Designing for and with Intimate (Sexual) Bodies
Towards Feminist and Queer Somatic Understandings of Pleasure
A TEI'2025 Studio in Bordeaux, France
When? All day Tuesday March 4th 2025
Where? FabLab EirLab (In person only)
Join us for a workshop on designing for intimate and sexual experiences at the conference for tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction (TEI) 2025.In this studio we will carry out a hands-on exploration of various soma design methods as a means to communicate and prototype representations of personal pleasurable experiences. Together we will make prototypes and engage in insightful conversations on how soma design and fabrication methods can support design
for intimacy.You are encouraged to bring an example of a pleasurable sensation (it can be anything) that you can build upon.Throughout this studio we will learn about and try out multiple soma design methods and encourage thinking and designing with our bodies. We hope this studio will encourage collaboration, reflection, and creative expression, offering a unique opportunity to engage with fellow researchers and make connections. For more details, read our workshop proposal document below.
🪢 Code of Conduct 🪢
To foster a comfortable, judgement-free environment, all organizers adhere to FLINTA* spaces’ code of conduct (see below), including respect for identities, active listening, and sharing discussion time. Participants are encouraged to take breaks as needed, and sharing personal experiences is optional. Any experiences will remain anonymous, and will be shared with participants’ consent.
We welcome participants of any gender identity to apply
Tentative schedule
9:00 - Arrival
9:10 - Greeting and introduction by organizers
9.30 - Quick round of introductions by the participants
10.00 - (optional) Short warm-up bodily activities. We will try 1-3 short bodily activities together.
10.30 (or adapted to the conference coffee break) - Coffee break
11:00 - continued bodily activities.
11.30 - Forming groups. Share an intriguing or pleasurable bodily sensation. Discussing the design space of intimate and sexual experiences. Choose one sensation to design for/with.
12:30 (or adapted to the conference lunch break) Lunch break
13:30 - REPRESENTING & MAKING: The rest of the afternoon will be dedicated to trying out methods for representing the chosen sensation and making a prototype that responds to or evokes that sensation:
REPRESENTING: Felt dolls, traditional body maps, embroidery, clay, soma bits.
MAKING: participants are invited to prototype and fabricate an artifact/wearable/experience based on the pleasurable bodily experience. We provide materials and samples, and participants are also invited to bring their own.
15.00 (or adapted to the conference coffee break) - Coffee break
15.30 - continued representing & making.
16.30 - Final reflection all together on the methods and challenges (material, ethical, social) and strategies for design. Discussing how the studio worked, how to stay in touch, and wrap-up, ending at 17:00.
18:00 (optional) - Dinner together at a restaurant
Organizers
Silvia Teisanu (they/them) is an Industrial Design Masters student at Eindhoven University of Technology in Eindhoven, Netherlands.Nadia Campo Woytuk (she/they) is a PhD student in Interaction Design at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Visit her website.Joo Young Park (she/her) is a PhD student in Interaction Design at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm,
Sweden.Anna Brynskov (she/her) is a PhD fellow at the Department of Digital Design at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Visit her website.Dianya Mia Hua (she/her) is a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher dedicated to exploring the intersection of
technology and women's sexuality.Marianela Ciolfi Felice (she/her) is an HCI researcher and teacher, working as an Assistant Professor at KTH, Sweden, with a focus on data-enabled and body-centred technologies.Saúl Baeza Argüello is a researcher at Elisava Barcelona University of Design and Engineering and Eindhoven University of Technology.Oscar Tomico is associate professor at the Department of Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology on
Design Research Methodologies for Posthuman Sustainability.Madeline Balaam (she / her) is a Professor in Interaction Design at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, where she works with a team of wonderful researchers on designing technologies and interactions at the intersection of intimate health, the body and touch.
Join us in Bordeaux!
Deadline for applications: Feb 15th
We will notify people of acceptance on a rolling basis, so feel free to apply early!Note that this studio is part of the TEI conference, details on registration can be found here: https://tei.acm.org/2025/For any questions contact Silvia at [email protected]To apply to the studio please fill in the form below: