# Event Details

- **Event Name**: Cait McKinney: A Queer History of Blackouts
- **Event Start and End Date**: Thu, 25 Sep, 2025 at 04:30 pm – Thu, 25 Sep, 2025 at 06:00 pm
- **Event Description**: Media History Research Center (MHRC) DIGS Lab and Archive/Counter Archive (A/CA) are delighted to invite you to Dr Cait McKinney’s talk “A Queer History of Blackouts” followed by a graduate seminar with the author. In this talk, McKinney offers a media history of the online blackout as a digital tactic grounded in 1990s AIDS activism. “Blackout” protests evoke power grid failures, temporarily shutting down online systems by removing content, blocking access, or replacing content with black imagery. This lasting tactic began with New York-based Visual AIDS and Creative Time's Day Without Art online blackout (1995–2000) which drew attention to the AIDS crisis as a systemic failure to care for minoritized people. The protest asked participating sites to adopt a small banner graphic and redact their websites for the day. McKinney argues that an AIDS-informed perspective on infrastructure collapse and systemic exclusion shaped blackouts. This history helps us understand how and why blackouts trade in feelings of frustration with broken systems. The author situates this historical analysis of the online blackout in a wider queer media theory of blackouts as impasses in which affective life abruptly shifts in generative ways. Please register your attendance for the talk by obtaining a free ticket on this event page.The public talk will be followed by a graduate seminar on Friday September 26 from 10am to 12pm. The seminar has limited capacity so please register your attendance on this link: https://shorturl.at/nzhpB. For more information about the talk write to MHRC coordinator Laura Pannekoek at laurapannekoek@gmail.com and for more details on the graduate seminar reach out to A/CA representative Hannah Schallert at hannah.schallert@gmail.com. Cait McKinney is the author of I Know You Are, but What Am I? On Pee-wee Herman (Minnesota 2024) and Information Activism: A Queer History of Lesbian Media Technologies (Duke 2020). They are associate professor of communication at Simon Fraser University. 
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/montreal/cait-mckinney-a-queer-history-of-blackouts-tickets/80001249218798
- **Event Categories**: workshops, art, literary-art, nonprofit
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 54

## Ticket Details

- **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: USD

## Event venue details

- **city**: Montreal
- **state**: QC
- **country**: Canada
- **location**: EV 11.705
- **lat**: 45.5016889000
- **long**: -73.5672560000
- **full address**: EV 11.705, 1515 St. Catherine Street West, Montreal, Canada

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: Cait McKinney: A Queer History of Blackouts
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn2.allevents.in/thumbs/thumb68b7359591cb5.jpg

## FAQs

- **Q**: When and where is Cait McKinney: A Queer History of Blackouts being held?
  - **A:** Cait McKinney: A Queer History of Blackouts takes place on Thu, 25 Sep, 2025 at 04:30 pm to Thu, 25 Sep, 2025 at 06:00 pm at EV 11.705, 1515 St. Catherine Street West, Montreal, Canada.
- **Q**: Who is organizing Cait McKinney: A Queer History of Blackouts?
  - **A:** Cait McKinney: A Queer History of Blackouts is organized by DIGS Lab.
- **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me?
  - **A:** Cait McKinney: A Queer History of Blackouts is ideal for art lovers, collectors, creatives, and anyone inspired by visual arts, installations, and exhibitions. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Montreal, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. With 50+ people already showing interest, this is clearly an event worth adding to your calendar - don't miss out.

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