Slippery Substances:
Microdosing Queer Material, 2021
A correspondence module created and facilitated by Liz Rosenfeld
Microdosing is the practice of consuming very low, sub-doses of a specific substance, generally a recreational or (un)prescribed pharmaceutical drug, with the intention of understanding how a very low dose can affect and slightly shift one's mood, perspective, and material. Typically explored in relationship to such experiences as depression, energy levels, libido, lucid visions, and dreams, microdosing could be approached as a renegade methodology, queering not just the potential of the body, but also the ways in which we inhabit radical time and space. What do you microdose? How does it support/inform how you touch the world and how the world touches you back? Have you always wanted to try microdosing and never had the opportunity? What is microdosing beyond literal substance consumption? A feeling? A longing? A person? A fantasy? An element? A habit?
I have come to find myself to identify as a microdoser across many realms, bringing me greater insight into my relationship to urgent desire, as well as my longing to inhabit the experience of finding pleasure in patience. I have also come to understand my trans-positionality beyond gender through microdosing, and how trans identification is about the shifting material hosted by my body. A material that I consider to be in collaboration with. Through creative methodologies I want to exchange microdosing experiences with you. This correspondence course will entail a creative exchange through whatever medium one chooses: writing, documented performance, sound, drawing, video, photography, scores, etc. Between each participant, a different short work will inform the next, creating an exquisite corpse. I will create the first and last response. These works will consider microdosing experience in each participant's life , with the invitation for the next participant to do the same, thus creating a correspondence of both creative and informational exchange. A digital course reader is available for participants to explore various relevant texts for educational purposes only.