10.54103/ai/19764
At a time when the umbrella term “metaverse” seems to have monopolised the discourse on online social presence, this paper aims to explore the possibility of constructing interactive online spaces that challenge the hegemonic structures of heteronormative society. Before describing the metaverse as a futuristic scenario that catalyses technophobic fears, perhaps we can turn our attention to existing metaverses: one example is the sandbox video game Minecraft, which is characterised by great interactivity and manipulability. Therefore, by analysing the immersive and interactive artwork g(Ender Gallery) by artist Cat Haines, which was created entirely on Minecraft in 2021, I will explore how the platform can be used to build a playful ground and at the same time a critical arena of gender norms and a deep reflection on trans experience.
application/pdf
2785-7433
19764
II
en
Margherita Fontana
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433]
Feminist art history
Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines
Text.Serial.Journal
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon
2
Thematic Section
2023-12-29
2023-01-26
2023-12-29
2024-02-15
AN-ICON
Margherita Fontana
2023/12/29
10.54103/ai/19764
University of Milan
2785-7433
II
Feminist art history
en
Zauzmer, J., “What’s scarier than a haunted house? At Judgement House, it’s eternal damnation,” The Washington Post (October 30, 2016) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/30/whats-scarier-than-a-haunted-house-at-judgement-house-eternal-damnation/, accessed January 24, 2023.
Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/download/19764/20011
2
           Digital Heterotopias
           in the Metaverse:
The (g)Ender Gallery
by Cat Haines
by Margherita Fontana
            Metaverse
                        Minecraft
                        Gender studies
                        Feminist
                        Feminist art history




                   Issue №2               Year 2023
                   → Immersions and Dives:
                   From the Environment
                   to Virtual Reality
                   Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina,
                   Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello
Digital Heterotopias in the
Metaverse: The (g)Ender
Gallery by Cat Haines1
MARGHERITA FONTANA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3824-6909
https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764

Abstract                      At a time when the umbrella term “metaverse”
                 seems to have monopolised the discourse on online so-
                 cial presence, this paper aims to explore the possibility of
                 constructing interactive online spaces that challenge the
                 hegemonic structures of heteronormative society. Before
                 describing the metaverse as a futuristic scenario that catal-
                 yses technophobic fears, perhaps we can turn our attention
                 to existing metaverses: one example is the sandbox video
                 game Minecraft, which is characterised by great interactiv-
                 ity and manipulability. Therefore, by analysing the immer-
                 sive and interactive artwork g(Ender Gallery) by artist Cat
                 Haines, which was created entirely on Minecraft in 2021, I
                 will explore how the platform can be used to build a play-
                 ful ground and at the same time a critical arena of gender
                 norms and a deep reflection on trans experience.




Keywords         Metaverse                 Minecraft                  Gender studies
                 Feminist                  Feminist art history

        1 This article was written in the framework of the research project “AN-ICON. An-Iconology:
        History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images.” The project has received funding
        from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020
        research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON), and is hosted
        by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” at the University of Milan (Project
       “Departments of Excellence 2023-2027” awarded by the Italian Ministry of University and
        Research).
To quote this essay: M. Fontana, “Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat
Haines,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 74-90,
https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764.
MARGHERITA FONTANA                               74                                         AN-ICON
                                 Introduction

                            Appeared for the first time in 1992, “Metaverse”
              is now an umbrella term that encompasses dystopian pro-
              jections of future online social interactions and actually
              existing applications that allow users to communicate in
              real-time through avatars moving in virtual worlds. Setting
              aside the technophobic worries surrounding these sce-
              narios, current modes of online presence give us valuable
              hints regarding political and anthropological tensions that
              inhabit such social spaces. In particular, the paper aims
              to illustrate digital strategies of subverting gender perfor-
              mance adopted by contemporary artists, as is the case of
              the (g)Ender Gallery (2021) by artist Cat Haines,2 an instal-
              lation and a performance set entirely on the video game
              platform Minecraft.
                           The theory of performativity, which provides
              gender with a new framework to interpret its cultural and
              social basis, paves the way for a new understanding of the
             “performative” possibilities disclosed by the digital manip-
              ulation of the virtual self. The “immersive internet”3 allows
              us to create a digital body in a new, seemingly borderless
              space accompanied by overgrown feelings that the age
              of fixed identities is finally over. However, this enthusiasm
              must be mitigated by the awareness that the digital space
              is inhabited by the same structures characterising our or-
              dinary post-industrial reality.4
                           The reconfiguration of one’s identity by embody-
              ing an avatar through technologies such as head-mounted
              displays and tracking devices allows users to model and
              animate their doubles, giving rise to the so-called “Prote-
              us effect.” Named after the elusive Greek deity who could
      2 On her website, the young artist present herself as “a genderqueer trans girl, dyke, and
      academic/artist weirdo,” with a research centered on “autotheoretical investigation into [her]
      body and experiences as a post-surgically transitioned femme,” interrogating “concepts such as
      the trans body, sexual and gendered difference, and the intersection of [her] identities as a dyke
      and a trans woman.” See “cat haines,” https://catemoji.github.io/, accessed January 24, 2023.
      3 D. Power, R. Teigland, eds., The Immersive Internet: Reflections on the Entangling of the
      Virtual with Society, Politics and the Economy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
      4 For a recent account of feminist subversion techniques in digital environments, see J. K.
      Brodsky, Dismantling the Patriarchy, Bit by Bit. Art, Feminism, and Digital Technology (London:
      Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).

