Assignment⌗

“The term body politics refers to the practices and policies through which powers of society regulate the human body, as well as the struggle over the degree of individual and social control of the body”.

Design, make and document a Device or Object that is critical about a topic related to Body politics. ( Feminism, Racial Bias, Abortion, Healthcare Access, Bionic Humans, Cyborgs, Non Binary Rights, … )

  • Guidelines
    • Choose a Topic / Subject relevant to the idea of Body Politics
    • Establish 2 limitations / constraints.
    • Choose a framework to present your topic and to correlate to your critical, technological and design approach.
    • Design, make and document a Device or Object that is critical about your chosen topic.
    • Prepare for a in class Demo and Presentation of your final Critical Object.

Think⌗

Topic⌗

Body politics is a topic area I have a strong, personal relationship with. As I have discussed in previous posts I am a Type 1 Diabetic (T1D). This means I need easy access to insulin in order to control my blood sugar. The life of a T1D in America today is one full of clashes between the needs of the body, business and policy.

I know I generally wanted to focus on the experience of having T1D, so I started coming up with more specific topics and two constraints for each.

Notes in notebook on topics and constraints
[ Coming Up With Topics and Constraints ]

  • A) Topic: Workplace assumes “normal” body function

    • c1) Wearable
    • c2) Use a body metric

  • B) Topic: DIY insulin

    • c1) Funny
    • c2) Cheap to make

  • C) Topic: Insulin access

    • c1) Use a body metric
    • c2) Internet related

  • D) Topic: Invisible to others

    • c1) Concealable
    • c2) Repeatedly interacted with

  • E) Topic: Control over self/body

    • c1) Related to food
    • c2) Is annoying

  • F) Topic: Misunderstood disease

    • c1) Every day item
    • c2) Hand-held

Ideas⌗

Notes in notebook on ideas
[ Coming Up With Ideas ]

  • A) Workplace assumes “normal” body function

    • RFID ID/tag worn at work to get into rooms. To use, person must enter BG (integrated into tag?) and it open if in certain range.

  • B) DIY insulin

    • DIY survival kit made only from medical waste from having T1D

  • C) Insulin access

    • Home router, bandwidth is determined by bg of one person.

  • D) Invisible to others

    • Shirt/mesh that lightly shocks person in response to a body metric(?). Person must do something to stop it. Repeatedly happens.

  • E) Control over self/body

    • Cookie jar that opens an amount in relation to bg of person (in house or each individual?)

  • F) Misunderstood disease

Research⌗

Proposal⌗

Yes.