Crip Kin, Manifesting

Abstract

How might those who have experienced medicalized technologies as forms of neglect, intervention, and surveillance begin to cultivate alternative relations to technology? Drawing on the work of three artists—Lisa Bufano, Sunaura Taylor, and Chun-Shan (Sandie) Yi—I explore the possibility of framing technology as a site for crip kin-making. These artists are activating, interrogating, refusing, and repurposing medicalized aesthetics and technologies, finding within them inspiration and resources for their art practice. Rather than evaluating technologies on the basis of their ability to move bodies and minds into heightened productivity, efficiency, normalcy, and speed, they are creating objects and fostering relations that interrogate those very values. Building on scholars who recognize “kin” as encompassing more than the biological, reproductive, legal, and human, I discuss the possibilities of “crip kin,” recognizing the queer possibilities of intimacy with other presences and entities.