Abstract
This article explores the methodological approaches developed within the Tropicuir research project, an investigation of activist queer art and design practices in Brazil, started in the 2010s. Through a combination of activist research, sentimental cartography, and collaborative curatorial practice, the study examines how aesthetic-political actions function as strategies of micropolitical resistance, collective memory, and worldmaking. Drawing from fieldwork in exhibitions curation, archival practices, art auctions and activist networks, the research articulates a methodological framework that blurs the boundaries between design and art, embracing embodied, affective, and relational modes of inquiry. By engaging concepts such as anthropophagy, micropolitics, and localized knowledge, Tropicuir proposes a queer epistemology that feeds from South perspectives and challenges normative academic paradigms. The project demonstrates how design research, when queered, can contribute to social transformation by creating experimental archives and networks that reimagine ethics, politics, and aesthetics of gender and sexuality dissidents in contemporary Brazil.
Keywords
queer, design, art, activism
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1047
Citation
Altmayer, G. (2026) Queer/cuir methodological approaches in activist design and art research in contemporary Brazil., in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1047
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Queer/cuir methodological approaches in activist design and art research in contemporary Brazil.
This article explores the methodological approaches developed within the Tropicuir research project, an investigation of activist queer art and design practices in Brazil, started in the 2010s. Through a combination of activist research, sentimental cartography, and collaborative curatorial practice, the study examines how aesthetic-political actions function as strategies of micropolitical resistance, collective memory, and worldmaking. Drawing from fieldwork in exhibitions curation, archival practices, art auctions and activist networks, the research articulates a methodological framework that blurs the boundaries between design and art, embracing embodied, affective, and relational modes of inquiry. By engaging concepts such as anthropophagy, micropolitics, and localized knowledge, Tropicuir proposes a queer epistemology that feeds from South perspectives and challenges normative academic paradigms. The project demonstrates how design research, when queered, can contribute to social transformation by creating experimental archives and networks that reimagine ethics, politics, and aesthetics of gender and sexuality dissidents in contemporary Brazil.