MARGHERITA FONTANA                               75                                           AN-ICON
              change into many different forms, this phenomenon, for-
              mulated by Nick Yee, Jeremy N. Bailenson and Nicolas
              Ducheneaut, and fundamental to an anthropological study
              of online spaces, proved that avatar appearance changes
              online behaviour: we are not just “dressing up” as someone
              else, we are actually someone else, as if the characteris-
              tics of this constructed self could interact with our ordi-
              nary selves and contribute to our online persona.5 From a
              transfeminist perspective, online social spaces accessible
              through VR seem hostile to a female audience: evidence of
              this is the numerous cases of sexual harassment directed
              at “female” avatars.6 Moreover, their design is often based
              on a stereotypical representation of feminine and racialised
              bodies. Without falling into the temptation of equating virtu-
              al and real worlds, the same power structures are repeated,
              since the technology responsible for virtual worlds is the
              result of the same capitalist and patriarchal society that is
              responsible for the struggles of its members in a non-he-
              gemonic position.7
                           Just as in the “real” world, strategies of hacking,
              distracting and subverting these structures also emerge in
              the virtual world, as in the installation on Minecraft platform
              (g)Ender Gallery by the artist Cat Haines. Here, Haines used
              the user-interactivity of the creative platform to construct
              digital representations of her own body, dismantling the
             “cissexist feminist art canon” while imagining a metaverse
              where transgender people could feel comfortable, safe and
              in control: a kind of digital heterotopia.


      5 N. Yee, J. Bailenson, “The Proteus effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on
      behavior,” Human communication research 33, no. 3 (2007): 271-290, https://doi.org/10.1111/
      j.1468-2958.2007.00299.x.
      6 M. Ehrenkranz, “Yes, Virtual Reality Has a Sexual Harassment Problem. What Can We Do
      to Stop It?,” Mic (June 5, 2016) https://www.mic.com/articles/142579/virtual-reality-has-a-
      sexual-harassment-problem-what-can-we-do-to-stop-it; L. Blackwell, N. Ellison, N. Elliott-
      Deflo, R. Schwartz, “Harassment in social virtual reality: Challenges for platform governance,”
      Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3 (2019): 1-25, https://doi.
      org/10.1145/3359202.
      7 For an in-depth study of the structurally gendered nature of new technologies, see C. Criado
      Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (New York: Harry N. Abrams,
      2019); with strict reference to virtual reality see J. Munafo, M. Diedrick, and T. A. Stoffregen,
     “The virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift induces motion sickness and is sexist in
      its effects,” Experimental brain research 235, no. 3 (2017): 889-901, https://doi.org/10.1007/
      s00221-016-4846-7.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                              76                                           AN-ICON
                                 An already inhabited metaverse: 		
                                 the case of Minecraft Universe

                            Since the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines is
              completely built on Minecraft, it is worth saying a few words
              about the technological and cultural context in which the
              artist’s operation is situated, namely the video game itself.
              The artwork has been conceived in the framework of the art
              residency program “Ender Gallery” sponsored by MacK-
              enzie Art Gallery of Regina, Saskatchewan.8 Minecraft is a
             “sandbox” video game, meaning that the user is not limited
              to a set of activities or to certain purposes, but can freely
              interact with the almost infinite surroundings. Players, who
              can access the platform via desktop and since 2016 also
              via virtual reality, can voluntarily build all kinds of construc-
              tions, using textured cubes to be extracted from the proce-
              durally generated 3D environments (in the technical jargon,
             “biomes”). The blocks, which are similar to a 3D version
              of the base unit of digital images, the pixel, have different
              physical properties: they can be used as they are found
              or actively transformed; construction is then achieved by
              placing blocks in a fixed grid pattern. Despite its “primitive”
              and pixelated blocky visual style, Minecraft is one of the
              best and longest-running games of recent times, precisely
              because of its interactivity.9 Another aspect worth high-
              lighting is the simulation nature of the game: Minecraft is
              presented as a “natural” world, made up of ecosystems
              and populated by creatures that follow precise rules of
              development. However, as in nature, the combinations of
              materials are almost infinite, to the point that many players

