Queer Zineographies : Materializing Tactics for Resisting AI and Data Systems

Riggs, Alexandra Teixeira and Meyer, Louie Søs and O'Reilly-Kime, Molly and Armstrong, Tommaso and Kender, Kay and Osipova, Ekat and Tran, Anh-Ton and Taylor, Jordan and Rothschild, Annabel and Grabe, Imke and Kaklopoulou, Irene and Lustig, Caitlin and Rattay, Sonja and Shkirando, Liza and Simeoni, Fe and Turtle, Grace Leonora and Light, Ann and DiSalvo, Carl and Haimson, Oliver L. (2026) Queer Zineographies : Materializing Tactics for Resisting AI and Data Systems. In: DIS '26 : Proceedings of the 2026 Designing Interactive Systems Conference. Proceedings of the 2026 Designing Interactive Systems Conference . ACM, New York, pp. 1574-1592. ISBN 9798400725630

Abstract

As AI and data systems often falter when encountering queer identities and knowledge, reinforcing existing oppressions, queer people have resisted such systems and their normalizing tendencies. This pictorial explores tactics of queering AI through a collaborative zine-making project (i.e. zineography) that challenges generative AI and data systems. We share how we workshopped and materialized queering tactics in zine spreads; analyzed these spreads according to materials, content, and tone; and visualized our analysis as thematic collages. We contribute: (1) tangible characteristics of queering AI and data systems (i.e. materials, tones, and aesthetics); and (2) design opportunities for using zineographies as a radical method for building and collectively sharing knowledge about a marginalized community, including recommendations for enacting queer zineographies. By materializing queering tactics through zine-making, we invite embodied, action-oriented critiques that question dominant techno-solutionist movements and trace queer possibilities outside of their normalizing narratives.