R.O.S.P - Ritual of Sexual Pleasure
’Somewhere beyond right and wrong, there is a garden. I will meet you there’. -Rumi
In patriarchal societies, women’s awareness of their own sexuality is often oppressed. The more we understand our bodies and minds, the more we can express ourselves and build up self-consciousness. How do women perceive their bodies under social structures? How can we improve sex education and teach masturbation to make it more beneficial? What type of haptic solutions and which techniques for masturbation and rituals of sexual pleasure do people find satisfying?
Hence, I started creating tool kits based on techniques from OMGyes.com. My main goal was to explore what kind of tools can make a woman understand and explore her body. According to the participants’ feedback and reports, I was able to create a sex toy and a scenario for the Ritual of Sexual Pleasure. Both of them can be customised according to the user’s preferences.
I hope we can achieve sexual liberation for women and be able to have an open discussion in public. Let’s meet in the garden!
Workshop as a Method - Probes
Probes and prompts are integral to successful interviews. Probes help motivate informants, facilitate the flow of an interview, and elicit information, but not necessarily in the form of a question. The goal is not to learn about the object or place but instead to learn about the informant through the object or place. In essence, the “material probe” triggers a response or memory and can be used in specific and or general ways. According to my intention of sex education and giving materials and knowledge for people to try. I held a workshop that participants got a box of tools “ ROSP Pleasure Box”. Every participant has it as a probe and executes the workshop individually. They will follow the instruction/manual to explore themselves step by step (5 sections) through the probes.
I decided to have five steps based on the researches that I did. I realized that we already have a lot of sex toys in our market. We might be able to buy sex toys but (1) Do you really know what you want? (2) Do we even have the words to describe body parts? (3) Do we know what makes us feel good and gets an orgasm? Hence, the first step that I want to have a sex education for the inner part like clitoris and outer part. Then we will know that we are using the same words to describe. Also, some women don’t know their body parts well. After this step, we will be sure that we are on the same page. I made a few drawings and 3D models illustrate the outer part of the vagina and clitoris. It contains two drawings to demonstrate the name and location of the parts and silicone part with clitoris attached behind it . You can easily see where is the clitoris.
The second step I want participants to explore different materials. It’s not just for the genital part. I also want women can find their erogenous zone and be more curious about themselves. I create a set of probes in the same organic shape. According to the research I did, I make the probes in a size which fits for hands. I chose the materials which are not harmful to the human body like wood, glass, silicone, tin, and wool(crochet) (Figure 12). Those materials also contain different dimensions in surface texture, compliance, and thermal characteristics. It’s also a very nice experience for me to explore different materials in making.
Probes in the making process
The third step (Figure 14), I want to focus on the pattern on the object’s surface. It can provide more stimulation with different haptic quality. Hence, I create 5 different patterns like smooth, sphere, cone, revolve and spiral. The participants get a stick then they can put the balls on the top of stick and test it on their body.
The fourth step, I want to focus on the vibrate pattern on the vagina part. I simplified the techniques (Hinting, Consistency, Accenting, Edging, Surprise, Multiples and Rhythm) from OMGyes.com into three different prototypes of vibrated patterns. Model O, R and W are made of silicone and vibrated motors which are placed in different places to create the vibration pattern (Figure 15). Model O focuses on the clitoris. Model R focuses on both clitoris and labia. Model W vibrates randomly on genitals. Then participants can try which is their favorite vibrate pattern.
The fifth step, I want participant to be able to join the form giving process. Therefore, participants will get 2 cans of moldable plastic to shape a form they like or inspired by this workshop. Polydoh can become soft and moldable in 60C hot water. It’s a reusable, strong, nontoxic and biodegradable material. They can build whatever they want and it also can be an inspiration for me to design the ritual for them.
Final step, I asked them about their favorite music, smell and special need can make them feel good during sex. According to their feedback, I will design customized the ritual of sexual rituals for them. More information will be able to download soon. Stay tuned!
COBY HUANG – R.O.S.P – RITUAL OF SEXUAL PLEASURE
Sex is a subject we learn far too little about. I have therefore developed a series of sex education tools that can be used to learn about and explore your body. My aim is for the objects to invite discussion and exploration relating to the body and sexual health.
Jury citation
The womb is anything but done with in the world of design. Ritual of Sexual Pleasure gives us smartly designed tools for yet another women’s issue that has been made invisible: the orgasm. The panel would particularly like to praise the user-friendliness and the well-executed methodology.