      8 The name of the art residency program “Ender,” appears in the game in various meanings.
      The Endermen are a specific type of creatures – in the platform jargon the “entities” or, more
      specifically, “mob” i.e. “mobile entities” – that inhabit the Minecraft universe. The program
      is curated by Sarah Friend, Cat Bluemke, and Jonathan Carroll aims to develop Minecraft
      creative potentialities. For its inaugural year, it hosted, alongside with Cat Haines, the works by
      Simon M. Benedict, Huidi Xiang, and Travess Smalley. “Ender Gallery,” Mackenzie Art Gallery,
      https://mackenzie.art/experience/digital-art-projects/post/ender-gallery/, accessed January 24,
      2023.
      9 Windows, which acquired the developer studio Mojang and the videogame itself, has
      recently released also a VR version of Minecraft, accessible through Meta Gear VR and
      Windows Mixed Reality headset. See “EXPLORE MINECRAFT IN VIRTUAL REALITY,”
      Minecraft official website, https://www.minecraft.net/it-it/vr, accessed January 24, 2023.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                               77                                           AN-ICON
              do not need to concern themselves with the objectives of
              the video game’s “Story” or “Survival” modes, but spend a
              lot of time shaping the biomes in which they live according
              to their tastes and needs. Surfing the net, it is very easy to
              come across real archives of the most incredible creations
              of users:10 there is even a series of computers, among
              which the most technically advanced is the Chungus 2
              (Computational Humongous Unconventional Number and
              Graphics Unit), built entirely inside Minecraft, according to
              its rules.11 They are functioning, self-reflecting machines,
              reinforcing the hypothesis that the sandbox game can be
              considered the first already inhabited metaverse. Minecraft
             “doesn’t really feel like a game. It’s more like a destination, a
              technical tool, a cultural scene:”12 due to its manipulability,
              Minecraft has also been studied adopting an intersection-
              al approach, underlining how gender politics interfere, for
              example, in the modding of avatars.13 The breadth of the
              Minecraft universe is also evidenced by the existence of
              a Wikipedia-like platform, consisting of more than 8000




      10 M. Peckham, “The 15 Best Minecraft Creations (and Wildest Destinations),” Time (May 22,
      2013) https://techland.time.com/2013/05/23/the-15-best-minecraft-creations-and-wildest-
      destinations/, accessed January 24, 2023; M.Tillman, “32 incredible Minecraft creations that
      will blow your mind,” Pocket-lint (March 16, 2022) https://www.pocket-lint.com/games/
      news/131364-incredible-minecraft-creations-that-will-blow-your-mind/, accessed January 24,
      202.
      11 “Ohm’s 16-bit Minecraft Computer,” YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/
      watch?v=KzrFzkb3A4o, accessed January 24, 2023; “Ohmganesha,” Minecraft Forums,
      August 5, 2011, http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/526445-my-alucpucomputer-progress-
      thread-video-and-worldsave/, accessed January 24, 2023; K. Wickens, “Someone crafted a
      redstone PC in Minecraft to play Minecraft inside Minecraft,” PC Gamer (September 9, 2022)
      https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraftception-redstone-pc-chungus/, accessed January
      24, 2023; N. Armondi, “Minecraft giocato dentro Minecraft con Chungus 2, un computer di
      Redstone che viaggia a 1 Hz,” multiplayer.it (September 8, 2022) https://multiplayer.it/notizie/
      minecraft-giocato-dentro-minecraft-chungus-2-computer-redstone-1-hz.html, accessed
      January 24, 2023; CodeCrafted, GIANT REDSTONE COMPUTER THAT PLAYS MINECRAFT IN
      MINECRAFT, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwHBaSySHmo, accessed
      January 24, 2023.
      12 C. Thompson, “The Minecraft Generation,” The New York Times, April 14, 2016, https://
      www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html, accessed January 24,
      2023.
      13 Anderson, E., Walker, J., Kafai, Y. B., & Lui, D., “The Gender and Race of Pixels: An
      Exploration of Intersectional Identity Representation and Construction Within Minecraft and Its
      Community,” Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital
      Games (2017, August):1-10, https://doi.org/10.1145/3102071.3102094.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                              78                                          AN-ICON
               entries, compiled by users, which provides information on
               all aspects of the franchise.14
                            Having said that, it is interesting to note how
               the artist uses the inherent manipulability of the video game
               just described, on the one hand to represent the cultural-
               ly constructed nature of gender performance, and on the
               other to ironically describe myths and prejudices regarding
               transgender bodies and experience. Indeed, Haines evokes
               the ideal of femininity as the result of a process of gender
               transition, offering a trans* narrative of gender identity and
               sexuality. Furthermore, the artist has a fruitful and critical
               relationship with the essentialist strain of feminism asso-
               ciated with the cissexist canon of “pussy art,”15 which is a
               stated point of reference I will discuss in detail later.

