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Slutty Urbanism

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THE SLUTTY_VERSE

The black leather couch that was rescued from a garbage bin in Amsterdam around 2018 was the cradle where Slutty Urbanism started to conspire. The manifesto was first published on Medium.com. We went through an emotional journey along with changes within the collective and new slutty comrades. In these seven years, pandemics, wars, authoritarianism and techno-fascism became even more unhindered. The slutty urbanists have started to imagine a new set of possible universes which are against this techno-dystopia.

So, welcome to the Slutty_Verse, where we howl to disturb the algorithmic power. In a prolonged wailing noise, we cry hysterically to wish authoritarian politicians a constant premenstrual dysphoric disorder. We gaze at the world through the lens of glitches until we become glitches. Our witchcrafts are meant to destroy the toxic positivity of city-branding and AI solutionism. Of course, we couldn’t care less about the dumb rapid development of AI tools, which are harmful to our environment and dangerous for our cognitivities. Through our potions, we want to prevent over-touristification and massive extractivism of data of the quantum self. In this numerical fragmentation of bits, we want to reclaim technologies for collective and solidarity purposes. We refuse the rise of fascist villains and their embarrassing ‘broligarchy’. Yet, we understand that all of this comes together to build this muscular, phallic form of power that pretends to overextend itself through physical violence and technological domination.

In the Slutty_Verse, we are not naive about digital technologies, we are not against them or social media per se. What we do is formulate spells, drink and serve concoctions of sarcasm to navigate, resist, and regain the urban and technological spaces we have no choice but to live in. While some options for refusal or evasion are no longer available, different pathways have emerged. Facing the current political desolation, we propose a mix of old and new praxis—such as walks, creative writing, workshops, and performances. We exorcise subconscious surveillance with radical friendship and care. To keep alive and constantly renegotiate our political subjects—we embody sluts and witches to scare the bros and their pathetic egos. We utterly critique the late (platform) capitalism. We drift within speculative thinking, refreshing our critical feminist positionality as a mediated form of hostility and aversion against the neoliberal and sanitized academia.

Being sluts, we are not fond of pristine objects and smart technologies. We oust the meaning of smart that is implied by the concept of ‘smart wife/city/home’, where people and places are guinea pigs to suck their data like in a lab. We don’t use navigation apps; we buy stuff from real humans, paying in cash. Thus, we invite you to the Slutty_Verse, in which together we can recoup diversity, alterity, and queerness…