, 2009

Dialogues in Sexuality Studies feat. Micha Cardenas and L. Chase Smith

Dialogues in Sexuality Studies presents:

“Technology and Sexuality”

Featuring: Micha Cárdenas, MFA Candidate, Department of Visual Arts, UC
San Diego

“Becoming Dragon: Transgender, Transspecies, Transreal”

and L. Chase Smith, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Literature, UC San Diego

“Visual Technologies of Sexuality in the Early Twentieth-Century Californias”

Monday, May 18, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
LGBT Resource Center

Now in its third year, Dialogues in Sexuality Studies brings UCSD faculty
members and graduate students interested in the growing interdisciplinary
field of Sexuality Studies together in a friendly and collegial
environment. The two presentations will be followed by open discussion and
ample refreshments.

In addition to holding one research forum per quarter, Dialogues in
Sexuality Studies also hosts a quarterly sexuality studies graduate
reading group. This quarter, the reading group will meet Friday, May 8 at
9:45-11am in the Women’s Center. For the readings, please contact L. Chase
Smith at grad-community@ucsd.edu

Micha Cárdenas / dj lotu5 / Azdel Slade is a transgender artist, theorist
and trouble maker. Micha is an MFA candidate at the University of
California, San Diego who will be graduating in the summer of 2009. Micha
holds a Master’s degree in Media and Communications with distinction from
the European Graduate School and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science
from Florida International University. She is a researcher at the
Experimental Game Lab at CRCA and at Calit2. Her interests include the
interplay of technology, gender, sex and biopolitics. She blogs at
TechnoTrannySlut.com.

L. Chase Smith is a Ph.D. Candidate in Literature at UC San Diego,
focusing on cultural studies of race and sexuality, U.S.-Mexico border
studies, Asia/ Pacific studies, and twentieth-century multiethnic
literature. Her dissertation, tentatively titled “Bawdy Amusements of
Progress in the Transpacific Borderlands,” examines circuits of culture
and commerce between California, Baja California, and Hawaii in the
Progressive Era. Her talk will draw on ongoing archival research in San
Diego, Tijuana, and Mexicali. She has recently received grants from the
Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley and the UC Pacific Rim Research Program.

Free and open to UCSD faculty, graduate students and affiliates.

Refreshments to follow the presentations.

Sponsored by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center
with funding from the Office of Graduate Studies Pilot Programs.

For more information, please contact Kyla Schuller in the Department of
Literature (kschulle (a+) ucsd d()t edu), Prof. David Serlin in the Department of
Communication (dserlin a+ ucsd D0T edu), or Jan Estrellado at the LGBT Resource
Center (jeestrellado a+ ucsd d()t edu, 858-822-3493).

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April 14th, 2009

Becoming Dragon performance and demo, wed night

*Becoming Dragon*
a Project Discussion by Micha Cardenas

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 @ 6PM

Refreshments will be served.

New Media Lounge / Cal(IT)2, UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, California 92093

The New Media Lounge is excited to bring MFA Candidate, Micha Cardenas for an exclusive motion capture demonstration in the Performative Computing Lab at the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA). Micha will be discussing her recent project /*Becoming* *Dragon*/, a 365 hour, (2 week long) performance in Second Life. The performance is believed to be the first of its kind in Second Life, and Micha will talk about her experience and research, in addition to a techie demonstration of the motion capture setup involved.

Performative Computing Space in CRCA is located in Cal(IT)2, (Atkinson Hall) in Warren college, on the first floor. Make a right past the elevators, follow the hallway to the right once again, and you can’t miss it. There will be signs posted as well.

For more information on Becoming Dragon please visit:

http://secondloop.wordpress.com
 http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/release.php?id=1431

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April 3rd, 2009

come to open studios tomorrow! and more on our friend ernie…

check out this enjoyable blog post with a lot more interesting background on our favorite christian crusader, Ernie Grimm, the author of the reader article about my performance…

hey! i’ll see you on saturday, at open studios, right? i’ve been busting my ass on the installation, so i hope so!

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March 29th, 2009

3 Minute Documentation Video of Becoming Dragon

I prepared this for another festival submission. I’m working on a longer video for Open Studios on April 4th at UCSD. Come out and see it! Until then, enjoy this and let me know what you think in a comment…


Becoming Dragon, 3 Minute Documentation from azdel slade on Vimeo.

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March 25th, 2009

The California Transgender Leadership Summit is this week!