                                  A digital heterotopia:					
                                  the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines

                            Haines’ g(Ender) Gallery can be seen as a tra-
               ditional online exhibition that exploits the creative poten-
               tial of the Minecraft universe: the artist’s setup combines
               a performance, an exhibition space with both iconic and
               textual works, and a social space designed to host discus-
               sions, meetings and parties. There is even an ice skating
               rink, which is not melting despite the sunny climate.16
                            First, visitors are welcomed in an informal at-
               mosphere in a two-storey building where they can rest or
               refresh themselves (or their avatars). The facility has a large
               terrace with views of the surrounding landscape. One’s at-
               tention is immediately caught by a large blue phallus built

      14 “Minecraft Wiki,” Fandom Games Community, https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/
      Minecraft_Wiki, accessed January 24, 2023.
      15 This irreverent phrase refers to the art historical tradition of feminist art that deals with the
      female anatomy, especially the representation of the female genitalia, as a way to increase
      the empower women and rewrite history. Furthermore, Haines theoretically explored the
      relationship between difference feminism and trans studies in her master’s thesis entitled
      Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock. See C. Haines, Transmisogyny and the Abjection
      of Girlcock, MA dissertation (Regina: The University of Regina, 2021).
      16 In this sense, it could be argued that Haines’ work perfectly fits in the strand of
     “playground” works, which is often attended by contemporary artists. For example, the word
     “playground” is interestingly adopted by Claire Bishop in her Installation Art, with reference
      to contemporary artist Carsten Höller. C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London:
      Routledge, 2005): 48.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                                79                                            AN-ICON
              into the wall of the mountain in front of it. It is here that the
              inaugural performance of Haines’ work begins: the artist
              sets fire to it to make way for a monumental vulva, con-
              structed from the artist’s custom-made textures, created
              from photographs of her own genitalia (fig. 1). Even though
              the artist literally builds this biomorphic structure out of
             “pieces” of her body, it is not intended to mimic the artist’s
              sexual organs. Its paradoxical monumentality, combined
              with the conspicuous performance, is indeed satirical in its
              intentions: its aim is to address the obsession with the trans*
              body, fetishism and objectification. The artist’s gesture con-
              sists in the reappropriation of the same construction of her
              genitals: recalling her experience of undergoing surgery,
              she recalls that she had no choice as to her preferences for
              the external characteristics of her vulva, that there was “no
              lookbook” to choose from, meaning that the surgeon had
              to have in mind an idealisation of female genitals, which
              are in fact can be very different.17




                                                                                       Fig. 1 Minecraft
                                                                                     customized block
                                                                               textures by Cat Haines.

                           To access the actual exhibition venue, visitors
               pass through this genital simulacrum and then through a
               vagina-like tunnel. Here the creations are presented in a
               more traditional way using Minecraft’s design tools: in a
               space that at times looks like a fortress, the artist pres-
               ents a selection of photographs that are highly relevant to
               her personal experience as a genderqueer, lesbian femme.

      17 Excluding mainstream pornography, which tends to emphasize only certain stereotypical
      configurations, the lack of media exposure to female genitalia leads many women to view
      their own configurations as abnormal or aesthetically unpleasing. Speaking of “lookbooks” of
      female genitalia, in recent years there have been artistic and photographic projects that have
      highlighted female diversity in order to dispel the myth of the existence of a perfect form. See
      for example L. Dodsworth, Womanhood: The Bare Reality (London: Pinter & Martin, 2019); H.
      Atalanta, J. Whitford, A Celebration of Vulva Diversity (This is us Books, 2019).

