From Sex Toys to Pleasure Objects

This research works against essentializing notions of sexuality, gender and pleasure within the design of sex objects through proposing and developing the design of DIY kits suitable to manipulate and customise what objects designed for sex mean for the individual and their role in society in relation to gender and sexuality. This paper outlines a series of participatory workshops where artists and designers were invited to contribute to the design of the DIY kits. Three artistic works emerge from the workshops as beta DIY kits, alongside a future work of a DIY electronics kit and an online collaborative platform. These workshops led to the shift of focus from sex objects to pleasure objects.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Vanessa Carpenter

Sarah Homewood

Majken Overgaard

Stefanie Wuschitz

Conference

Publication date: May 2018

Publication date (Print): May 2018

Pages: 1-9

Affiliations

[1 ] Aalborg University

C. Meyers Vænge 15, 2450 Copenhagen, Denmark

[2 ] IT University of Copenhagen

Rued Langgaards Vej, 7, Copenhagen

Denmark

[3 ] Catch Centre for Art and Technology

Allegade 2, 3000, Helsingør

Denmark

[4 ] Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Mz* Baltazar’s

Laboratory

1090 Wien, Augasse 2–6

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVAC18.45

SO-VID: 74c1c1ad-de0f-4b3e-9b45-6f9bfcdc8979

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Politics of the Machines - Art and After

Conference acronym: EVA Copenhagen

Conference number: 7

Conference location: Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark

Conference date: 15 - 17 May 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Digital arts and culture

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVAC18.45

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

References

S Ahmed 2017 Living a feminist life Duke University Press
Karen Barad Kvinder, Køn & Forskning 12 NR. 1-2 2012 12
J BardzellS Bardzell 2011 ‘“Pleasure is Your Birthright”: Digitally Enabled Designer Sex Toys as a Case of Third-Wave HCI’ Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2011) 257 266 doi: cg75kh
S BardzellU Indiana 2010 ‘Feminist HCI: Taking Stock and Outlining an Agenda for Design’ Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1301 1310 doi: 10.1145/1753326.1753521
A Bdeir 2018 LittleBits Synth Ayah Bdeir Available from: https://shop.littlebits.com/products/synth-kit June 14
T Bjørner 2015 Qualitative methods for Consumer Research Hans Reitzels Forlag
S Bødker 2006 ‘When second wave HCI meets third wave challenges’ Proceedings of the 4th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction changing roles - NordiCHI ’06 October 1 8 doi: 10.1145/1182475.1182476
Blythe Jones 2004 Human computer (sexual) interactions. interactions 11, 5 September 2004 75 76 DOI=http://dx.doi.org.zorac.aub.aau.dk/10.1145/1015530.1015570
L BoerB CahillA Vallgårda 2017 June The Hedonic Haptics Player: A Wearable Device to Experience Vibrotactile Compositions Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems 297 300 ACM
J Butler 1997 Gender is burning: Questions of appropriation and subversion Cultural Politics 11 381 395
J Butler 2005 Giving an account of oneself Oxford University Press
J Butler 2011 Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity Routledge
Comingle 2018 Comingle OSSex Available from: http://www.comingle.io/OSSex/ 12 06 2018
M.P de la Bellacasa 2017 Matters of care: Speculative ethics in more than human worlds University of Minnesota Press
H Dewey-Hagborg 2014 Stranger Visions Heather Dewey-Hagborg Available from: http://deweyhagborg.com/projects/stranger-visions June 14
S DiefenbachN KolbM Hassenzahl 2014 June The'hedonic'in human-computer interaction: history, contributions, and future research directions Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems 305 314 ACM
A EaglinS Bardzell 2011 May Sex toys and designing for sexual wellness CHI'11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1837 1842 ACM
M Foucault 1990 The history of sexuality: An introduction, volume I Trans. Robert Hurley New York Vintage
W Gaver 2012 What should we expect from research through design? Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '12) ACM New York, NY, USA 937 946 Available from: http://dx.doi.org.zorac.aub.aau.dk/10.1145/2207676.2208538 June 14
Kjærsgaard Gislev (Trans)forming Knowledge and Design Concepts in Design Workshops in Design Anthropology - Theory and Practice Gunn, Otto & Smith 2013 51
Otto & Smith Gunn Design Anthropology - Theory and Practice Gislev, Kjærsgaard (Trans)forming Knowledge and Design Concepts in Design Workshops in Design Anthropology - Theory and Practice Gunn, Otto & Smith 2013 4
D Haraway 1991 A cyborg manifesto New York 150
M HassenzahlK EckoldtS DiefenbachM LaschkeE LenJ Kim 2013 Designing moments of meaning and pleasure. Experience design and happiness International Journal of Design 7 3
S HomewoodC Heyer 2017 ‘Turned on/turned off: Speculating on the microchip-based contraceptive implant’ DIS 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems doi: 10.1145/3064663.3064726
V HutaR.M Ryan 2010 Pursuing pleasure or virtue: The differential and overlapping well-being benefits of hedonic and eudaimonic motives Journal of Happiness Studies 11 6 735 762
Oh HyunjooHsi SherryKlipfel KristofD. Gross Mark 2017 Paper Machines. In Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '17) ACM New York, NY, USA 771 774 DOI: https://doiorg.zorac.aub.aau.dk/10.1145/3024969.3025050
Sik JunKim Jason 2013 Plus minus: passive education of basic circuitry through DIY product design. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '13) ACM New York, NY, USA 557 560 DOI=http://dx.doi.org.zorac.aub.aau.dk/10.1145/2485760.2485864
[kat]alab 2018 Available from: https://katalab.wixsite.com/de-home/en-home 12 06 2018
J Kim 2013 Plus minus: passive education of basic circuitry through DIY product design Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '13) ACM New York, NY, USA 557 560 Available from: http://dx.doi.org.zorac.aub.aau.dk/10.1145/2485760.2485864 June 14
S. R KlemmerB HartmannL Takayama 2006 How bodies matter: five themes for interaction design Proceedings of the 6th conference on Designing Interactive systems (DIS '06) ACM New York, NY, USA 140 149 Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1142405.1142429 June 14
Synth LittleBits 2018 Available from: https://shop.littlebits.com/products/synth-kit 12 06 2018
J LoD JungL LinN WongD BuiE Paulos 2016 Skintillates: Designing and Creating Epidermal Interactions Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '16) ACM New York, NY, USA 853 864 Available from: https://doi.org/10.1145/2901790.2901885 June 14
ED MeklerK Hornbæk 2016 May Momentary pleasure or lasting meaning?: Distinguishing eudaimonic and hedonic user experiences Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 4509 4520 ACM
C Mohanty 2003 Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity Duke University Press
S NagelsR RamakersK LuytenW Deferme 2018 Silicone Devices: A Scalable DIY Approach for Fabricating Self-Contained Multi-Layered Soft Circuits using Microfluidics Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '18) ACM New York, NY, USA Paper 188 13
H OhW HsiK KlipfelM.D Gross 2017 Paper Machines Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '17) ACM New York, NY, USA 771 774 A
Pechblenda 2015 GynePunk, the cyborg witches of DIY gynecology Ewen Chardronnet Available from: http://www.makery.info/en/2015/06/30/gynepunkles-sorcieres-cyborg-de-la-gynecologie-diy/ June 14
H Perner-WilsonL BuechleyM Satomi 2010 Handcrafting textile interfaces from a kit-of-no-parts Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction (TEI '11) ACM New York, NY, USA 61 68 Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1935701.1935715 June 14
Pavillon35 2018 Available from: http://pavillon35.polycinease.com/ 12 06 2018
Patricia J Reis 2018 Available from: http://www.patriciajreis.com/ 12 06 2018
Kits Sparkfun 2018 Robotic Kits Available from: https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/181 12 06 2018
G Tomasello 2018 Future Flora Giulia Tomasello Available from: https://gitomasello.com/Future-Flora June 14
M Tsang 2016 Estrofem Lab: Estrogen Geeking MAGGIC Mary Tsang Available from: http://www.maggic.ooo/Estrofem-Lab-2016 June 14

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] S Ahmed 2017 Living a feminist life Duke University Press

[2] Karen Barad Kvinder, Køn & Forskning 12 NR. 1-2 2012 12

[3] J BardzellS Bardzell 2011 ‘“Pleasure is Your Birthright”: Digitally Enabled Designer Sex Toys as a Case of Third-Wave HCI’ Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2011) 257 266 doi: cg75kh

[4] S BardzellU Indiana 2010 ‘Feminist HCI: Taking Stock and Outlining an Agenda for Design’ Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1301 1310 doi: 10.1145/1753326.1753521

[5] A Bdeir 2018 LittleBits Synth Ayah Bdeir Available from: https://shop.littlebits.com/products/synth-kit June 14

[6] T Bjørner 2015 Qualitative methods for Consumer Research Hans Reitzels Forlag

[7] S Bødker 2006 ‘When second wave HCI meets third wave challenges’ Proceedings of the 4th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction changing roles - NordiCHI ’06 October 1 8 doi: 10.1145/1182475.1182476

[8] Blythe Jones 2004 Human computer (sexual) interactions. interactions 11, 5 September 2004 75 76 DOI=http://dx.doi.org.zorac.aub.aau.dk/10.1145/1015530.1015570

[9] L BoerB CahillA Vallgårda 2017 June The Hedonic Haptics Player: A Wearable Device to Experience Vibrotactile Compositions Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems 297 300 ACM

[10] J Butler 1997 Gender is burning: Questions of appropriation and subversion Cultural Politics 11 381 395

[11] J Butler 2005 Giving an account of oneself Oxford University Press

[12] J Butler 2011 Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity Routledge

[13] Comingle 2018 Comingle OSSex Available from: http://www.comingle.io/OSSex/ 12 06 2018

[14] M.P de la Bellacasa 2017 Matters of care: Speculative ethics in more than human worlds University of Minnesota Press

