Becoming-Girl: On Posthuman Subjectivities and Algorithmic Epistemologies

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From TikTok phenomena like #GirlDinner to the rediscovery of girlblogging, the Girl Online embodies an era where hyperfemininity, nostalgia, and cuteness become tactical tools for navigating algorithmic systems. By strategically exploiting traditional categories of gender and identity, these digital aesthetics merge with methods of queer-feminist theory, postcapitalist thought, and posthumanist perspectives to illuminate the crafting of personal narratives beyond rigid conceptions of gender. Drawing inspiration from platforms like Tumblr and Pinterest, we examine the Girl Online as a form of subjectivity that mediates between the collective and individual by means of a common aesthetic and language. This starting point allows for subversion and perversion of traditional conceptions of identity. Recognising that complicity with algorithmic structures of commercial social media platforms arise as a lack of alternatives in late stage capitalism, we frame algorithmicity not only as a constraint but as a space of subversion, where the Girl Online can be recontextualized to challenge normative identities. Under the mantra of ‘the only way out is through’ we interrogate the tensions of living within surveillant control societies while exploring how subjectivities shaped by the algorithm can offer playful and profound avenues toward the posthumanist project. In this process of becoming-machinic, unfolding into becoming-girl, we offer a means to reimagine fixed notions of identity, expanding the horizons of self-expression in an era of pervasive technological entanglement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmCMOR2qeU4

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Photos: Domen Pal / Aksioma

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Tactics&Practice #16: Are You a Software Update?, Ljubljana, February–June 2025

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