MARGHERITA FONTANA                              80                                           AN-ICON
              They are drawn from the artist’s social media and person-
              al phone archive: their pixelated quality alludes their pri-
              vateness and intimacy. During an interview,18 the artist de-
              clared that she took inspiration from the Killjoy’s Kastle:
              A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House,19 an art installation
              by Canadian artists Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue,
              displayed in October 2015 in West Hollywood. “Designed
              to pervert, not convert,” the installation mocks the hell
              houses,20 popularized in 1970s by the televangelist pastor
              Jerry Falwell Sr. This complex theatrical and immersive
              experiences were designed to shock visitors by showing
              after-death hellish scenarios, destined for those who had
              not fully embraced Christian faith in time. These kinds of
              disturbing experiences, thought to provide an alternative
              to the irreverent – and also queer – Halloween parades, of-
              ten include sexophobic and transhomophobic content and
              propaganda against reproductive rights. In response to this
              cultural framework, the immersive installation by Mitchell
              and Logue was designed to provide a creepy transformative
              feminist experience. Interestingly, the work was criticized
              for its essentialist and allegedly trans-exclusive approach:
              the “Ball Busting” room in particular was considered po-
              tentially offensive and non-respectful of trans* people,21
              since “involved two butch-dyke performers in plaid shirts
              smashing plaster of Paris balls modelled after truck nuts.”22

      18 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www.
      carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023.
      19 A. Mitchell, C. McKinney, eds., Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters,
      and Other Lesbian Hauntings (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019).
      20 I. Monroe, “Remembering When Evangelicals Tried to Exorcise Gays With ‘Hell Houses,’”
      Advocate (October 26, 2016) https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/10/27/
      remembering-when-evangelicals-tried-exorcise-gays-hell-houses, accessed January 24,
      2023; J. Zauzmer, “What’s scarier than a haunted house? At Judgement House, it’s eternal
      damnation,” The Washington Post (October 30, 2016) https://www.washingtonpost.com/
      news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/30/whats-scarier-than-a-haunted-house-at-judgement-house-
      eternal-damnation/, accessed January 24, 2023; T. Dart, “Welcome to a Texas hell house,
      where wayward Christians are scared straight,” The Guardian (October 31, 2015) https://www.
      theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/31/halloween-texas-hell-house-wayward-christians-
      scared, accessed January 24, 2023.
      21 kwazana, “Ball Busters and the Recurring Trauma of Intergenerational Queer/Feminist Life,”
      Bully Bloggers (February 20, 2016) https://bullybloggers.wordpress.com/author/kwazana/,
      accessed January 24, 2023.
      22 C. Hajjar, “Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian
      Hauntings: Allyson Mitchell and Cait McKinney,” c mag (July 15, 2020) https://cmagazine.com/
      articles/inside-killjoys-kastle-dykey-ghosts-feminist-monsters-and-other?fbclid=IwAR3pabo2g
      x1py4zV8gqBnn-lrj0jJPMv2d0PdI6YqsVpXllWGE21IxgSLOE, accessed January 24, 2023.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                            81                                         AN-ICON
               In this sense, Haines’ installation can be read as a trans*
               response to Mitchell and Logue’s piece, imagining a dig-
               itally enclosed space – the gallery – this time focused on
               trans* narratives and counter-narratives.
                             Cat Haines uses resignification techniques here:
               the case of the first photograph encountered in the virtual
               dungeon, entitled Lesbian Wedding, is very clear (fig. 2).
               The photograph is taken directly from her wedding album
               and portrays the artist and her then wife. This classic shot
               is then part of a narrative about gender and sexual orienta-
               tion: in the artist’s experience, also through the influence of
               lesbian mainstream pornography and popular culture, the
               idea of participating in the same narrative of lesbian rela-
               tionship came before the her self-identification as a trans*
               woman, recognising a lesbian intent in her relationship of
               that time.23 In the book placed in front of the work of art,
               it is possible to read a text by the author explaining the
               profound meaning of the image:

The first lesbian wedding I attended was my own. I just didn’t real-
ize it at the time. It wasn’t until many years later talking in bed at 2
a.m. with my wife about transition and life and living and changing
and we realized we’re wives and so we kissed our first kiss as
wife and wife.




                                      Fig. 2 C. Haines, Lesbian Wedding, 2012, courtesy of the artist.




       23 Haines quotes also the impact of the character Lisa a lesbian-identified man, portrayed by
       Devon Gummersall in the popular in US series The L Word, who appears during season 1 from
       episode 1.07: “Losing It” to 1.10: “Luck, Next Time.”

