“I’ve Always Felt Like A Stranger” – Queer Spatiality on Camera
Research Project (FULL VERSION available as PDF)
My written research project sought to analyse space and the queer expreince through the medium of film; understanding that my chosen films narrative and understanding of queer spatiality could be conveyed soley through the films spaces.
Queer sits within a multitude of lived experiences within our built environment; understanding it’s spatiality can re-orientate architectural practice and research to allow queer identities to thrive.
The 2023 film ‘All of Us Strangers’, written and directed by Andrew Haigh with production design through Sarah Finlay, presents a critical representation of contemporary queer experience and elicits a reflection on urbanism today. By looking at key settings of the film through a queer lens we understand how ubiquitous an experience being queer truly is; in life and the spaces we occupy. My research aims to draw on wider discourse around queer theory and architecture, with analysing space and urbanism through film a practised methodology; one that encapsulates a key component in truly understanding and preserving queer experiences; the appreciation of personal narrative.
Queer identities today still face indefinite obstacles; attitudes to queer people are often unfavourable in relation to spatial ownership such as discourse around gendered spaces and the governing of gender identities, thereby limiting freedoms, especially for trans and gender non-conforming people.
Another reason for my inquiry is the increased closures of queer spaces. Physical spaces in which to gather and exist with other queer people have and will always matter; acting as both meeting points and for collective activism, especially during civil rights campaigns and difficult times such as the Aids Crisis.
Today, recent campaigns for instance, Stonewall ‘s 2024 ‘Hold My Hand’ acknowledges that there is not just threat of physical harassment to queer people but also a continued inability for queer people to discern their own freedoms within the built environment; affecting self-acceptance and perceived value.
My inquiry uses the film ‘All of Us Strangers’ as a vehicle to explore queer urban experience. The title character in the film ‘Adam’ identifies as gay, as does the writer and director Andrew Haigh, therefore the scope is of a primarily gay experience. Though the portrayal is relevant to wider queer experience, it is important in its highlighting of the specifics of a contemporary gay experience.
The film, within its scope, explores hidden barriers to existing freely in the built environment; illustrating challenges faced by queer individuals in a majority cis-heteronormative society.
My research led to the following criteria for understanding queer spatiality within the built environment;
How we read the city.
It is important to regard that reading a space queerly can be reading something that is either or both; not evident anymore nor acknowledged by an either historical or contemporary cis-heteronormative society.
How we navigate the city
To take up space is to understand that you are allowed ownership of that space: queer people must search for these accepting spaces and so most often search for queer individuals, thus informing navigation.
How we claim and construct space within it.
The importance of realising gay spatiality best explained by Jeremy Atherton Lin; “I can touch bricks, and for a moment don’t believe gayness is a social construct or stifling invention, but a legacy.”
Initially, my inquiry sought to understand my own personal questions and experiences; by using film I have been able to place queer narratives within urban space. Filmmaking is an incredible art form to document queer spaces and personal experiences of them. Film allowed me to expand architectural analysis through theories of sociology and psychology placing the spaces in context; within political and social commentary. Today it is evident that the current state of queerness and appreciation of its inherent spatiality is enduringly undervalued and increasingly attacked.
The very fact that the spaces in the film are so regular and common place indicates what is and has always been true: that queer people and queer experiences have always been part of our built environment and societal makeup; anywhere can have a lived experience that is possible of a queer experience and experienced at any age. The spaces themselves aren’t ‘othered’ in this regard – it’s the people and their spatial experience that is.
To be queer in space is at times challenging; to one’s self and to navigations with society – but it can also be full of joy; self-realisation; and love.
Understanding this spatially ignites a world of queer possibility; with the art of film an ideal vehicle to explore this.
