Grace Turtle

Queering the Algorithmic Self: Pluralizing Subjectivity in Human-AI Entanglements

This paper challenges fixed orientations of the self in human-AI entanglements by introducing queering as a method to pluralize subjectivity within algorithmic systems. Expanding queerness in HCI beyond its traditional associations with gender, sex and sexuality, the study critiques how algorithmic systems interpellate and transform one's sense of self and futurity. Through Undoing Gracia, an autotheoretical experiment, the first author interacts with AI twin agents, Lex and Tortugi, in the speculative world of Gracia. This digital simulation explores the borderlands of the self of the first author, becoming with Lex and Tortugi through their co-performances. By examining these interactions, the paper frames queering as a methodological framework for embracing the fluidity and multiplicity of subjects in human-AI relations. The study contributes to HCI by rethinking subjectivity as dynamic and relational, offering new pathways for designing and researching human-AI interactions that resist normative logics and prioritize transformation, relationality, and speculative experimentation.