MARGHERITA FONTANA                              82                                          AN-ICON
                            Moving to forward in the gallery exploration,
              one encounters Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016 (fig.
              3): the artist is here portrayed in her bathtub, smoking mar-
              ijuana from a bong. The title of the image is inspired to
              Psychopathia Sexualis: Eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie
              by the German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Pub-
              lished in 1886, the book is recognized as one of the earliest
              systematic treatise of homosexuality: words that later came
              into use, such as “sadism,” “masochism” and the adjective
             “bisexual,” borrowed from botany, appeared here for the
              first time. In particular, Haines draws inspiration from one
              of the book’s several clinical studies. It is the account of a
              person who might today be called transgender, suffering
              from gout, who seeks relief from the pain by taking long hot
              baths while smoking hashish. During one of these baths,
              the person describes the sensation of finally feeling like a
              woman, of perceiving her body in a new configuration. This
              experience, more than a century old, resonates with the
              artist’s own: hence this kind of re-enactment, a break in
              the timeline, an unforeseen glitch between different epochs
              constructed through a bodily sensation.24




                                                                       Fig. 3 C. Haines, Psycopathia
                                                                     Transsexualis 1892/2016, 2016,
                                                                                courtesy of the artist.



      24 R. Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, trans. C. G. Chaddock (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis
      Company, 1892): 207-208.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                             83                                           AN-ICON
                            The exhibition ends with a hidden image that
              can only be accessed by crossing a threshold: this is not
              just a ploy to avoid breaking the nudity rules of the Twitch
              streaming platform, which broadcasts the social events
              held in the gallery, but a choice motivated by the sensitivity
              of the content shown. It is a classic mirror selfie of the art-
              ist after her operation, still with a catheter protruding from
              her genitals. It is certainly a powerful image: by separating
              it from the rest of the exhibition space, the artist invites
              the viewer to question his or her desire to see, whether it
              is generated by a simple, objectifying curiosity about the
              anatomical features of the trans* body, or whether such a
              presence can lead elsewhere, to the heart of the political
              questions posed by her body itself.

                                A feminist strand of immersivity:
                                Haines’ work and the cis-sexist		
                                feminist art canon

                            As the artist states, “trans women’s subjectivity
              and bodies are abject in society and in feminist/lesbian art
              and literature – a big way we see that is through… ‘pussy
              art.’”25 This last phrase refers to the feminist artistic tradi-
              tion, which has at its core an aesthetic reflection on female
              physiology and the cultural processes associated with it. I
              could perhaps venture the hypothesis that there is a feminist
              declination of immersivity in the history of art that explicitly
              refers to the exploration of the interior of the female body,
              and in particular of her sexual organs, which are precisely
              internal.26 This tradition, which dates back at least to the late
              1960s and 1970s, still has many representatives.



      25 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021)
      https://www.carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023.
      26 Consider some very famous precursors, such as Hon - en katedral, the monumental
      sculpture created by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle in collaboration with Jean
      Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1966; or the insistence
      on sculptural variations of the vulva explored by Judy Chicago in the monumental participatory
      work The Dinner Party (1974-1979). More recent examples of this strand will be discussed in
      the following pages.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                             84                                          AN-ICON
                           Before the official opening, on the International
              Trans Day of Visibility (31 March 2021), Haines held a studio
              visit during which she clarified some of her artistic refer-
              ences, thus placing her work in dialogue with this specific
              artistic tradition.27 She prepared an ideal gallery for the
              interviewer, displaying her personal canon of “pussy art:”
              recent examples of art that focuses on the female genitalia
              and the political discourses surrounding it, which partic-
              ipate in the feminist investigations of the body, but are at
              the same time critical of it, offering suggestions on how to
              move beyond essentialist views. First, Haines includes the
              contribution of the neurodiverse Lenape and Potawatomi
              Two-Spirit artist Vanessa Dion Fletcher, who has often ad-
              dressed the cultural and biological shaping of the female
              body. Haines quotes her exhibition Own Your Cervix, held at
              the Tangled + Disability Art Gallery in Toronto, from January
              13 to March 31, 2017. During opening hours, visitors could
              book a guided tour with the artist, which included a ses-
              sion of cervix self-examination.28 Dion Fletcher suggested
              repurposing the medical practice of exploring inside the
              body for people with internal genitalia, providing guidance
              on using a speculum to “own” their own cervix. The spec-
              ulum, a medical instrument that has been widely cited in
              feminist philosophy and thought,29 is here restored to its



