Body-Shifter
an inflatable boob vest as a speculation towards gender fluidity
Concept
The Self-Controllable Gendered Body
Body-Shifter imagines a speculative scenario where human beings are granted the superpower to freely shapeshift their gendered body parts. It is a radical response towards gender neutrality, imagining a post-sexual-identity world where one can abandon the constraints of biological sex and fully take control of gender as part of their social identity. Gendered body parts, as the first outward expressions of one’s gender, are therefore free to undergo transformations and shape-shifts, according to one’s own will.
Body-Shifter proposes the following design questions:
What’s the difference between sex and gender? What’s the difference between “being female” and “femininity”?
When did social meanings and divisions of gender be attached to the body parts we are born with? When did body parts become gendered instead of neutral?
Does gender neutrality mean the elimination of all gender traits or the radical and whimsical embracement of both?
Time
Apr 2021
Project Type
Interactive Wearable Design
Tools
Fabric, Rubber Tubes, Balloons, Electric Pump
Process
This project was originally inspired by the ancient mythologies of magic spells that perform body transformations after saying “the magic word”. Building from that, it casts interest on contemporary theories around biopolitics and biopower. In the prototyping phase, I wished to explore the capacity for the body going through shaping and modifications, as a result of socio-political norms society placed on the body.
Research and Brainstorm on Miro
Initial Prototyping
Following this idea of “transformable body”, my initial idea responding to shapeshifting is an “Inflatable Balloon Suit” - A mechanism where air flow will cause all the balloons to inflate simultaneously.
