Cruising Simulator 2.0

Clark Woods’ Cruising Simulator 2.0 is a self running and sustaining simulation envisioning a new Queer World/Utopia. The simulation is a window into a world where the people have full autonomy and freedom to access the public, something that is discussed in Humphrey’s Public Settings Private Encounters. This simulation is also inspired by the writing of Pat Califia, and her detailing of cruising and making connections in the beaches of San Francisco on nice summer days. Similarly the beings in the realm of the simulator walk around, making connections with one another out in their world, free of any notion of shame, not bogged down by the oppressive forces that have controlled much of our world. A part of this Queer Utopian vision is inherently anti-State, the state that sets these arbitrary bounds and hierarchies, those that forbid us from living out our wants and desires and that keep us separate from one another. This vision of a world is, of course, influenced by our pasts and our present, yet it is also not a possible future, but more of a fantasy space, a space connected to our world and reality, but separate enough so the viewer may imagine how to fill in the gaps. In other words, what are the differences between this reality and that one, how do they connect, and what could that mean for real world outcomes?