      27 “Ender Gallery: Virtual Open Studio with Cat Haines (Minecraft Artist Residency),” Ender
      Gallery, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXfuRPeBMY8&t=1600s,
      accessed January 24, 2023.
      28 See the website of the Tangled Arts, “Own Your Cervix Appointments,” https://tangledarts.
      org/whats-on/own-your-cervix-appointments/, accessed January 24, 2023.
      29 Feminism and feminist art have a long history of dealing with the oldest instrument
      of gynaecology and obstetrics, a visualisation device intended for both surveillance and
      diagnosis, at the centre of the debate on the epistemology of looking inside women’s bodies.
      As is well known, in 1974 the French philosopher of difference Luce Irigaray entitled her
      theoretical book Speculum of the Other Woman. The instrument itself, perfected in the 1840s
      by J. Marion Sims, who experimented with it on African-American slaves without anaesthesia,
      became the focus of second-wave American feminist interest in women’s health. Among those
      promoting its use as a self-diagnostic device was Carol Downer, a feminist and pro-choice
      activist and founder of the Self Help Centre One in Los Angeles. See L. Irigaray, Speculum of
      the Other Woman (1974), trans. G. C. Gill (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1985); D. Spain,
      Constructive Feminism: Women’s Spaces and Women’s Rights in the American City (Ithaca
      NY: Cornell University Press, 2016); E. Frankfort, Vaginal Politics (New York: Bantam Books,
      1973); M. Sandelowski, “This most dangerous instrument: propriety, power, and the vaginal
      speculum,” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing 29, no. 1 (2000): 73-82,
      https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2000.tb02759.x.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                              85                                          AN-ICON
               original and literal function, while encouraging women to
               understand the political dimension of diagnostics.30
                             Continuing through the gallery curated by the
               artist, the visitor encounters the work of Australian artist
               Casey Jenkins, entitled Casting Off My Womb. In this per-
               formance, the artist spent 28 days – the average length of
               a menstrual cycle – knitting a white wool thread that she
               had previously inserted into her vagina: the resulting strip
               changes colour according to the days on which it was
               knitted, showing signs of vaginal mucus until menstruation.
               The work, which is clearly inspired by famous examples,
               such as Carolee Schneemann’s performance Interior Scroll
               (1975), has been at the centre of a fierce media debate that
               has brought the taboo of menstruation and its margination
               from public discourse back to the fore.31
                             Continuing the visit, one comes across the re-
               production of one of the new “models,” so to speak, of
               augmented genitalia. This is an early project by the Turk-
               ish-American artist and architect Pinar Yoldas, entitled
              “Speculative Biologies.” Called NeoLabiumTM, SuperMam-
               malTM, and PolyPhalliiTM, these are sexual organs “designed
               to stimulate our biological imagination” and “to challenge
               the anatomical norms around sex and gender.” Immersed
               in a conservation fluid similar to that used in natural history
               museums, but revitalised by small tubes that emit bub-
               bles, the organs float in their glass tanks in a unique state
               of suspended life. In particular, Haines chooses to quote
               the NeoLabiumTM (Fig. 4), a “necessary update” to female




      30 In 1990 at the Harmony Theatre of New York, performance artist and post-porn activist
      Annie Sprinkle performed the historical piece A Public Cervix Announcement, during which
      she invited the audience member to look at her cervix, through a speculum. This is clearly a
      precedent that cannot be ignored. See N. Aulombard-Arnaud “A Public Cervix Announcement.
      Une performance pro-sexe et postporn d’Annie Sprinkle (New York, 1990),” Clio. Femmes,
      Genre, Histoire 54 (2021): 185-195, https://doi.org/10.4000/clio.20733.
      31 The work went viral in 2013 when the YouTube video by “The Feed,” dubbed “Vaginal Knitting”
      reached rapidly 3.5 million views: the comments by audience were for the most part disgusted
      remarks addressed to the artist herself. See C. Jenkins, “I’m the ‘vaginal knitting’ performance artist
     – and I want to defend my work,” The Guardian (December 2017, 13) https://www.theguardian.com/
      commentisfree/2013/dec/17/vaginal-knitting-artist-defence, accessed January 24, 2023.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                                 86                                             AN-ICON
              anatomy, designed to amplify pleasure, in response to its
              pervasive limitation32.




                                                                     Fig. 4 P. Yoldas, NeoLabiumTM
                                                                        from Speculative Biologies,
                                                                       2008, courtesy of the artist.


