Non-Conforming Bodies and the ‘Right to Exist’: Contemporary Visual Culture and Algorithmic Futures

This paper investigates the cultural, aesthetic, and political construction of non-conforming bodies in contemporary visual culture. Its authors examined Italian visual culture on non-conforming bodies, its roots, and its relationship to the history of the Italian feminist and queer performance scene of the late 1960s. These recent pasts raised socio-political challenges that continue to resonate today, in a time increasingly shaped by the digital manipulation of bodies through software and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools. By drawing together the recent past, the present, and possible or probable futures, the authors discussed design practices that reinforce normative body representations—whether through linguistic conventions, visual stereotypes, or algorithmic bias—and emphasized the necessity of preserving difference, resisting homogenization, and defending fundamental rights.