ID: A collage of images of the walls of The Just Futures Co-lab at Srishti Manipal and the walls and poster from my recent home show against a black background. The photographs put together almost resemble stick figures. Image courtesy of Tash.

This month’s letter comes from my doctoral advisee Tash, who just defended their research proposal on queer organizing and DIY print cultures in India between the mid-1980s and early 2000s with much depth, care, and practice-based ambition—and I couldn’t be prouder of all that Tash has cast for our next moves.

I’m moving out of my home in April. I wanted to find a way to celebrate/grieve the move. Making art and having friends come over felt the most honest. I decided to organise a home show. I had also recreated the bedroom from my previous house—the posters, post-its and print outs—carrying dreams and mad realities. A list of some posters and artworks on the walls of my homeshow include: 

• Zines from my publishing practice; unnamed zine project  

• Posters made for zine exchange, mehrauli zine library and zine making sessions organised 

• A poster where I say: my zines will make AI sweat

• Photographs of different times I tabled my zines 

• Postcards and post-its with notes from friends and lovers

The show was put together in around three days while managing a full time job and having just defended my proposal. I think the proposal defense went well. I also got to be physically present in the lab for a few days because of it. I was preparing for the presentation in the lab. There was an immediacy to the work which felt familiar and exhausting—moving in and out of work, proposals, zines, home shows, moving out, defenses and presentations. This immediacy was accompanied by engagements with work, check ins, dinners, laughter, walks and a lot of care that sustained me. I’m grateful for all of it. While Kush and I were reflecting on the last year and a half we also sketched a way forward. I met eyeshaa and amo as well. We had conversations around their art—zine making, watercolours and photography as well as life on campus or mapping queer organisations in Kolkata [Kush has been encouraging amo to make a zine on Queer (in) Kolkata for a bit now—and for which to see I, too, remain excited]. A few posters were peeling off the wall due to the heat and time passed. This drew me in closer to the walls. Thinking that I was enveloped with warmth and care; knowing I was in community, I cherished every second I spent in the lab. The affects of engaging with art and design through critical research emerge from the posters, postcards, zines, annotated manifestos, newsletters, and calls for admission stuck on the walls. Practices of worldbuilding are reflected through them. A list of some (not all) posters, artworks, annotations on the walls of the lab: 

• Zines, postcards and brochures strung together 

• Posters on 2025 admissions for MA Contemporary Art Practice 

• Poster for opening reception of PROPHETS| VISIONARIES|DISCIPLES by Srishti Manipal Faculty Members and Students, curated by Julia Wintner

• Transdisciplinary Research and Project on Queer- and Trans-Feminist DH and Critical Making from 2024

• Another event and public engagement poster on Queer- and Trans-Feminist DH and Critical Making at Sandhya PG Mess offered through PG Transdisciplinary Research

• A poster with Felt Notes—Entwining / Making as critique / Discourse Matters / Collections and Impressions / In Scholarly - Creative Community / A Digital Humanities Lab / #CitePedagogy / Pronoun Information Sheet / Wilful Citations 

• A poster on Care Matters and Justice Dreams studio offered through the MA in Technology and Change Course in 2023 

• Posters of Feminist Solidarities Reading Circles in the city and on campus

• A poster on Archival Activism offered through the MA in Contemporary Art Practice course in 2024

Sometimes the world offers itself to you and leads you to unexpected places you eventually can call your own. As our stories come to life, images emerge from these fleshy walls, in conversation with one another to build collages as we build selves. What does it mean to be trans in the world and trans in institutions? And how can these worlds combine? The lab models for us these assemblings, interweavings, and transformative possibilities.

Tash

About

Felt Notes are monthly dispatches about the work of the Just Futures Co-lab, and the co-labouring worlds of research and teaching in art, design, and the digital humanities that it scaffolds, furthers, and amplifies. The letter writing translates the ever so negotiated nature of this space at Srishti Manipal Institute and the discourse and scholarship on equity and justice I produce with students and wider academic and non-academic community members through critical pedagogy; archival and database constructions; interactive digital storytelling; and inquiries into queer- and trans-feminist digital technologies and knowledge infrastructures.

I hope reading this letter and its upcoming segments are a meaningful experience for you. If you aren’t subscribed yet, you may do so here. If you are already subscribed, I would love for you to share the link with friends and trusted networks as we make sense of our relationships to technology as well as our relationships to each other via technology. If you would like to write or co-write a letter in the future or share any announcements, please feel free to get in touch with me, and whilst you’re here, please also check out the Felt Notes Archive. 

Kush Patel