ID: The Just Futures Co-lab Pop-Up was hosted at the University of Sydney Schaeffer Fine Arts Library Exhibition Space from July 13–17, 2026. The exhibition and its integrated talk and dialogue session were supported by Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC) and School of Art, Communication and English, University of Sydney. Image courtesy of Kush Patel (July 2026).

I have loved the lab’s dialectical practices in digital humanities and experimental approach to care, and enjoyed engaging with the storytelling platform of displayed prototypes. — Sidhi Vhisatya, MA Research Candidate, School of Communication, University of Technology Sydney 

Thank you for organizing this pop-up! I was particularly drawn to the displayed item #12 and the work entitled underpinnings, where the artist says—“i find people in my vicinity; from across the hues // i laugh, i cry, i fall // within this shared reciprocity // we see each other // in the shapes of our bodies, in the cadence of our words.” These lines stayed with me even after I left the exhibition. btw: I really love that banner ♥️ — Julie Zheng, PhD Candidate, Film Studies, University of Sydney 

So many important stories—shared, co-created, and engaged with in a thoughtful and accessible way. Thanks for doing this work and for sharing it with us. — Aisha Malik, Centre Manager, SSSHARC, University of Sydney 

This letter is a note of gratitude—a heartfelt gratitude to my friend and colleague Susan Potter at the University of Sydney for enabling me to set up a Co-lab pop-up at the Schaeffer Fine Arts Library last month. Susan and I planned the pop-up in conjunction with my fellowship at the Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Research Centre (SSSHARC) and in connection with our ongoing project, The Just Archives Collaboratory. 

Each of our sessions acknowledged the Gadigal of the Eora Nation on whose unceded lands we met. We recognize their continuing connection to the lands, laws, waters, communities and cultures, and pay our respects to Elders past and present. Ongoingly, we recognize, too, that many of the infrastructures (including digital infrastructures) we use are built on Indigenous lands throughout the world, remain inaccessible to many Indigenous communities, and that our responsibilities to Indigenous lands and life extend into the digital realm. Land and the digital are always inextricably intertwined. The digital land acknowledgement is courtesy of The Pedagogy of the Digitally Oppressed Collective.

My sincere thanks are equally to the library team, M. Sajid Foazdar and Nicholas Keyzer, for generously offering us the exhibition space and seminar room for the integrated pop-up and public talk; to Nicholas Croggon at The Power Institute for his help with publicizing the program and for related conversations on cultural arts and the digital humanities; to Aiden Magro in the Art History department and with The Just Archives Collaboratory for being such a valuable hands-on support in co-curating the space; to Nick Boerma at the Sydney College of the Arts Print Lab for his care and promptness with my large format printing requests; to Fiona Reid of the Digital Media Unit for being helpful and available with emerging technological needs; to Aisha Malik and Cindy Sciberras at SSSHARC for connecting these events to my fellowship and for promoting them jointly among wider networks; to Lee Wallace, Alice Motion, Indigo Willing, and Souksavanh T. Keovorabouth for their encouraging presence throughout this time, amplifying for me the experience of being held within the supportive webs of SSSHARC and HISS (The Hunt-Simes Institute in Sexuality Studies); and to everyone who could come to the exhibition, engage with the displayed texts and artifacts, attend the talk and dialogue session, and be in community.

Resources:

• Access the exhibition catalog: The Just Futures Co-lab: Care Praxis for Queer, Trans, and Anti-Caste Research-Creation (an interactive pop-up, July 13–17, 2026)

• Access the promotional material: Event Posters (Talk and Pop-Up; Dialogue)

Program: 

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 media 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