Institute of Queer Ecology

Nicolas Baird, Lee Pivnik, and Jake Sillen write on behalf of the Institute of Queer Ecology (IQECO), a collaborative, decentralized organism that works to imagine and realize an equitable multispecies future. With programming that ranges from exhibitions, artwork, and publications to direct community actions, IQECO lays the groundwork for a (bio)diverse utopia.

1. OPEN SOURCE GENDERCODES

   Right now, in upstate New York, a protest against Big Pharma and a gift to the queer community spins quietly in a centrifuge. Transgenic microbes and plants absorb hormone-producing genes in a choreographed xenogenesis—part of Rian Hammond’s long-term project to democratize the production of testosterone and estrogen for gender hackers as well as trans and gender-nonconforming people. Infinite thanks to those who sent Rian back in time to save us all!

   Rian Hammond’s Pore 1, 2019, illustration from newsprint publication OSG: Mapping a Hormone Hyperobject, 2019.
2. DELI GIRLS

   Every weekend, Tommi Kelly and Danny Orlowski hold court for huddled masses in crowded Brooklyn basements and warehouses. The result is an undeniable collective energy. Their music is sonic resistance for a queer underground holding its own amid trauma and identity politics, an advancing police state, and a whole lot of uncertainty. Their June 23 set at Melting Point NYC, a protest rave outside ice headquarters in Foley Square, is posted in full on the band Kill Alters’ YouTube page; it’s a must-watch. This is wall-punching music for when your boss misgenders you, and we can’t get enough of it.

   Deli Girls performing in the basement of Brooklyn Bazaar, New York, April 5, 2019. Photo: Ampled.
3. BIRDING

   Birding is woke Pokémon—ditch the fighting for some sightings! But it’s more than just finding them all: Birding is the perfect excuse to explore your wilderness, from the Arizona desert to Florida’s Everglades to the streets of New York. Plus, there’s nothing quite like the endorphin rush of identifying your first rare bird. If you’re just starting out, we recommend downloading a free field guide and joining an event with your nearest chapter of the Feminist Bird Club.

   Feminist Bird Club patch, 2016.
4. @SPIRAL_THEORY_TESTKITCHEN

   What can’t Precious Okoyomon do? The artist and poet’s culinary collective, which also includes Bobbi Salvör Menuez, MK, quori theodor, and Kaija Xiao, has us salivating over every post. From hibiscus-dusted oysters to candied pine cones, it’s the queer gastronomic future we can’t wait to taste.

   Spiral Theory Test Kitchen’s black sesame pound cake with weeping charcoal crème anglaise, pink ginger nut milk, pistachio and Nerd candy brittle, topped with a chamomile flower. Photo: Kaíja Xiao.
5. PORTMANTEAUS

   With the climate collapsing around us, who has time for twice as many words? Here at IQECO, we’ve been streamlining language to find synthlutions (synthesized solutions). Portmanteaus are measy (modular + easy) and helpful approaches for rethinking productivity, ridiculously. In the face of human-caused ecocide, we’ve begun to embrace words like smog, bombogenesis, and snowmageddon as seriously silly ways to talk about the End of Nature. But portmanteaus also reflect adaptive survival strategies—they’ve introduced to the world hybrids like the coywolf, grolar bear, wholphin, and zonkey.

   Hebra/zorse, Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock, Germany, July 26, 2009. Photo: Christine and David Schmitt/Wikicommons.
6. LGBTQ AMERICA: A THEME STUDY OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER, AND QUEER HISTORY

   We didn’t expect to have a shout-out to the United States federal government on our list, but they’ve pleasantly surprised us. In 2016, the National Park Foundation and the National Park Service released a 1,262-page publication documenting the heritage of LGBTQ+ Americans and the places where we’ve lived, loved, and made history. Edited by Megan E. Springate, this personal, inclusive document fills us with more pride than any parade. Thanks, America!

7. NEON GENESIS EVANGELION (1995–96)

   We’ll never get over Kaworu and Shinji’s single night together. This beautiful, painfully brief queer relationship has been analyzed and debated so many times in the twenty-plus years since the beloved series’ first airing that, rather than add to the mess, we’ll just ask you to watch it for yourself.

   Neon Genesis Evangelion, 1995–96, still from a TV show on TV Tokyo. Season 1, episode 24, “The Last Cometh.”
8. DR. BRIGITTE LUIS GUILLERMO BAPTISTE

   From the Amazon to the Atlantic, more than fifty-six thousand species of plants, birds, fish, amphibians, mammals, and insects have carved their respective niches in Colombia, making it one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. Leading the study of this variety is Dr. Brigitte Baptiste, a sci-fi-loving peace activist and trans expert on the country’s flora and fauna. As an independent researcher and former director of the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute in Bogotá, she breaks with colonial attempts to present queerness as unnatural and advocates instead for a world rich with genders and sexualities. Our institute is indebted to the countless queer artists, scientists, and icons who have laid down a path before us, and Dr. Baptiste holds a special place at the forefront of queer ecology.

   Dr. Brigitte Luis Guillermo Baptiste, Bogotá, 2017. Photo: Filipe Araque.
9. STEVIE NICKS’S “WILD HEART” LIVE DEMO (1981)

   “Wild Heart” is an anthem that asks us to love impossibly and desire unreasonably, on repeat, in private and in public. This singular YouTube gem—featuring candid footage of Nicks rehearsing with her backup singer and makeup artist during a photo shoot in Annie Leibovitz’s studio—is an intimate, unapologetic moment among women weaving work, art, and play, making magic together.

   Video still of Stevie Nicks singing “Wild Heart” in Annie Leibovitz’s studio, New York, 1981.
10. PRIMARY PRODUCERS

    We’d like to take a final moment to thank those around the world engaged in the difficult daily labor of converting sunlight into life—without you, we’d just be an empty rock flying through space. Apex predators may get all the glory, but you’ve got our hearts.

    Microscopic algae. Photo: Priscilla Ahn, Nicolas Baird, and David Kim.