At UCSD! Come out and attend this amazing event. I personally can’t wait to hear susan stryker speak, as I’ve been reading her book Transgender History recently…

2009 Transgender Leadership Summit Registration

Thanks for your interest in the 4th Annual Transgender Leadership Summit!

The 2009 Summit will be held at UC San Diego from March 27 – 29, 2009.

UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, LaJolla, CA 92093
Friday will be at Student Services Center Multipurpose Room
Sat/Sunday will be at Warren Lecture Hall

CALIFORNIA ACTIVISTS EXPLORE TRANSGENDER CIVIL RIGHTS AT SAN DIEGO CONFERENCE

(San Diego, March 18, 2009) – More than 200 transgender community members and allies will meet in San Diego on March 27, 2009 for the 4th annual Transgender Leadership Summit. The Summit comes at a critical time for the transgender rights movement, as the current economic crisis has made transgender people even more vulnerable to un- and under-employment, lack of health care access, discrimination, and violence. Even before the most recent downturn, a 2008 study conducted by the Transgender Law Center found that transgender Californians were twice as likely to earn wages below the federal poverty line compared to the state’s general population.

“We are thrilled to host this year’s Transgender Leadership Summit in San Diego,” said Host Committee Chair Vicki Estrada. “Given the state of our economy and with a more hopeful federal administration, it is critical that transgender people and our allies learn the skills necessary to ensure that our voices are heard in discussions regarding local, state and federal reform.”

Presented by Equality California, the Transgender Law Center (TLC), and more than twenty community-based organizations, the Leadership Summit has become a major event for identifying and building transgender community leaders statewide. The Summit provides grassroots activists and their allies with an unprecedented opportunity to create a unified voice to advance the movement for transgender equality and to address the barriers transgender people face in their personal and professional lives. Attendees will participate in workshops to learn skills they need to be effective activists, including how to facilitate public policy change, encourage economic development, educate the media, conduct budget advocacy, and build local capacity. As part of its leadership development emphasis, the Summit is planned by a volunteer committee of community members and activists, with assistance from TLC. The Astraea Lesbian Fund for Justice generously provided fellowships to ensure that low-income transgender women activists have the resources to attend the Summit.

This year’s Summit will feature keynote and plenary speeches by a diverse group of leading activists including Cecilia Chung (San Francisco Human Rights Commission), Masen Davis (TLC Executive Director), Sylvia Guerrero (mother of murdered teen Gwen Araujo), Mara Keisling (Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality), Miss Major (Organizing Director of the TGI Justice Project), Shannon Minter (Legal Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights), and Susan Stryker (renowned historian, and author of Transgender Histories ).

The Summit will also offer significant skills-building workshops that address many of the pivotal issues facing the transgender community today, including health care and insurance, intergenerational mentoring, developing and sustaining support groups, advocacy for hate crime victims, employment rights, leadership development, public speaking, media work, and international human rights advocacy, among others.

“The Transgender Leadership Summit gave us the foundation we needed to begin organizing grassroots community activism in our corner of the state,” notes Ben Hudson, Summit volunteer and organizer of the Sacramento Transgender Coalition.

The Summit takes off at 7pm Friday night, March 27 th in the PC West Theater at UC San Diego. Workshops and plenary sessions will take place all day Saturday and Sunday morning. There will be a special Saturday night reception at the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Center featuring performances by Peterson Toscano and Coyote Grace. Registration for the Summit is still open at http://www.transgenderlawcenter.org/summit2009.html.

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February 25th, 2009

UCSD is not a safe place for Women

I am deeply ashamed to be a UCSD student this week. A woman was raped on our campus last week, and the only thing I heard about it was in a single email safety notice from campus police. She was raped in a parking lot around 8pm at night. How can this be? Where is the community outrage? Where is the chancellor’s address of sorrow? How can everything on campus go on as normal?

It occurs to me that UCSD is not a safe place for women. This rape is an outrage. It is a clear act of gender based violence. Yet, at the same time, UCSD is also home to a “cancer cluster” in the literature building. Since the year 2000, 8 cases of breast cancer have occurred in the building and 2 of these people have died. This is another case of gender based violence, by an institution. A report by a doctor at UCSD says that there is only a 1 in 3,333 chance that the spread of cancer is the result of pure chance, and has cited the elevator as the most likely cause, as its machinery was too close to the offices. The university has gone so far as to shut down the elevators.

