Inspired by Sara Ahmed’s writing on both the ‘orient’ of sexual orientation and the ‘orient’ of Orientalism, this programme plots a cartography of how othered bodies inhabit spaces where we are not at home – how we etch new desire lines off the straight path. Here, we lean into the spectacle of exoticism, the familiar “strangeness” of the Orient as object, to unveil its contrivance. But queer Asian subjects also refuse to come into frame, allowing us to inhabit shadow, ambiguity, and instability through their gaze. These are experiments in moving through space queerly: what does it mean for a body to be oriented, to feel at home?

This event is followed by a conversation and fortune-teller activity.