Abstract How might trans construction preserve and sustain the endangered conceptual world of trans liberation? Within Found/Fabric Lab, we will explore the potential for trans construction by testing sample materials, methods and processes of trans construction. “Found,” here refers both to the ground (foundation) which is the basis for construction and that which has been sought or studied (finding/s); when, how and where trans construction is situated. “Fabric,” referring both to building-work (fabrication) and the stuff we use to get dressed everyday, becomes a subject for deeper investigation via its found-ness.

We understand trans construction as an emergent tactic for developing physical spatial infrastructure for trans liberation, as well as language to recover from trans liberation’s institutional expropriation. Whereas normative construction typically creates records of attempts – to frame, gather, house, re/store, exchange, insulate, etc – we understand trans construction to also involve “an often, sometimes chaotic, but hopefully ultimately space-clearing attempt,” as Cameron Awkward-Rich put it. That is to say, we believe trans construction’s viability lies not only in its production of positive forms but also in its delicate attention to negative spaces’ previously unrecognized relevance. In practicing this durational art of epistemologically encouraging trans liberation, we illuminate the powerful influence of cis-masc and hetero-normative perspectives in deciding what is safe, what is sturdy, what is beautiful, what is functional and livable in the built environment.

In this session, we will discuss the body’s inherent capacity to be gendered differently, and consider ways in which construction can already be conceived of as trans. Participants are likewise invited to test the inherent capacities of common and uncommon construction materials to regenerate trans cultures and ecologies.