Yet people still have to work in this building every day. How is this possible? The university is seeking another study, denying fault and basically doing nothing. The building needs to be shut down. No one should have to work in this building another day. Perhaps the problem is that the cancer is affecting women. Apparently, our university is not concerned about the safety of women, even its own faculty. Perhaps women’s bodies and their health are not important to our university. This is a struggle for health, for recognition of the serious health problems facing people working at and attending our university. It is an offense to me to go to school and see buses with massive advertisements about UCSD health care, to see the front page of the UCSD website claiming “Safer Nanoparticle Spotlight Tumors”, to see the banners for construction of new cancer treatment centers, while people still have to work everyday int he literature building.

But again, where is the community outrage? There was a protest march, but we all know that “effective protest” is an oxymoron. The nature of protest is to ask a redress of grievances, to air concerns, to raise awareness. At best, they do these things, and provide emotional release. At worst, they simply reinforce the university’s image as a “healthy democracy”, “open to dissent”, which they can conveniently ignore. This situation is too grave for a simple protest. Given the current beautiful and inspiring wave of university occupations all across the US, and around the world, why don’t we see more effective action like this at UCSD? Where is the occupation of the chancellor’s office? Our friends and colleagues die, in our own university, not far away in Iraq, and all we’re going to do is hold up a sign? I’m sorry, but that is not enough for me. More has to be done.

But why could this happen? I think that the lack of feminist education at our school is a serious problem. How many serious, informed, detailed conversations have you had in classes, with professors, about feminism? I’ve heard UCSD students say that they want to be housewives, I’ve heard UCSD students say things like “well I’m not some man hating feminist”, and I’ve heard UCSD students say that feminism is discrimination against men. I wonder if they know any statistics such as these “An estimated 91% of victims of rape are female, 9% are male and 99% of offenders are male. (Bureau of Justice Statistics 1999)”

I was actually in a situation today with a professor where a grad student made a joke about “Trader Ho’s”, instead of Trader Joe’s and the professor, a woman, said nothing. The racist newspaper on campus which regularly makes jokes about rape and rape survivors is definitely part of the problem. Yet in very few of the classes that I have been a Teaching Assistant in, has there ever been much reading about feminism. Why is this? Why is it that when I talk about third wave feminism and cyberfeminism most students look at me as if it is the first time they’ve ever heard this phrase?

The comments on this UCSD guardian article are illuminating. One says that there were 4 more cases of cancer in the building in the late 90’s. Another commenter asks if all the protesters have medical degrees to undrstand what is going on, as if people should not have medical autonomy and bodily autonomy, as if we don’t know when our own bodies are healthy. We can see our colleagues and friends are ill without a medical degree, thank you. Perhaps the science and research focus of the university is part of the problem, in that not enough time is being spent educating students about social issues. I heard a story the other day about a woman in one of UCSD’s research institutes telling her boss about the work she did on a project, and he said in response “wow, I didn’t know you could do all that. I’m impressed,” as if women were only capable of picking up phones and sending emails for men.

The struggle for access to health care and treatment, and for community health, is an old one, and it will continue. Yet we must act as a community to protect each other. To be healthy individually, we must be healthy as a community. We cannot let people work in this building any longer. We, as a community, must act, because the administration, as usual, has demonstrated that it does not care.

Consider this. A friend of mine pointed out that Kathy Acker, an amazing feminist author, was a professor here in the literature department, and she died of breast cancer in the late 90’s. How many other, brilliant, important, amazing women have become ill and possibly died because of this building? How long can this go on?

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February 18th, 2009

Short Video Documentation of Becoming Dragon

I made this very short 2 minute video about Becoming Dragon. I’m working on a much longer version, but this was for a show submission so it had to be short and to the point. Enjoy and let me know what you think.


Becoming Dragon, 2 minute video documentation from azdel slade on Vimeo.

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February 13th, 2009

Art as Knowledge Production?

I saw this article mentioned on two different mailing lists, so I checked it out, and its extremely relevant to the MFA program I’m in at UCSD, and to my work. I’d love to chat about it with people, so leave your comments below…

Art in the Knowledge-based Polis

Lately, the concept of “knowledge production” has drawn new attention and prompted strong criticism within art discourse. One reason for the current conflictual status of this concept is the way it can be linked to the ideologies and practices of neoliberal educational policies. In an open letter entitled “To the Knowledge Producers,” a student from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna has eloquently criticized the way education and knowledge are being “commodified, industrialized, economized and being made subject to free trade.”

Read more…

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by lotu5 | Posted in 1968, art, calit2, foucault, knowledge, research, ucsd | No Comments » |
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