Code switching is both performance art and a coping strategy—one that anyone existing outside the norm as defined by cisgender, Eurocentric, or heteronormative identity learns to master. It involves subtle and deliberate adjustments in speech, posture, clothing, facial expression, hand gestures, even the rhythm of your walk—each shift an act of translation. These adaptations help us “assimilate” or blend into environments where we are not the majority, often in pursuit of safety, access to privilege, or to ease the discomfort of the dominant group.

The labor of code-switching can be exhausting—an embodied performance instantly recognized by those who must engage in it, yet often invisible to members of dominant groups. This video collage illustrates the everyday nature of that invisible labor, presenting a patchwork of easily sourced gifs capturing moments of code-switching performed in television and film spanning five decades.

Visual code-switching also exists for artists and designers, who are often pressured to replicate visual languages and design principles rooted in dominant culture—rather than those emerging from their own lived experiences or cultural traditions.