We will take a starting point from the release of Chelsea Manning. Seven years ago Chelsea Manning was condemned to 35 years in jail for leaking intel on war crimes perpetrated by the US. A selfless act, releasing this horrid information in order to expose the truth while putting her life at stake. Already in jail, Chelsea came out as a trans woman and shared with the world her story, shedding light on the atrocities permeated by transphobic policies of the U.S. prison system. Not being able to commute to a female prison, being routinely forced to cut her hair, not being offered proper psychological care, kept unjustly in solitary confinement among many others, Chelsea's life was kept by a thread.

We will revisit a film that we showed at our first program Xenometrics,the short ‘[Chelsea] Manning had secrets’ and discuss other ideas from this program. Lou and Pedro will present a stand at Lecken @ Bertrams to symbolically welcome Chelsea Manning home and to record messages to Chelsea that will be used for a future radio show and to send to her sharing our support. We will be able to discuss at the assemblage how this went and any further messages can be recorded and included.

We are inviting Merle from Artgames to talk a little about a future collaboration that will focus on post-porn VR. 

Please bring along texts or links to articles etc that you would like to share and discuss (on any topic) and to bring friends, thinkers, lovers who you think might share our interest in dreaming of alternate futures, discussing gender and feminist politics and how technological culture intersects with these. We will be in the front room of SPEKTRUM on the couches, so it will be an informal gathering.