                            Another interesting example of recent “vulva
              art” is the work of Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (under
              the pseudonym Rokudenashiko, which means “good-for-
              nothing”). As the word for this, “manko,” cannot be pro-
              nounced in public, the artist has engaged in various forms
              of “manko” art (fig. 5), to the point of spending ten days in
              jail in 2014 on obscenity charges after sailing in a two-metre
              kayak designed on the 3D scan of her vulva. Interestingly,
              the obscenity charge was not for the kayak itself, whose
              shape and bright yellow colour were not so mimetic, but
              for the act of circulating the 3D scan itself: she was the first
              person to be charged with “electronic obscenity.”
                            Haines’ ideal itinerary ends with a return to the
              beginnings of this kind of art historical tradition: the visi-
              tor is led to Georgia O’Keeffe’s early masterpiece, Black

      32 In Yoldas’ words “In a world where sexual pleasure is denied to women under the name
      of religion, tradition or law the amplified pleasure toolkit of NeoLabiumTM is a weapon. The
      increased enervation of NeoLabiumTM is a form of empowerment. Compared to the average
      female genitalia, NeoLabiumTM offers a more accentuated look.” P. Yoldas, “SuperMammalTM
      Dissected: Towards a Phenomenology for a New Species,” in P. Yoldas, Speculative Biologies:
      New Directions in Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, dissertation (Durham-London: Duke
      University Press, 2016): 43.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                            87                                          AN-ICON
              Iris (1926). In this monumental floral painting, the details
              of the interior of the flower are magnified in proportion on
              a 90-per-70-centimetre canvas, suggesting a non-literal
              understanding of its subject.




                                                                            Fig. 5 Rokudenashiko,
                                                                    Battleground Manko Art, 2014,
                                                                             courtesy of the artist.


                            In order to gain a comprehensive understand-
              ing of the theoretical and critical frameworks surrounding
              the artworks under discussion, I draw on the concept of
             “poetic operation” recently elaborated by micha cárdenas.33
              Exploring the realm of activist art by trans* people of colour,
              the artist and researcher posits that these works embody
              survival strategies, representing a poetic sublimation of
              essential needs that aligns with various characteristics in-
              herent in digital devices. This concept holds particular rele-
              vance to Haines’ work, especially considering the examples
              of vulva art I mentioned. The installation uniquely manifests
              itself as a safe space for trans* people while simultaneous-
              ly functioning as a digital reflection of body hacking. With

      33 m. cárdenas, Poetic Operations: Trans of Color Art in Digital Media (Durham-London: Duke
      University Press, 2022).

MARGHERITA FONTANA                            88                                         AN-ICON
               this phrase, I do not refer (only) to the cybernetic move-
               ment devoted to body enhancing, but, more precisely, to
               the convergence of transfeminism and hacktivism. In this
               regard, “the hacker and open-source software movement
               has served not only as a means of technical support for
               transfeminist production but also as metaphors that ex-
               emplify the practices transfeminists attempt to carry out.”34

                                 Conclusion

                             I hope that the selection of examples I have
               presented contributes to situating Cat Haines’ artwork with-
               in an aesthetic and political tradition, of a feminist nature,
               that has placed critical reflection on corporeality at its cen-
               tre. The choice to adapt it according to the narrow logic
               of a pre-constituted platform, in this case the video game
               Minecraft, helps to enrich the meaning of the author’s pro-
               posal, which focuses precisely on the transfeminist practice
               of configuring, modifying and augmenting the body, in the
               context of a still heteronormative society. By situating itself
               in a virtual elsewhere, one could say a “metaverse,” where
               social norms can be circumvented and rewritten, Haines’
               work achieves its critical potential. This brings me back
               to the Foucauldian concept of “heterotopia” that I men-
               tioned at the beginning of this paper, which I think perfectly
               describes the tensions that inhabit the digital space that
               Haines is leading: it is indeed an elsewhere where heter-
               onormative rules are subverted, but it is also a non-neutral
               terrain, ploughed by a grid that limits our possibilities. In
               Foucault’s words:

There are also, probably in every culture, in every civilization, real
places - places that do exist and that are formed in the very
founding of society - which are something like counter-sites, a kind
of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other
real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously
       34 L. Egana, M. Solá, trans. M. Brashe, “Hacking the Body: A Transfeminist War
       Machine,” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 1-2 (May 2016): 74-80, 78, https://doi.
       org/10.1215/23289252-3334223.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                              89                                         AN-ICON
represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are out-
side of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their
location in reality. Because these places are absolutely different
from all the sites that they reflect and speak 35about, I shall call them,
by way of contrast to utopias, heterotopias.




       35 M. Foucault, “Of Other Spaces” (1984), trans. J. Miskowiec, Diacritics 16, no. 1 (1986): 22-27, 24.

MARGHERITA FONTANA                                  90                                             AN-ICON
AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON.
The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan.



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