Hi everyone.
I’m Marie Louise and I will present you our pictorial: “Designing with Intimate
Materials and Movements: Making “Menarche Bits””
This work is done in collaboration with my co-authors: Ozgun Kilic Afsar, Marianela Ciolfi
Felice, Nadia Campo Woytuk, and Madeline Balaam.
We are all affiliated with KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.
In this talk, I will present a research through design project that seeks to open a design
space for young adolescents’ experiences of menarche and menstrual cycles.
Menarche is the first menstrual bleeding, and it typically occur between the ages of
9-15.
Menarche is a crucial bodily transition, which can deeply impact young people’s lives.
Whereas some celebrate the beginning of menstruation, for many this is a difficult time with uncertainty,
increased self-objectification, pain and lack of communication and knowledge.
We understand menarche as a bodily rooted yet socially constructed experience.
In this pictorial we present Menarche Bits.
Menarche Bits is a prototyping kit that opens a design space for young adolescents to create
body-worn shape-changing technologies.
It consistent of different bits of heat elements and soft silicone actuators that can be pressed
on the skin or being inserted into pockets as part of a wearable garments.
It is meant to be used in design workshops with young people who recently started to
menstruate.
Our design process is following a research-through-design methodology informed by soma design, women’s
health, and feminist HCI.
That means we have deeply engaged with our own memories of menarche and our own menstruating
bodies, while acknowledging that these may not represent all people’s experiences of
menstruating.
We took a somaesthetic approach to menarche, because we want to understand and express
which sensations, feelings and movements are experienced during menarche.
And we were interested in nurturing an appreciation of menarche and design close to the body.
Two experiential qualities that influenced our work was “trust” and “making space”.
Having trust in the menstruating body and allowing people to make space for their body
and take space in the world.
To really work closely with the bodily intimacy of the menstruating body, we needed to design
sloooow and to pay attention into small or big bodily changes throughout the menstrual
cycle.
During two months, we engaged in bodily practices such as yoga and feldenkrais that centered
around the pelvis, and tried different breathing patterns that engage the lower diaphragm (the
pelvic floor).
We drank tea that suggested for different phases in the menstrual cycle.
And we collected and looked at our bodily fluids, such as menstrual blood, saliva and
cervical mucus.
During these meetings we always drew something on two pieces of paper.
One of them a drawing of an experience we wanted to share.
And one with an experience we did not want to share.
Here you see the images of the experiences we wanted to share in the group and with you.
Secondly in the process, we invited more people to join us through a few workshops.
In these workshops we evoked menstrual memories, and we invited participants to draw their
“menstrual monster” as a way of embodying the uncertain changes of the body.
We also did various body practices and movements that emphasised breathing and the pelvis,
while connecting to the pelvic floor, the lower stomach, back, chest, mouth and jaws.
Then we started to prototype new menarche movements.
Starting to menstruate can lead to limited and constrained movements because of shame
or pain.
Our intention is to open up for new movements to arise, because new movements also means
new experiences.
We focused on touching and moving the intimate area of the pelvis, and feeling the insides
of our bodies.
We designed a piece of fabric with heat pads that is placed on parts of the pelvis which
can be painful during menstrual cramps.
And we designed a soft, flat surface that is placed under the back, inviting circular
movements in the pelvis.
With insights from our design exploration, we started our first iteration of Menarche
Bits.
In designing Menarche Bits, we decided to try working with shape-changing materials
made of silicone and air inflation/deflation.
Here you see a picture of the materials in use: silicone, silicone colour, tubing, connectors,
molds, stencils, Arduino, Pneuduino and pumps.
And casing for the electronics.
We started working with soft robotics, because we found the technology and material very
interesting for our case.
We wanted to design technologies to be placed directly on the skin, and silicone worked
well for this as it is soft, safe and body-conforming.
With inspiration in qualities of “fluidity” and “cyclical patterns”, we started designing
different shapes, colour and interactions.
Here you see different tests of the technology, where we explored the flow of air: how air
could be used to put pressure on the skin and how this is experienced different dependent
on different patterns.
And we explored how the silicone actuator can correspond to touch and pressure from
the wearer by using an integrated air pressure sensor.
After these tests, we decided on two shapes: a long shape and a smaller hexagon which is
modular and can be combined with other bits.
The Menarche Bits are fabricated in a process of four elements.
Firstly, we designed moulds and stencils which are used for creating the shapes of the bits.
These were laser cut and 3D-printed.
Secondly, is the creation of the silicone actuator where silicone is poured and cures
in two layers with a negative space in between.
Thirdly, is the process of placing the tubing and connectors of the silicone actuators.
And lastly, we designed, built and programmed control units with electronic and programmable
air pumps.
So with Menarche Bits we are exploring the novel opportunities of designing shape-changing
technologies for the ever-changing body, specifically addressing experiences of menarche.
As we explored Menarche Bits on our own bodies, we attuned to the feelings of them against
our skin, pressing down in our flesh.
Through touching and breathing with Menarche Bits we experienced an intimate and organic
contact that continuously suggested new movements.
These experiences connected with our intentions of making space for menstrual experiences
and trusting the body.
Menarche Bits highlight three design proposals for developing curious and intimate technologies
for the changing body.
The first is “Designing for Movement through Actuation”.
This design proposal highlight how actuation can make a person attend to specific internally
felt experiences of their menstruating body, creating body literacy through movement.
This is a counter narrative to the extensive tracking and data-gathering of the menstruating
body, and instead highlight embodied knowledge production.
The second proposal is “Changing Shape with the Changing Body”.
Menarche marks the beginning of changes to the body in relation to menstruation and hormones.
This proposal suggests that shape-changing technologies and their quality of changing
shape through time, can correspond and adapt to how the body changes over time.
The third proposal is “Corresponding to the Materiality of the Body”.
This point centres the body, and its fleshy and fluid materiality in close contact with
the interactions.
Menarche Bits does not only stimulate the skin, but corresponds to the inner materiality
of the body; menstrual experiences such as menstrual cramps, throbbing pains, and feelings
of anxiety.
Our future work includes design workshops where we invite young people who recently
started to menstruate to try out Menarche Bits and develop new technologies with them.
We also want to develop the material and technical qualities of Menarche Bits, and open opportunities
for using bodily fluids, such as menstrual blood, in interactions with the bits.
With that, we contribute with designing with intimate materials and movements of the newly
menstruating body.
A bodily intimacy that doesn’t shed away from the materiality or fluidity of our bodies,
but seeks to make space and create new movements for being human in times of change.
Thank you for listening and an extra thank you to my co-authors and people who have inspired
and supported the design work and research.