Open Season, a programme from The Tivoli which started in 2020 out of COVID, runs across three months and marks the project’s Brisbane debut. Strap yourself in as local queer artists are invited to explore and share an idea, current obsession or ongoing fascination using Microsoft PowerPoint.
Join hosts Xanthe Dobbie and Harriet Gillies for a hilarious night reclaiming and queering corporate presentation culture. 'Queer PowerPoint' has been created by Sydney-based collective Unfunded Empathy.
Here, 'Queer PowerPoint' Co-Host Xanthe Dobbie lists five reasons why PowerPoint is the perfect way to share ideas. Get ready for a bit of nostalgia.
One
It’s perfectly imperfect. PowerPoint is a clunky, widely disdained corporate tool making it ripe for queering and ironic subversion. Everyone knows what a PowerPoint is 'supposed' to look like, so how can we shake that up?
Image from @unfundedempathy on Instagram
Two
It’s a highly camp visual medium. PowerPoint, when wielded with gay enthusiasm, can be incredibly extra – GIFs, word art, glitter fades eat your heart out.
Three
Nostalgia. There’s something endearingly retro about the tech. While the software has evolved and expanded, it’s really not that different to what you probably played on in the computer room in the '90s. Revisiting PowerPoint for silly, fun, nerdy reasons feels kind of like inner child work.
Four
Everyone knows how to use it. Extending on nostalgia, most people have an innate understanding of how to use PowerPoint. If they don’t, it’s super simple to pick up – drag and drop, easy solutions, no real technical skill required to get your point across. In this way, it’s a democratic tool for telling stories and building worlds.
Image from @unfundedempathy on Instagram
Five
It’s gloriously basic and strangely adaptable. Over the three years we’ve been running this show, we’ve seen such an incredibly broad array of weird, hot takes. We’ve had Venn diagrams breaking down definitions of 'daddy'. We’ve had deep dives into Britney Spears’ miniature furniture, the eastern blue groper fish, '80s lesbian cinema, and niche online conspiracy theories. Because PowerPoint is so simple, people can really bring their own spin to it. With a bit of lateral thinking, which we all know queer people have in spades, PowerPoint can be an oddly sophisticated artistic tool for taking silly things very seriously.
'Queer PowerPoint' is on at The Princess Theatre (Brisbane) as part of Open Season, on 26 June.
This story originally appeared on our sister site, scenestr.
