The Patroniser & Vinip
– Absurd Music Hackathon
The Patroniser & Vinip are two wearable instruments designed for uncomfortable interaction, i.e. nipple squeezing and stroking and head patting. It was designed in collaboration with Mei Zang to "raise a “critique of technology for leisure and satisfactory experience”, exploring the notion of “uncomfortable interactions”. With their focus on social embodied conventions, these artworks invite us to rethink what is permitted with our bodies (including their objectification and commodification), what values we associate with them and how they can be integrated into the design of new technology" [1]. The e-textile designs and sensors are made of a strokable and squeezable bra and a hat that can be played by patting.
The bra was designed with conductive fibres, threads and felt using weaving techniques. The hat uses a pressure sensor created using static foam and two layers of conductive fabric.
The Patroniser & Vinip were made for Unuseless Music Designs A Seriously Absurd Hackathon 2019 in London, UK, which I co-organised and participated in as part of the Inter/sections 2019 Exhibition at QMUL, between 8-9 November.
[1] Lepri, G., McPherson, A., and Bowers, J. 2020. Useless, not Worthless: Absurd Making as Critical Practice. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1887–1899. https://doi.org/10.1145/3357236.3395547