[15] H Dewey-Hagborg 2014 Stranger Visions Heather Dewey-Hagborg Available from: http://deweyhagborg.com/projects/stranger-visions June 14

[16] S DiefenbachN KolbM Hassenzahl 2014 June The'hedonic'in human-computer interaction: history, contributions, and future research directions Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems 305 314 ACM

[17] A EaglinS Bardzell 2011 May Sex toys and designing for sexual wellness CHI'11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1837 1842 ACM

[18] M Foucault 1990 The history of sexuality: An introduction, volume I Trans. Robert Hurley New York Vintage

[19] W Gaver 2012 What should we expect from research through design? Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '12) ACM New York, NY, USA 937 946 Available from: http://dx.doi.org.zorac.aub.aau.dk/10.1145/2207676.2208538 June 14

[20] Kjærsgaard Gislev (Trans)forming Knowledge and Design Concepts in Design Workshops in Design Anthropology - Theory and Practice Gunn, Otto & Smith 2013 51

[21] Otto & Smith Gunn Design Anthropology - Theory and Practice Gislev, Kjærsgaard (Trans)forming Knowledge and Design Concepts in Design Workshops in Design Anthropology - Theory and Practice Gunn, Otto & Smith 2013 4

[22] D Haraway 1991 A cyborg manifesto New York 150

[23] M HassenzahlK EckoldtS DiefenbachM LaschkeE LenJ Kim 2013 Designing moments of meaning and pleasure. Experience design and happiness International Journal of Design 7 3

[24] S HomewoodC Heyer 2017 ‘Turned on/turned off: Speculating on the microchip-based contraceptive implant’ DIS 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems doi: 10.1145/3064663.3064726

[25] V HutaR.M Ryan 2010 Pursuing pleasure or virtue: The differential and overlapping well-being benefits of hedonic and eudaimonic motives Journal of Happiness Studies 11 6 735 762

[26] Oh HyunjooHsi SherryKlipfel KristofD. Gross Mark 2017 Paper Machines. In Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '17) ACM New York, NY, USA 771 774 DOI: https://doiorg.zorac.aub.aau.dk/10.1145/3024969.3025050

[27] Sik JunKim Jason 2013 Plus minus: passive education of basic circuitry through DIY product design. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '13) ACM New York, NY, USA 557 560 DOI=http://dx.doi.org.zorac.aub.aau.dk/10.1145/2485760.2485864

[28] [kat]alab 2018 Available from: https://katalab.wixsite.com/de-home/en-home 12 06 2018

[29] J Kim 2013 Plus minus: passive education of basic circuitry through DIY product design Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '13) ACM New York, NY, USA 557 560 Available from: http://dx.doi.org.zorac.aub.aau.dk/10.1145/2485760.2485864 June 14

[30] S. R KlemmerB HartmannL Takayama 2006 How bodies matter: five themes for interaction design Proceedings of the 6th conference on Designing Interactive systems (DIS '06) ACM New York, NY, USA 140 149 Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1142405.1142429 June 14

[31] Synth LittleBits 2018 Available from: https://shop.littlebits.com/products/synth-kit 12 06 2018

[32] J LoD JungL LinN WongD BuiE Paulos 2016 Skintillates: Designing and Creating Epidermal Interactions Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '16) ACM New York, NY, USA 853 864 Available from: https://doi.org/10.1145/2901790.2901885 June 14

[33] ED MeklerK Hornbæk 2016 May Momentary pleasure or lasting meaning?: Distinguishing eudaimonic and hedonic user experiences Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 4509 4520 ACM

[34] C Mohanty 2003 Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity Duke University Press

[35] S NagelsR RamakersK LuytenW Deferme 2018 Silicone Devices: A Scalable DIY Approach for Fabricating Self-Contained Multi-Layered Soft Circuits using Microfluidics Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '18) ACM New York, NY, USA Paper 188 13

[36] H OhW HsiK KlipfelM.D Gross 2017 Paper Machines Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '17) ACM New York, NY, USA 771 774 A

[37] Pechblenda 2015 GynePunk, the cyborg witches of DIY gynecology Ewen Chardronnet Available from: http://www.makery.info/en/2015/06/30/gynepunkles-sorcieres-cyborg-de-la-gynecologie-diy/ June 14

[38] H Perner-WilsonL BuechleyM Satomi 2010 Handcrafting textile interfaces from a kit-of-no-parts Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction (TEI '11) ACM New York, NY, USA 61 68 Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1935701.1935715 June 14

[39] Pavillon35 2018 Available from: http://pavillon35.polycinease.com/ 12 06 2018

[40] Patricia J Reis 2018 Available from: http://www.patriciajreis.com/ 12 06 2018

[41] Kits Sparkfun 2018 Robotic Kits Available from: https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/181 12 06 2018

[42] G Tomasello 2018 Future Flora Giulia Tomasello Available from: https://gitomasello.com/Future-Flora June 14

[43] M Tsang 2016 Estrofem Lab: Estrogen Geeking MAGGIC Mary Tsang Available from: http://www.maggic.ooo/Estrofem-Lab-2016 June 14

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